SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - How do the radar and sonar upgrades work?

MothBalls · 09-23-06, 03:09 PM

The sonar, you have to be close enough to a target to see the ship type on the little notepad upper right of the wheel thingy.

When you have a contact, sit in the station. Ask the operator to report nearest contact or find it yourself. Dial it in and when you see the ship type in the upper right corner notepad, then you push the little button on the lower left corner. It will send a ping and give you the distance to target.

It's real handy if you have multiple targets. You can just about figure out location, heading and speed of a target if you ping it a few times. It's works great in poor visibility.

The radar kicks off in bad weather, usually when the waves wash over the bridge.

The radar helps in poor weather on the surface. If you have a radar detector, and you detect signals, then turn your radar off. They can see you. The radar detector is more valuable then the radar unit, imho.

If you have the 16k visibility mod, on the surface in daytime clear weather, the watch crew will usually spot a ship right around the same time the radar operator does. If you are using default or 8K, radar will detect things sooner. Radar is also great for detecting planes. It's strength is at night and in very bad weather.

As for looking at the dial, I sat there with known contacts near and played with all the thingy's. Short/long range, focus mode, blah, never did anything but the squigly lines. The screen is as useful as the little book in the captains cabinet. It's just there to make you click on it.

09-23-06, 03:09 PM	#4
MothBalls Ace of the Deep Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 1,012 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	The sonar, you have to be close enough to a target to see the ship type on the little notepad upper right of the wheel thingy. When you have a contact, sit in the station. Ask the operator to report nearest contact or find it yourself. Dial it in and when you see the ship type in the upper right corner notepad, then you push the little button on the lower left corner. It will send a ping and give you the distance to target. It's real handy if you have multiple targets. You can just about figure out location, heading and speed of a target if you ping it a few times. It's works great in poor visibility. The radar kicks off in bad weather, usually when the waves wash over the bridge. The radar helps in poor weather on the surface. If you have a radar detector, and you detect signals, then turn your radar off. They can see you. The radar detector is more valuable then the radar unit, imho. If you have the 16k visibility mod, on the surface in daytime clear weather, the watch crew will usually spot a ship right around the same time the radar operator does. If you are using default or 8K, radar will detect things sooner. Radar is also great for detecting planes. It's strength is at night and in very bad weather. As for looking at the dial, I sat there with known contacts near and played with all the thingy's. Short/long range, focus mode, blah, never did anything but the squigly lines. The screen is as useful as the little book in the captains cabinet. It's just there to make you click on it. Last edited by MothBalls; 09-23-06 at 03:19 PM.