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Radar side lobes
As the SART is approached, sidelobes from the
radar antenna may show the SART responses
as a series of arcs or concentric rings. These
can be removed by the use of the anti-clutter
sea control although it may be operationally
useful to observe the sidelobes as they may be
easier to detect in clutter conditions and also
they will confirm that the SART is near to the
ship.
Gain
For maximum range SART detection the normal
gain setting for long range detection should be
used, that is, with background noise speckle
visible.
STC control
For optimum range SART detection, this control
should be set to the minimum. Care should be
exercised as a wanted target in sea clutter may
be obscured. Note also that in clutter conditions
the first few dots of the SART response may not
be detectable, irrespective of the setting of the
anti-clutter sea control. In this case, the position
of the SART may be estimated by measuring
9.5 nm miles from the furthest dot back towards
own ship.
Some sets have automatic/manual anti-clutter
sea control facilities in which case the operator
should switch to manual.
FTC control
This should be used normally (to break up areas
of rain) when trying to detect a SART response
which, being a series of dots, is not affected by
the action of the anti-clutter rain circuitry. Note
that Racon responses, which are often in the
form of a long flash, will be affected by the use
of this control.
Some sets have automatic/manual anti-clutter
rain control facilities in which case the operator
should switch to manual.
When the range to the SART is reduced to
about 1 nm, the radar display may show also
the 12 responses generated during the fast
sweeps. These additional dot responses, which
also are equally spaced by 0.64 nm, will be
interspersed with the original line of 12 dots.
They will appear slightly weaker and smaller
than the original dots.