Basic RWR question

[Digitalvole]

If I can see a contact on my rwr does that mean he can see me on his radar? I’ve always assumed that it means he can.

The reason I ask is I’ve created a mission with a couple of MiG 29s 150 miles away and they are appearing in my RWR but they won’t appear in my radar till I’m about 40 miles away. Is this normal? Seems to be a bit of an unfair advantage for the MiGs. Sorry if this seems like a silly question. 

[Mustang25]

Not necessarily, it just means that you’re picking up their radar emissions. Think of it like seeing someone’s flashlight from a mile away. You can see the light but it’s not strong enough to actually illuminate you.
 

Also sidelobes are a thing but I don't know enough about radar to explain it nor do I know if DCS simulates it. 

[Digitalvole]

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up for me. That makes sense and now I don’t feel hard-done-by  

[Bunny Clark]

For another aircraft to see you on radar, the radio waves they are transmitting need to bounce off your aircraft and travel back to their radar antenna. That means that the waves need to travel twice as far for them to detect you as they do for your RWR to see their radar. It doesn't exactly mean that your RWR will see them at double the range they will see you on radar, but broadly speaking you can detect another radar long before that radar can detect you. 

[darkman222]

As he says. I heared about a real effect thats modelled in DCS too which is, if you are in the line of sight behind an aircraft thats being locked up, he will get a lock up warning on his RWR but you will get a RWR warning too. Even if you are not the one being locked up and maybe 20 nm further away from where the actual aircarft thats being locked is.

So neither RWR nor radar are magical devices. It all depends on how the pilot interprets it.

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

Bear also in mind the possibility of awacs and datalink