I used used this mostly when searching for Q-Type asteroids pre-3.18 (back when that was a thing). When we set the PING ANGLE (not SCAN ANGLE) from 360-degrees to something narrower we could resolve signatures as far as 10-km away. Post-3.18 we have to be 2-5-km away using the 360-degree PING to resolve a signature from the “cloud of cubes” to resolve what the contact is.

It was very helpful to set the PING ANGLE to 90 or 180-degress so you were only getting signatures from contacts in front of you. Using that method it was easier to not get turned around and running back to stuff you already scanned.

Mmmh fair. Can you try changing to scan operator mode and change the scan angle there? I think functionally the same value is used for pinging.