Scouting and Recon

I'm curious about a couple of things when it comes to scouting and recon in multiplayer.
I think a lot of my problem in games, is I just don't know what the heck the enemy is doing until I run right up on them (which is bad).

The most obvious question being, what are the best scouting units?
My assumptions are:

-Infantry, or some manpower unit, since they "might be" the most expendable
-A commander ability (i.e. plane flyover).
-Cheap Vehicles

I was browsing through coh2 stats, and the Sight stats are a bit confusing...

An example for a Pathfinder Recon unit (presumably from the Recon commander?)

Detect camo: 10.0
Extended radius: 90.0
Extended: true
Cone start radius: 0.0
Cone angle: 360.0
Inner radius: 1.0
Outer radius: 50.0
Inner height: -3.0
Outer height: 2.5

So what is this extended radius vs. Outer radius mean?
(I'm assuming extended radius means nothing if set to false).

Whats even more hilarious is that all OKW infantry seem to have an extended radius of 350, some of which are set to true (i.e. call in infantry and Obers), but, I'm guessing this doesn't kick in until some other variable happens- which might be Command Panther Vetting up... (otherwise my Jaeger infantry that pop out of a building would light up the whole map?)

If anyone has any light to shed on this, then, by all means

Wehrmacht close air support doctrine, 30muni reckon plane.

Wehrmacht close air support doctrine, 30muni reckon plane.

Dat over-used commander atm..

im not actually entirely sure what extended radius means. maybe one of the other stats guys knows more than me on that. i can tell you that outer radius is the sight radius that you see in game. things like snipers, scout cars, pathfinders etc have 50 sight, almost all other units only have 50. panzerfusiliers gain extra sight with their g43 upgrade. spotting scopes on german vehicles give either 1.6x or 2x sight radius, i forget which off the top of my head.

any of those make good options for scouting. besides that, you kind of nailed it, infantry is probably the best. cheap vehicles can be good as long as you avoid AT guns or losing your engine. commander abilities are great, but expensive.

i remember you posting another thread about being fairly new, so ill add that youll start to learn what your enemy is doing without scouting. not sure how knowledgeable you are, but knowing what tiers a unit has built will instantly narrow down their possible units. paying attention to enemy commanders will also help narrow down and predict their builds.