Questions for getting back to SH5

[Itkovian]

Salutations.

Due to having one U-boat dream too many (seriously, I was going through Kiel *grin*), I've decided to go back to SH5 (at least until July, when the Battle of Britain begins anew *grin*).

I got the sim at release and was impressed with the usual things (including leisurely going down Kiel Kanal *grin*), but decided to wait for a patch due to the crew morale bug (while rather gamey, I like the idea but hated losing all that after a reload). Now that this seems to be fixed, I have a few questions before jumping back in.

1- Has the proper use of the Stadimeter been clarified/identified since release? I could never figure out how to use it properly.

I believe it involved sighting to the waterline and then bringing the black line to some point at the top of the target, but I could never figure out where exactly. Top of the funnel? Top of the bridge? Top of highest mast? All of these seemed to give different results based on the target.

Some help would be appreciated.

2- I understand that many mods have been released, as usual in the SH world. Which ones would you recommend as "basic" mods all players should use?

3- I know most mods are installed using JSME, which I've used before but just want to confirm how to use it:

Basically you just copy the JSME exe to the root of the game folder, executed it to have the MODS folder created, and then I just unzip the various mods to the MODS folder, and then run the JSME exe to enable the mods, correct?

4- How is patch 1.2 best installed? I've read some posts saying that the autoinstaller isn't working right. Is it best to manually download the patch file, or does just starting up the game work?

5- Last, but not least: I'm looking for a good gramophone and/or radio mod. Any suggestions?

Thank you.

Itkovian