Every sonar array has four trackers, labeled A to D in sphere array, E to H in hull array and I to L in TA. The trackers have the job of following the contact and sending bearing updates to TMA, and do not require autocrew to work. If you have assigned a tracker to a contact, but do not see new bearing lines appearing in TMA every two minutes, the contact must have moved to your sonar array's baffles. That's the only explanation I can think of. Unless, of course, you have paused the simulation...
The purpose of the course change is to significantly change the own ship's contribution to the bearing rate. What kschang said about crossing the contact's bearing is an effective way of doing this; in any case, you should change your course by at least 30 degrees. Reading tip: TimmyG00's TACMAN contains an excellent guide to TMA. If you haven't got it already, download it from
http://www.subguru.com/downloads.html.
How long have I been doing this? Hmmm, when did I buy 688(I) Hunter/Killer? '98? '99? (There have been breaks in between, though
)Anyway, I don't recall ever completely relying on autocrew, apart from TMA. I have used autocrew occasionally on sonar, if for example there were surface ships using active sonar and I couldn't be bothered to man the active intecept all the time (this in SC, DW of course has separate active intercept autocrew). Even then, I tried to be sure autocrew wouldn't detect any contacts I had missed.
By the way, I'm sorry if it seems I'm spelling stuff out to you. I just don't want there to be any misunderstandings.
