Trying to find a real good tutorial for Radar from the front seat with Jester

[Jyge]

The problem is that Youtube is full of AWG-9 tutorials - some are good, but most were done before feature complete or whatever and at the moment I have hard time figuring what switch actually does a darn thing. I have real problems seeing/finding anything from RIO seat - I think current campaign (fear the bones) I am flying is F-14A - whether that makes a difference or not...

From what I figure, going towards AWACS given contact and zeroing azimuth and elevation should give me something. There is only then the aspect switch, but mostly I see nada.

Then comes the Jester from front seat. I always seem to get some astronomical scale on TID, again see damn all, even in the case I get a contact notification from him. I would expect him to set the TID range and all the stuff so that I see what he sees, but no. Then I do not seem to have an option to request a "soft lock" that I could get range and stuff from a contact, there is only STT option there.

I have found exactly zero Youtube tutorials for AWG-9 from front seat where it is shown how to work with Jester so that there is even a trace of teamwork. I had a break of at least 1 year from F-14, flew couple of Hornet campaigns in between and I have now a feeling that I am starting from 0 again, but at the same time, I have a feeling that nothing has really developed in the radar and Jester during this time. 

I do not want to compain about tools, I really need to improve my skills, but I just can not figure out a place to start. I guess what I am looking for is a 1 min tutorial from Crash where he gets Jester to do what he should do and then tells everyone to eff off. I am dying of old age before Grim Reapers videos come close to making some useful point and even their tutorials are heavily dated and haven't really aged gracefully. They are not like watching a paint dry, they are like watching an expired paint dry.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Jyge

[draconus]

Since you flew the Hornet I assume you know how radar works. There is no option to request highlighting the contact from Jester menu. Pilot has TID repeat view so you can see exactly the same what Jester can (minus DDD). You can request different TID range. There are plethora of reasons why you can't see the contact: too far away, notching, not in the scan zone, no LOS, too little closure difference... Use DL whenever available (request the source in Jester menu). Use AWACS calls to get not only azimuth but also take note of the range and altitude to request both TID range and scan zone accordingly (best to use scan specific alt @ range option). Know the limits of the system, practice first, combat later.

Jester is planned to be overhauled btw.

Edited April 24, 2023 by draconus

[WarthogOsl]

Bind some buttons to the TID range settings for Jester.  I've found that the range settings typically disappear from the Jester wheel after a Phoenix launch for some reason, and Jester doesn't zoom in automatically as your range closes.  I also have buttons bound for the Jester aircraft stabilized and ground stabilized mode commands, as I go back and forth between those pretty often.

It sucks you can't tell Jester to "soft lock" a target, but it's pretty easy and quick to jump in the back seat and "hook" the target by selecting it on the TID with the hand controller and clicking the full-action button (I have it bound to my trigger).

Edited April 27, 2023 by WarthogOsl

[Tweety777]

I use VoiceAttack for getting straight into the range menu by calling "Jester range". This voice command uses the Jester menu but gets to the desired page in a fraction of a second. If you so choose you could set this up 1 step further by adding the desired range to the voice command though you might want to buy VoiceAttack as the 20 free voice commands can be quite limited when you're using like 6 commands for the range alone. Alternatively, you can set your phone or tablet up in a similar fashion using an app called Touch Portal. I use both, though I use VoiceAttack the most for critical commands (like switching the master arm, going from sparrow to phoenix, going to PLM mode, dropping tanks), while I use Touch Portal for switching the HUD mode.

[Jyge]

Yeah, well the thing is. I am not 100% sure whether the notice is coming from Jester or the wingman, but if Jester reports a contact, I would really expect him have set-up the TID so that it is visible on it, where did he get it otherwise...also the contact reports, at least on an otherwise empty sky, coming from Wingman or AWACS should get some sort of attention from the dude, I think any normal RIO would look and see what the hell they are talking about...I think it difficult to see where Jester is paying attention to (if paying attention at all, except for his bong). Sure I am jumping back and forth between the seats, although setting up the TID on the backseat does not help anything, once jumping back front Jester goes back to the planetary scale.

I hope there will be something in the near future updates, particularly knowing that the Phantom should be coming, I would expect a little bit more proof of concept style attention to F-14. I think the soft-lock and adjusting TWS accordingly would be a good start. I mean if the contact is at 40 miles, there is no reason to keep 200 miles scale on TID, sure, you can take a peek and that would be ok, but the main time should now be spent at 50 nm scale, that's I guess what a human RIO would do. 

[Tweety777]

In my experience Jester is quite on top of things, except when I cheat using the F10 map. Usually he is quite focused on the locked target and I rarely see him use ranges beyond 100NM. In my opinion he is sometimes too focused, especially when locking the same plane for longer because the range and conditions are not yet optimal for firing a Phoenix. It could be useful to see more targets on the radar screen every once in a while to keep some situational awareness though I suppose that is not how the AWG9 works. It might also be that I don't trust Jester enough to select the targets I want him too and don't see enough happening on my screen to know which target is selected. That might be due to a combination of friendly fire incidents and lack of Track IR which I now do have for about a month. 

 

Anyways, when I call out a range to Jester, usually I don't see any changes to it until the locked target is well within the closer setting, and even then he seems to adjust the scale later then usual. 

[draconus]

4 hours ago, Jyge said:

... that's I guess what a human RIO would do.

It depends on the situation and intentions and that's probably the reason he doesn't do many things - to let you decide - otherwise he'd have to be very extensively programmed and even then it might not be what you'd want him to do. Let's see what version 2.0 brings because we all know his current limitations.

I've just flew Reforger II mission #2 and saw the strange fixation on 200nm TID range and ignoring my settings - I'm not sure if it comes from the mission or it's some new Jester bug.

[Billy]

I have always used Jester as the AWG-9 interface, and I always wished there would be more commands to him: Scan elevation +-1 degree, MLC filter, Scan pattern/bars, TCS zoom, set non-attack ...etc. I rarely switch seats because it will cause my computer to freeze. But i found that if you leave Jester untouched, he would make decisions, like RWS/TWS, bars, hooking targets... Sometimes he do them pretty well. I wonder how good is Jester's decision making? Or how much intelligence did the HB team give Jester?