[REQ] More Accurate Radar Screen

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

I've read that there was ST radar for range finding in the periscope and also SV radar, which was advanced air search radar? What did SV look like? Was like PPI air radar, or was it like the oscilloscope range info, which could be trained to bearings?

SV radar was indeed an improved air search radar which came into use around June 1945. You can see what the radar antenna looks like in SH4. It was hooked up to the SJ's PPI and A-scopes, thus making it far more advanced than the SD. Of course, for SH4 that doesn't make for any advantage, since the radar man will (incorrectly) give you a bearing each time an SD contact is made.

ST radar also gave bearing information and was hooked up to the SJ display as well (A-scope only).

[elanaiba]

Yes, in real life there was a selector for the input signal used on the radar screens... SS or SJ-1/SV/ST.

A quick reaction to something that was said here... please do not assume we didn't care.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Luke, the current SD radar in game rotates and gives range information on the same bearing as the SJ is pointing, you're saying that's not how it worked IRL. So IRL, was the SD radar an active device, e.g. it sent out an omnidirectional wave and then displayed at what range it received a signal back?

SD radar does not give range information on the same bearing as the SJ radar. It takes SD radar one second to do a full "sweep," but no, it does not revolve (SJ radar rotates at 6 revolutions per minute, I believe). That one-second sweep is the time it takes for the antenna to send out and receive back a return on its signal, giving a range to the target if it found anything.

The first SD radar sets had what is known as a vertically polarized antenna, which did not allow for that far of a range or that low of an altitude. With the following (practically identical) SD-a and SD-1 radar sets ("improved SD radar" in SH4), the antenna switched to a horizontally polarized one, thus allowing increased range (about 15 miles max) and better low altitude performance, though it couldn't pick up anything below 1,000 feet. Contrary to initial reports, the Japanese could and did pick up on the signals the SD radar put out, hence why the standing order was to use it at irregular intervals. SD-a was the field modification of SD; SD-1 was the factory-produced version; a further version, SD-2, was practically the same, other than having the addition of IFF.

BTW, there's a good set of articles about those polarized antennas at Wikipedia and why they work like they do.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

That's the display you get when you put it in range tape mode, you then pencil those marks onto a piece of tape and stick that so it just coveres the bottom of the line and that's your range line. You then switch the radar set to normal mode to get signals. I've paraphrased that really badly from what I read.

Ah, you're right. The manual also shows this pic of SD "when properly tuned (sensitivity low):"

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by elanaiba

A quick reaction to something that was said here... please do not assume we didn't care.

If that was directed at me, I didn't mean it as such. I know you guys were short on development time and would have devoted more detail to this area if the time had been there. At the least you improved the A-scope and PPI screens dramatically with the 1.3 patch.

[elanaiba]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

Actually this may be possible. I have an idea but unfortunately I have no idea how to do it. Check this screenshot...



Have you noticed that there is an indicator right above the A-Scope that rotates with the PPI. It has a silly "sound bearing" texture on it but that could be changed with a re-skinning that would show the bearing where the radar beam is pointing.

I don't get it... the screenshot makes it look different from what I have in the game? Where did the silly "sound bearing" texture come from? Ours is a direct representation of the real life dial.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by elanaiba

I don't get it... the screenshot makes it look different from what I have in the game? Where did the silly "sound bearing" texture come from? Ours is a direct representation of the real life dial.

It's something OakGroove mistakenly did for his interior textures mod, thus rendering that dial useless.

[Nisgeis]

Thanks for the info Luke, very detailed!

Originally Posted by LukeFF

BTW, there's a good set of articles about those polarized antennas at Wikipedia and why they work like they do.

I'll check them out, when time permits .

Would bearing and range rings on the PPI scope be any use as a MOD, or do people just want readouts?

[elanaiba]

That explains it... Well... its hard to fault OakGroove after all the excellent work he did

[jmr]

While not an ideal fix, would it be possible to set map contacts to only what the radar detects?

It's been awfully quiet on this post for the last few days.
Hope people havent given up on this one.

[tedhealy]

A mod was released to add more bearing lines and some range lines.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134566

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by tedhealy

A mod was released to add more bearing lines and some range lines.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134566

Version 2 is in the works, hopefully to include: higher resolution PPI scope, finer lines, bearing lines with numbers, arced contacts (instead of blobs), digital range readout, digital bearing readout and possibly a change to the radar sweep, depnding on what I find out about it.

[Fish40]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Version 2 is in the works, hopefully to include: higher resolution PPI scope, finer lines, bearing lines with numbers, arced contacts (instead of blobs), digital range readout, digital bearing readout and possibly a change to the radar sweep, depnding on what I find out about it.

Now we're talking! Glad to hear this. I'm useing the present version of your mod, and I just wanted to say that it is a great improvement over what we had (which was basicly nothing:rotfl. I can finally with some degree of accuracy, plot the course of a target useing the radar.Thanks again, and keep up the good work

[M. Sarsfield]

Nigeis,

I didn't get any useful information from my Cobia contact. Sorry.