Hydrophone 4 bearings

[Maki4444]

Hello everybody. For the past 2 days I have been trying to learn the 4 bearings method. I have tried it out and I use the external view to test my learned skills. However I have to say I am somewhat disappointed.

I do everything right, I get the course i.e. heading of the ship right, but the 4th bearing, the distance so to say is always a faliure. When at medium range I miss by 300 meters, however at long range I miss by 3000 meters. It's really frustrating I have tried so many times, always the same. I have the patch and sober's mod loadout except for real navigation.

What I am trying to say is has anyone else encountered such setbacks, because when I watch the tutorial videos and read the illustrations they are 100% accurate.

And secondy does anyone have any useful tips?? I mean thi is a simple method I know, I just mess up the final damn step every damn time, it's so frustrating.

[ETsd4]

Short answer: the ideal triangulation position for the 4. bearing is when you set a course perpendicular to the expected(!) LINE of position after the 3. bearing.

However the real problems are the round up "errors" of the
- hydrophone guy (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...6&postcount=13)
- the SH5 ruler (round-errors of 50m -> 1000m at different zoom-levels)
and
- the SH5-circle (not able to show and draw tens of one degree).


another link: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...light=bearings

[Maki4444]

Originally Posted by ETsd4

Short answer: the ideal triangulation position for the 4. bearing is when you set a course perpendicular to the expected(!) LINE of position after the 3. bearing.

However the real problems are the round up "errors" of the
- hydrophone guy (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...6&postcount=13)
- the SH5 ruler (round-errors of 50m -> 1000m at different zoom-levels)
and
- the SH5-circle (not able to show and draw tens of one degree).


another link: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...light=bearings

Thank you so much, I knew there had to be something!! But now that I have read the threads.....I mean, what can I do, it seems that the sonar guy is still screwed up.....

[reaper7]

Also make sure you don't have any Torpedo abilities enabled (These increase the speed of the torpedoes) which the TDC does not account for and hence torpedoes will always overshoot the target.

There are some mods that disable these abilities and are required for manual targeting

[Trevally.]

If you use TDWs ui you could try my in game tutorial

But - sounds to me that you are doing ok. Correct heading and only 300m out, thats not bad. Perhaps you should think of this as a tool to get into firing possition and then check using scope, your soloution before firing

[Maki4444]

Thanks Trevally. I actually learned this method from your tutorial

Well, since the last time I have added some aditional tools, the EQuaTool mod. So I found a merchant, closing at medium speed, I really did my best unfortunately the merchant was about 1500m closer than my predicted course, heading was spot on.

The EQuaTool really helpy, I am also using TDW's UI, I used a little trick, I deleted TDW's map tools, put in EQuaTools in the TDW mod files and voila. No mod colisions and no CTD

From now I will just contribute the distance variation to the buggy sonarman, however I really dounbt that the sonarguy was 100% accurate in real life.

So I get into position, 1500 is well in my visual range, then I just eyeball it and get a good solution. Didn't the real U-boot commanders also use a lot of "intuition"

I really LOVE this game, I realise that it's not so accurate but it's the best game visually, the campaign is so immersive and crew interaction is the best so far, it really adds to the realism. So all that's left to do is keep our eyes open for new mods

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Maki4444

From now I will just contribute the distance variation to the buggy sonarman, however I really dounbt that the sonarguy was 100% accurate in real life.

If you're getting distance by asking sonarman to estimate distance to contact I can see where you are getting not so accurate readings. I have a DLL that takes over some of the functions of the hydrophone station. This DLL makes the sonarman not so accurate. The distance he will give you depends on many variables (so it's more realistic).

[Maki4444]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

If you're getting distance by asking sonarman to estimate distance to contact I can see where you are getting not so accurate readings. I have a DLL that takes over some of the functions of the hydrophone station. This DLL makes the sonarman not so accurate. The distance he will give you depends on many variables (so it's more realistic).

I should have said hydrophone guy since I don't have a sonar yet. I only use the hydrophone station for the 4 bearings method, and with the 4th and final bearing you are able to find the distance of the target's course line so to say. I was talking about that

[ETsd4]

Originally Posted by Maki4444

what can I do, it seems that the sonar guy is still screwed up.....

Use the command "Follow the nearest soundcontact" and
do the rest like as in real life
- note the exact time when the bearing is called out.
- note the time difference in seconds
- note the bearing difference, here always 1 degree

Original from here : http://www.hnsa.org/doc/attack/index.htm, page "Plate X"

Choose any 4-bearing time-intervall, here 5min 2 seconds, and
you get this...

The last question is...
if the contact was
- at 00:00:40 with bearing 287.00°
and
- at 00:03:55 with bearing 288.00°,
what was the bearing at 00:01:48?
A simple question with a simple solution.

The result gives you
- contact course: 90.71° T
Real course of contact was, however, 90.00° T.
A more complex math solution would give you the exact course.

Edit: it is highly probable that the call-out of the soundman "010° degrees" is in reality 009.5° and not 010°. So the round-effect kicks in for every degree. Have this in mind and correct your drawings/considerations when you listen to the command "follow the nearest soundcontact". But this does not alter anything about the precision of the result in general.
Further on the result "contact is at 90.71° T" says nothing about the speed and the position. Thats another story.

[Pisces]

Judging by ETsd4's post: 1 degree bearing periods.

This method doesn't work well with near parallel bearing lines. If you only allow the bearings to change just a few degrees then course and range accuracy just plummets. Allow more time for the bearings to diverge. Wait until it is atleast 5 degrees. Then the hydrophone bearing inaccuracy is allot less influential.

Waiting for the exact time that a bearing flips to the exact next degree is a bit cheaty. There is no way the real hydrophone operator would know when that happens.