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Why do we expect the DDs to use only passive hydrophone while running a search pattern?
Me as a DD captain I would have ordered to run an active ASDIC search just right into the blue from time to time.
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Because a sonar ping can be heard from huge distances, and convoy smoke not so much. Pinging constantly is essentially like yelling out who and where you are
In real life convoy escorts would only ping when believing or knowing that a Uboat was nearby.
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No I doubt the game models that 
May have something to do with the asdics forward view which IIRC is like a cone that projects ahead of the unit but starts at a certain depth so PD usually gets missed
Still shouldnt be picked up at 40m silent running though in reality unless just unlucky
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Yes in real life the ASDIC beam starts from the lower part of the Escort bow and then goes slightly downward, to ensure the impulse does not hit the surface (Which causes it to rebounce and produce false echoes and cluttering noise). In SH3, since the node is also in the lower part of the hull, it won't detect things that are higher than that unless the geometry is tweaked to allow it -which I don't think it is, and would be irrealistic in any case-. An Uboat can, and shall be detected at peri depth by ASDIC as long as it is deeper than the sonar dome in the escort and close enough. Otherwise, the beam goes downwards and can't reach her to get a meaningful echo.
In any case, I also have suffered the easy detection many times, and I'm pretty sure it was passive hydrophone what got me. May be ocasionally on day time the periscope, but mostly the passive sonar. Though I must say that I never cut engines completely as it is irrealistic -U-boats in reality were never perfectly trimmed and needed 2 knots at least to keep constant depth.