But to a Cub Scout who has never held a handi-talkie before, it's not obvious. After some practice, a few of them did well at getting bearings with an HT, beam and active attenuator. Others couldn't seem to get the hang of it, especially if the HT didn't have an S-meter. Other types of RDF sets were much easier for kids to learn. Although TDOAs are more prone to multipath bearing errors and they lacked signal strength indication, the kids found them easy to learn and had good results.
Signal strength is indicated by a panel meter, tone pitch, or tone loudness.
I had only two of these foreign-made sets along, but I think they were easiest for Scouts to learn to use. All they had to do was turn the antenna for strongest signal indication and walk that way. Bearings were nearly always accurate. Their arms would become fatigued in about three minutes and the beam would slip down to shoulder high. Of course that adversely affected the beam's sensitivity and directivity.