Place an NDB on a Moving Ship??

[AG-51_Razor]

Is it possible to accomplish this? I have tried to set up a moving zone with a ship in it but can't place the Tacan on the ship because it's in the water! LOL. Is there some kind of work around for that? I am trying to give my Huey a way to get back to the boat in conditions of less than good visibility.

[AG-51_Razor]

So, can I assume that there is no work around or lua script for this and just forget about it?

[Boosterdog]

its perfect but this workaround from Bailey may give you some ideas

I havent tried it yet myself - i was looking for a similar solution. THe only bugbear in this is the presence of a helo on the ship already if its a single landing deck. 

The other thng that I think may work is using the SAR MOOSE script to have a helo track the boat and set the broadcast from the helo. 

I guess both may only work of the boat is able to accomodate a helo though. 

 

EDIT - tested with an AI UH60 taking off from the Ticonderoga then broadcasting on a 21.5 FM frequency (so R828 redfor homing radio). Then hopped into an MI8 and sucessfully tuned the 828/ARK UD into the signal to get a bearing and went to crash on the rear deck of the ship.  Sadly I guess it means whatever ship you wanted to track would need either capability to lauch a helo  or be in the company of such.

The Seawise Giant Tanker can also operate as a host for this and the helo tracks the boat fine. If you sailed it the close company with other civilian craft the helo could also just land and continue to broadcast. 

And thanks - I think finding the boat in the murk and side slipping onto the Giant in high seas is now my new favorite Hip activity!

Edited November 22, 2021 by Boosterdog

[AG-51_Razor]

Thanks Boosterdeog. I'll give it a shot and let you know if it works or not.

[Boosterdog]

23 minutes ago, AG-51_Razor said:

Thanks Boosterdeog. I'll give it a shot and let you know if it works or not.

No worries - if you stuggle (I doubt you will) just PM me or quote me to let me know and Ill be happy to help. 

[cfrag]

I haven't yet given it a try, but can't you create a trigger zone that acts as NDB and then have the Zone follow a ship via moving zone action?

I'll try it when I have the time

 

[Bailey]

3 hours ago, cfrag said:

I haven't yet given it a try, but can't you create a trigger zone that acts as NDB and then have the Zone follow a ship via moving zone action?

I'll try it when I have the time

 

Good thinking everyone! I got this working. One moment for documentation please. Brb. Ok, the zone isn't moving xD. might be longer than I thought.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Bailey

[Boosterdog]

20 minutes ago, Bailey said:

Good thinking everyone! I got this working. One moment for documentation please. Brb. Ok, the zone isn't moving xD. might be longer than I thought.

 

It seems the transmission remains wherever it first started. Ive tried using the old Tacan workaround with flags to activate and deactivate it but the the result is the same - signal remains static once activated. It also doesnt seem to update when reactivated presumably because there is no "stop transmission" command.

Hope you have better luck Bailey

[Bailey]

11 minutes ago, Boosterdog said:

It seems the transmission remains wherever it first started. Ive tried using the old Tacan workaround with flags to activate and deactivate it but the the result is the same - signal remains static once activated. It also doesnt seem to update when reactivated presumably because there is no "stop transmission" command.

Hope you have better luck Bailey

I'm facing the same problem. Here is a pic of my setup. Maybe others can check it out. 
I have tried putting the UNIT INSIDE MOVING ZONE Unit as "TheShipNameHere", but I get the same results.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Bailey

[Boosterdog]

...............and its not stopping the transmission - there is an action for that and it does stop the transmission. But when it starts again the signal comes from the original location. The only way around it seems (ME numpty) is to name each transmission uniquely. But even if you update once a minute thats 120 lines in the triggered actions every hour! I dont know about the more advanced functions like flag increase etc but it seems to me that once a signal not eminating from a unit is set--its set in space. Im sure its not beyond the wit of man to extend the transmit options to ships. Seems odd that it hasnt by this stage.

Well it would be good for man overboard as it stands!

[AG-51_Razor]

Boosterdog, thanks again for posting this solution. I originally tried the method that is posted just above here. I created a moving zone on the ship and gave it an advanced waypoint instruction of transmitting a frequency and message on a loop, which it did! The only problem is that, like others have reported here, it just stayed in the water where it began as the ship sailed on into the sunset.

