Radar Not Displaying Contacts

I’ve often had hostile contacts directly in front of me and physically visible but not present on the radar screen at 4 bar scan, +- 60 degrees azimuth, PPI or B-Scope, low, high or interleaved PRF and within 20 nm with scan range at 40 nm. Is this a known bug?

I did find some older posts about a B-Scope specific bug that made targets disappear after showing up. Does anyone know if there is a B-Scope bug like that in effect now?

I’ve often had hostile contacts directly in front of me and physically visible but not present on the radar screen at 4 bar scan, +- 60 degrees azimuth, PPI or B-Scope, low, high or interleaved PRF and within 20 nm with scan range at 40 nm. Is this a known bug?

 

I did find some older posts about a B-Scope specific bug that made targets disappear after showing up. Does anyone know if there is a B-Scope bug like that in effect now?

The best thing the next time it happens would be to record the track and share it.

There were some complains but to my knowledge no bug confirmed.

Might be incorrect radar elevation.

The best thing the next time it happens would be to record the track and share it.

There were some complains but to my knowledge no bug confirmed.

Will do, I was kicking myself for not thinking to post about this before deleting my tacview files too.

Might be incorrect radar elevation.

That might have been the case for some, but several showed in tacview as being within 1k feet of my altitude at a range of up to 20 nms, so I'm not sure antenna elevation could be the cause of those...

Target aspect (hot/ cold) also has an effect.

Target aspect (hot/ cold) also has an effect.

Ta. I know at least some of the time it was hot because they flew right past me (or into me on one occasion), but I will stay mindful of that.

I asked if this was bugged so I wouldn't waste time trying to figure out something that was just working wrong. Since there's no known issue I'll let this rest here and go back to trying to find a technique that works :)

Does it happen in MP or SP ?

SP, I haven't been into MP at all so I don't know if it happens there...

It is most common in the instant action missions "Missile Combat" and "Constant PEG II", but then that's mostly what I play so that might be coincidence.

I don't see any bugs here, look down will have lower detection range.

Max detection range on a F-4 would be around 40-45 nm in the best conditions.

Did I miss anything ?

I ran the same mission again but this time with my Mirage 180 feet off the deck; only picking them up at 30 Nm again. My flight got nails but I didn't (maybe because I'm further left of them). So I don't know if you are right or not about this not being a bug. It seems to be 30 Nm every time, no matter if I'm higher or lower than them, and with no terrain in the way. I would say these are pretty much best conditions no?

At 180 feet you get ground clutter so it's not better. Try 20 kft co-alt, you should see better results.

Nail is like spike IIRC, it does not means your flight have them on radar.

Again, from what I see, no bugs here. And 180 ft is NOT best condition at all.

I picked him up at 50 Nm this time with both of us at 20,000 feet. So maybe it's just because they are so low. Looks like you are correct from what I can tell now. Thanks!

 

"Also, low flying threats will be much more

difficult to find." - Page 233 Manual

Happy to help :)

I realize now that I worded the OP badly. The question I should have asked was "is contact detection expected to get easier, or can I solve this through improving my application of it alone? In other words, I should have been clear in acknowledging that this behavior may be due to a faithful recreation of the RL radar rather than a bug needing to be squashed.

Edit: To be clearer still (not my strong suit): “do Razbam intend to mitigate this from their side, or do I need to find my own answer?”