Hmmm. Does anyone know how far a typical merchant would have to be before it disapears below the horizon? How far before its smoke would also be below the horizon?
Maybe it isnt unreasonable to have surface search radar and visual range be roughly the same. I would think the radar emmisions would have negligible bending due to gravity or atmospheric conditions, so once a vessel drops below the horizon, the radar couldnt pick it up anymore, but the human eye may still be able to detect the smoke of that vessel. Thus during the day, naked-eye may in fact have better potential at detecing vessels(atleast coal burning ones). Air search is something complete differnet, it will always have better potential detection ranges.
Perhaps we(or maybe just myself) arent truly understanding the ability and roles of the various radar. Perhaps surface search radar is best for subs for night detction and range finding. Why because all but non-coal burning DD size and smaller vessels would be seen by the naked eye due to its smoke before the radar picked them up in the first place. Perhaps of the vessels that radar woul dbe benefical for, only the DD/DE is a real threat, but using your radar basically gives him a beacon to home in on anyway...giving you away, perhaps before you detect him. Instead, using a radar detector during the day would be best, since you'd pick him up before he picks you up allowing you submerge and hide.
While for the DD/DEs surface search was best for day and night because the uboat could always be detected first using radar since it was hard to see visually. Who cares if your radar gives your position away if you can keep the uboat well out of attack range once detected.
I guess what Im saying is that it may not be unheard of for naked-eye to have a greater potential visual detection range than radar. But depending on your vessel and what your hunting the radar may have a higher range for reliable detection. If you are hunting clean-burning vessels, use radar always, it'll be better than naked-eye, but if you are hunting dirty-burning vessels, use naked-eye, you'll see the smoke before any metal form the target comes over the horizon for the radar to pick up on.
So uboats could have visual sighting ability approaching that of surface search radar, but for the DD/DEs in game this wouldnt be the case since they are only hunting us(uboats, no smoke and lower profile).
Man...does this even make sense? I think im just thinking out loud(in print). The issue of uboat radar detectors detecting DD/DE radar emissions outside of the DD/DEs detection range may be moot if the detection range for radar is comparable or greater than the distance for a uboat to disappear below the horizon.
Anyway, maybe I can make some sense of all this once the initial questions at the beginning of the post are answered.
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