TMA: tips and tricks

[Sonoboy]

I realize that probably most people in the multiplayer community use auto TMA. I don't know if it's because they are not good at TMA, or just don't like the fun of working for a solution. I've met a couple people recently that have had little or no experience with TMA. I'm creating this thread so we can have a repository of tips and tricks to help them out.

I had the pleasure of teaching someone today who had never touched TMA before. His first ever solution had an error of 3.2nm for a target 20nm away. I consider that a big success for the first time, and I hope we can have that kind of impact here on newcomers.

So how bout it, people? Post your best tips and tricks.

I will probably create a tutorial video for the method I used. It's a bit hard for me to explain it in text.

[Camaero]

Even though I am still trying to learn even the basic stations, I plan to study up on TMA soon. Any advice here would be great for me to come back and re-read when I stumble on something!

[UglyMowgli]

do not change speed, course, depth when making the TMA
use all your PASSIVE sensors not only SONAR (ESM, peri, active intercept)
focus on maximum 3 targets at the same time
try to classify your target ASAP then determine his speed with the DEMON
do not use the first line on the TMA (you just need 3 lines to make your TMA) so in 8 minutes you can pinpoint the target (error < 250yards with some practice).

If you understand french take a look at this video (even if you don't you can watch it)
http://www.mille-sabords.com/forum/u.../TAM-Tuto.divx

[Janus]

I'm not very into the tma station, I only finetune the autocrew's solution here and there. For example when I have determined a contacts speed via demon.
Sometimes I think I should learn how tma works as the autocrew sometimes blows the solution up badly (for example: master contact via passive intercept and broad- and narrowband - all three sensors indicated a very different bearing from the autocrews tma solution, so I had to fix it).

Will the autocrew change my solution when I turn it back on or will it just update as good as possible?

[Camaero]

I am not sure if this question belongs in this thread, but how do you classify EXACTLY what a target is without doing it visually? The library usually gives you a few options of what the target could be. Is it possible to completely narrow it down to one possible classification? Or do you need to be that exact for TMA?

I am usually on an FFG. How different is being on a ship using TMA compared to sub?

Thanks for the replies!

[UglyMowgli]

to identify a target use the narrowband, each lines ont the display give you a freequency so with 3 or more freq you can ID the target, you can also use the BraodBand+DEMON , you can get the number of blades, an another parameter for the ID.
It is easy to discriminate civilian from military and siub from surface ship after it s just your own practice and smart, for example: if you track a NATO carrier , the escort is not from Russia (in a coherent scenario) so in the NB between 2 ships on from NATO an another for the evil side, you choose the NATO.