I noticed that I get a RWR ping when sneaking up on enemies and flying behind them with my radar off.
Is this a bug or some MAW thingy triggering my RWR?
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It’s the side lobes of the radar. A very small part of the emitted radiation doesn’t go to the front of the antenna and it can be picked up by RWR.
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Ok, didn’t know that WT models it in that detail.
I was right on his six (max. 10° below) and around 1km away, so did not expect this.
Is it a thing in RL too? I never heard about it before.
Very much :)
These images show generic examples for how it can look and how much of the signal that gets sent in each direction (this is different for every radar depending on frequency, design, what it is attached to and a lot of other factors)
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Thanks for the images!
The side lobes are clear, but I expected the back lobe to be blocked by the aircraft body.
It seems, that these nasty photons always find a way… 😂
well, all radiation can go through things depending on material and frequency of the radiation :P
Best example are x-rays, it goes through different organs differently well and so bones can be clearly seen, or ultra violet rays do not go through glass (which is why you wont get nearly as sunburned through your windows as you would sitting on the balcony), etc.
So technically the body of the aircraft does stop a lot of it, there is just so much of it that it goes trough anyway XD (AESA radar should in theory have less of this issue due to how they work, but that’s just a guess from my part)
The absolute coolest fact about this i learned recently is the photo of the sun from 1998 that was taken THROUGH THE CENTER OF EARTH!!!