It looks like those values will be affected by things in your campaign - ships sunk, points gained etc.
The best way to test this will indeed be by single mission.
What we should do is make a mission with a ship out of range and watch how far away it is before it is drawn on your map by the hydro line and then at what range before it is called out.
This could also be done with the watch crew.
we should post the single mission here so we can all test with the same conditions.
We should also post what UPC setting we are using.
