CarlosNO2 Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 (edited) Hello all, when I was brushing up on my RIO skills last night I had some weird things that seemed to happen on the DDD. The behavior of the radar returns seemed a bit off. A main issue I ran into was during my use of pulse search, I was receiving returns on some contacts between 50-100 miles away, but when I did half action on HCU in RDR mode, and placed the cursor in the exact distance, azimuth, and elevation as I was getting the return it would not appear at all. I attempted to troubleshoot by adjusting the Pulse gain and the Erase knobs, and using 1 bar scan to ensure no elevation issues, and even turned the MLC off and on to no avail. I also confirmed there actually was a contact there with RWS and the F10 map. After getting much closer, it seemed to work as usual. There were a few more oddities but none as obvious as this. I am unaware if there is some actual reason this could happen, and it could be intended behavior I am not sure. But to me it makes no sense that I would get a strong and full radar return in a 1 bar scan in pulse search, but then have that return be completely gone when I am commanding the radar in HCU RDR mode, effectively its doing the exact same thing electrically and mechanically unless there is some additional system or functionality in the AWG-9 I am unaware of. If this is not intended behavior, I can go back and try to collect more data on what happens in order to help HeatBlur debug it, I just didn't want to invest the time into it first before confirming it isn't intended behavior. Edited October 2, 2022 by CarlosNO2
lunaticfringe Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 When you command half action on the HCU, the target field of the scan area and the beam width collapses as the radar goes into "supersearch". This makes it necessary to use the HCU elevation vernier control to get the radar exactly onto the target aircraft prior to commanding full action to get the lock. Consider it the difference between a flashlight and a laser pointer; the elevation command in the bar area is the same, but because the beam is smaller, the likelihood is that target is above or below the *exact* plane of the bar scan. It's simply thar the larger beam width captures this disparity naturally in standard search, whereas the focused energy going for the STT needs fine tuning to put it on the opposing aircraft.
CarlosNO2 Posted October 2, 2022 Author Posted October 2, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, lunaticfringe said: When you command half action on the HCU, the target field of the scan area and the beam width collapses as the radar goes into "supersearch". This makes it necessary to use the HCU elevation vernier control to get the radar exactly onto the target aircraft prior to commanding full action to get the lock. Consider it the difference between a flashlight and a laser pointer; the elevation command in the bar area is the same, but because the beam is smaller, the likelihood is that target is above or below the *exact* plane of the bar scan. It's simply thar the larger beam width captures this disparity naturally in standard search, whereas the focused energy going for the STT needs fine tuning to put it on the opposing aircraft. Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I did use one bar scan, and used the vernier and coarse elevation adjustment both in the Pulse search and the HCU commanded super search, the contact was nowhere to be found. I was referencing the RDR elevation indicator to the left of the DDD as usual and manually scanned around the entire area the contact was seen in Pulse search. I even tried having my bars set to every different setting to have the superscan help me elevation wise just in case. Judging by your response, it is unintended behavior so I will try to reproduce it tonight and perhaps record something. Edited October 2, 2022 by CarlosNO2
CarlosNO2 Posted October 4, 2022 Author Posted October 4, 2022 Ok well I got the time to try and reproduce the issue to no avail. I set up the main components and relative geometry of the situation I first encountered it in, and changed a few things between three runs. The DDD and RDR worked as expected, with the contact (a beaming coalt F-5E) appearing faintly at around 50ish nm, and at around 47nm it would stay faint in Pulse Search, but became a stronger contact in the HCU RDR supersearch, and allowed me to lock it. I guess I chalk up the earlier issue to a possible combination of Pilot/RIO/Plane desync + multiplayer BS. If I run into it again I will post again in this thread.
FusRoPotato Posted June 12, 2023 Posted June 12, 2023 (edited) I'm having the same problem and having difficulty figuring it out. The issue is, co-altitude returns at zero elevation appear but then disappear when entering super search. I've been using slow erase while scrunching the bars and azimuth and skipping through half action as fast as possible as a workaround, but I don't know if the game is broken or I'm doing something wrong. What I do know is, I can reproduce it quite often. When in pulse mode, it paints the terrain the same either way, but only the contact disappears as soon as I hit half action. Edited June 12, 2023 by FusRoPotato
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