Exquisite sim!

Some questions perhaps the designers may have to answer:

1) Is the radar "generic" in that all planes with radar have the same parameters? If not...then question #2.

2) What model radar is simulated in the F4?

3) Is this a continuous-wave or doppler radar?

4) If a CW radar, (I'm assuming this to be the case), will ground clutter cause the radar to lose track of bugged targets as it does in real life?

5) In the ground mapping mode, why do city buildings not show up?

6) Are the buildings filtered out? If yes then question #7.

7) Will the pilot be able to adjust the filter parameter? In otehr words, adjust settings to filter in/out certain radar return strengths.

Thanks. I have the Walmart version.

I guess I'll go ahead and start to answer some of my own questions. I searched and found a great page and found this about the F4C:

"The F-4C had substantially different electronic equipment, including a Westinghouse AN/APQ-100 radar system with ground mapping capability, an AN/APA-157 CW illuminator for the AIM-7 Sparrow family of air-to-air missiles, an AN/AJB-7 all-altitude nuclear bomb control system with low-altitude
release capability and option for Bullpup release, a Litton AN/ASN-48 (LN12A/B)inertial navigation system, and an AN/ASN-46 navigation computer. Other systems included the ASN-39 (later -46)dead-reckoning navigation computer, the ALR-17 electronic countermeasures radar warning receiver, APR-25 radar homing and warning system, an APR-26 SAM launch warning system, an APN-141 (later -159) radar altimeter, an A24G central air data computer, a General Electric ASA-32A analog autopilot and flight-control system, an ASQ-19 communications/navigation/ identification package, and an ARW-77 Bullpup missile control system. Some F-4Cs were equipped with the SST-181X Combat Skyspot radar bombing system."

I sure hope the final release has some avionics as detailed as say Jane's F/A18.

http://www.kalaniosullivan.com/KunsanAB/OtherUnits/HowitwasbF4.html

Don't count on it. This is going to be a light survey sim, not a study of the F-4.

Wish someone WOULD do a detailed F/A-18 type study sim on the F-4E, tho. I'd buy it.

Miao, Cat

Nope...don't count on that.

The F-4E models the APG-120 radar; this is mostly used for setting up the radar's performance however, and while function and look differ between the planes, don't expect a full avionics model. Too bad, but they had to make compromises somewhere, and hopefully we can augment technical accuracy by third-party mods (that avionics60.dll file looks mighty tasty )

LOL, looks like there was some telepathy going on...well, you got your answer in double

I was unaware that this was going to be a "lite" sim. That's sad. Is there any factual basis to this assumption? Has any of the designers stated this?

1) No my understanding is that each individual radar can be modeled separately. Not clear yet how detailed the model is.

2,3) Don't know much about the operational details of each individual F-4 radar, but from what I gather, only the F-4J (Navy version) had a PD radar. All Air Force versions had pulse modes w/ CW illumination for Sparrow guidance. Pulsed radars will have trouble with ground clutter and I believe this will be accounted for in the model.

5,6) Regarding buildings in ground-mapping mode...none of the F-4 radars had synthetic aperature (SAR) or doppler beam sharpening capability (DBS) available to current modern aircraft. Thus the resolution of the ground-mappping will be very coarse. Assuming an antenna diameter of 30 inches, the radar beamwidth will be about 3.5 degrees. Using some simple geometry, the cross-range resolution at 20km will be about 1.2 km. Try resolving a building out of that. The down-range resolution will be a little better, but still not great. Not sure what the pulse widths used for the radar were, but assuming a nominal 2 microsecond pulsewidth, the downrange resolution can be about 375 meters...again, try making a building out of that. I believe the ground mapping modes were used for identifying MAJOR landmarks, NOT fine targeting details.

7) Regarding adjusting the radar gain, this is a typical feature in most pulse radars. Not sure if the F-4 had it, but I wouldn't see why they wouldn't at least have a knob for it. No idea if SF is modeling one.

Elmo, thx for a good answer.

#6. What I am referring to is that the ground radar does not even pick up buildings as blips. It DOES pickup airport buildings however. I think the reasoning behind this is because as of right now in the beta version, buildings are not really there. You can actually fly through them.

About fifty times.

FYI the F-4C radar currently seems to be defined as the APG-120 too, however radar configuration files offer fairly complete possibilities for modification.

I agree with CAT, I think there are a lot of hard core simmers out there and it would be great if someone would make a hard core sime like F/A-18. To keep the hobby pilots happy, just add a arcade button in the options for them or a hardcore sim button for us.

EDIT wrong thread.

[This message has been edited by guderian ente (edited 08-11-2002).]