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The Sonar Room Doug Burleson STS-2 SS The Sonar room is located under the Crews Mess deck and access was through a 3íX 3í deck hatch. Upon descending the ladder you were in a compartment 6' X 10' in size and in this space there were 2 Sonar cabinets, audio recorder, audio filters, manuals, spare parts and test equipment. This left the Sonarman about a space of 30-sq. ft. to work in. (All the comforts of home). The Ships Sonar is basically the eyes and ears of the boat. During submerged operation we operated in a listen only (passive mode) 99% of the time, and then only if need be to go active to acquire target and distance information. With passive Sonar we were able to determine the class and type of target, course, bearing and speed. This information could then be sent to the Conning Tower. For target evaluation, fire control and target avoidance we would use the recording equipment and audio filters to separate the true target information from biological background sounds i.e. Whales, Carpenter fish, Shrimp, Dolphins. If the water condition were good we could tell how many Screws and how fast they were turning and also if one of the blades had a nick on it. Water conditions could be so different. In San Diego we have run right along side of a ship and could not hear it. Another time when we were operating up off the coast of Washington we found out from the aircraft we were operating with, that the contact I had picked up sounded like it was close aboard to us but in fact almost 250 miles away.
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