Baily's solution though, of placing a helicopter on deck with the same type of continuous transmitting instructions worked like a charm! The only real pisser about this work around is that it must be done with a ship that has a helideck that can accommodate more than one helicopter.

It's really a shame that we have to go to such convoluted methods in order to accomplish such a simple task. If ED wished to, they could provide Tacan and even an ICLS to any ship in the DCS World. It's just a matter of coding. I really do understand that it is also a huge matter of priorities and resources as well. I just hope that some day, we'll get the ability as mission designers/builders to assign an NDB frequency to a ship so that a helicopter equipped with an ADF can find it out on the ocean in less than ideal weather conditions. It could be something as simple as just allowing us to assign the same type of advanced waypoint instructions to ships as we do to aircraft. That would eliminate the need for us to use a helicopter to do the transmitting. It just can't be that difficult for ED to figure out.

[Boosterdog]

4 hours ago, AG-51_Razor said:

Baily's solution though, of placing a helicopter on deck with the same type of continuous transmitting instructions worked like a charm! The only real pisser about this work around is that it must be done with a ship that has a helideck that can accommodate more than one helicopter.

 

If you dont mind using Moose and a little script (copy and paste mainly) the SAR helo is a decent way of freeing up the single landing decks as it just tracks the boat and stays out of the way. Once it runs low on gas, it lands, despawns and another takes over using (i think) the same unit with its settings as the first. 

[AG-51_Razor]

Instead of the SAR Helo script, which I use quite regularly, how about just having an AI Huey take off from the helideck and do the same thing that the MOOSE script does by using the "Follow" advanced Waypoint command? The reason I bring it up is because I can't imagine what kind of scripting I would need to do via MOOSE but it would be pretty simple to give the AI Huey the same "set frequency" and "Start transmission" advanced waypoint commands as in your previous solution. A friend and squad mate of mine suggested just placing a second ship with a helideck close by the primary ship and put the AI Huey on that one so as not to fowl the primary helideck. All of these suggestions will work I believe.

[Bailey]

The choppers following ships (correctly) is a relatively newly native feature for dcs. I believe there are still people that don’t know about it. 

[Boosterdog]

13 hours ago, AG-51_Razor said:

Instead of the SAR Helo script, which I use quite regularly, how about just having an AI Huey take off from the helideck and do the same thing that the MOOSE script does by using the "Follow" advanced Waypoint command? The reason I bring it up is because I can't imagine what kind of scripting I would need to do via MOOSE but it would be pretty simple to give the AI Huey the same "set frequency" and "Start transmission" advanced waypoint commands as in your previous solution. A friend and squad mate of mine suggested just placing a second ship with a helideck close by the primary ship and put the AI Huey on that one so as not to fowl the primary helideck. All of these suggestions will work I believe.

 

12 hours ago, Bailey said:

The choppers following ships (correctly) is a relatively newly native feature for dcs. I believe there are still people that don’t know about it. 

I certainly wasnt aware they follow correctly now. The SAR script allows the chopper to last for loooong time I suppose but the "if" remains around the frequencies staying on subsequent spawns as Ive not tested it. As for the scripting it very simple  - copy paste and add the ship andhelo name - and for me, thats less time than setting up the waypoint commands since I already have MOOSE running for other stuff.  

There is no right way but the way that works for you  

[Boosterdog]

Though Id come back to this with another half assed solution. This is gonna work better on some ships than others. 

So - with the seawise giant (for instance) you have the scope to place a unit from which you can transmit - The unit needs to be amphibious (in my example a BTR80) otherwise it cant be placed. 

EDIT - if you start the ship heading directly north the placment can be made one to one. 

Next - how you place the unit is....odd - basically if you oritentate it NORTH it will point to the front of the boat in line with the hull regardess of the direction of the boat. 

Next, where you put it is not where it will end up. In my limited experients so far on a boat travelling NE, it will end up in a location to the ground unit's left. So if you put it on the left of the boat it will levitate about 25 yds off the side of the boat. Sometimes it will do the opposite if placed in the centre of the boat. 

This is a bit of a hack - the unit does not sit on the deck of the boat but rather sinks in/floats about so its all trial and error. There appears to be no collision model. This can work out well as you can hide the thing. 

The transmissions NDB type all seem to work as intended which is the point behind all this. 

Also works for rigs. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Boosterdog