In A Pickle

[gollum65]

After thinking about it some more I remembered where I read that ships that are pinging aren't listening. It's from the TMO manual .pdf document, page 46, the first section under "Understanding the AI & Evasion".

The Tin can itself as it applies to detection:
That wily Jap tin can loitering above your head can only do one of two things. It can listen (passive), and it can ping (active). What it can't do, is both at once. Hence I feel its a safe assumption to say, if a Tin can is pinging, hes not listening, and if hes not pinging he's listening.

Two important note's here to eliminate confusion:
A.) with multiple escorts on you, there is always somebody listening.
B.) The AI tends to key in on whichever sensor is receiving the biggest signature there is to pick up on.
While it can only use passive or active at a singular moment in time, it can switch between the two
quickly enough to make it appear that it is using both at once.

Perhaps I read it wrong?