does pop on give less range in bands?

[radardan24]

anyone know this as im trying to weigh the good and bad.

[jimbonzzz]

Some definitely do. For example, an Engineer from Whistler who posts on here (Michael B) has said that in his units, turning off POP will increase sensitivity 1-2db for K and Ka.

To a point, a detector is more sensitive the longer it examines the frequency of interest. I believe this is because it can get more samples to average out the noise, thus reducing the noise floor. If you cut out the rest of the sweep, the detector is able to examine the frequencies of interest for a longer duration, without also hurting response time.

For example, some of the Euro Beltronics detectors have "narrow" modes that only examine the photo radar freqs. Same thing with the V1's Euro Mode. These modes cut out most of th Superwide Ka sweep, allow ing the frequencies of interest (photo radar) to be examined for a longer duration. As the users of these narrow modes can tell you, sensitivity is greatly incresed in these modes, which is essential to prior warning against photo radar such as weak Multanovas.

The same idea goes for USA mode in the BEL RX-65 (accusweep in previous Beltronics detectors). Since it is only sweeping the three frequencies of interest, it is able to examine them for longer periods, resulting in a sensitivity increase.

The idea is that with POP turned on, the detector has to do a priority sweep on the MPH 33.8 frequency, hitting it at least once every 67ms. This "takes away" from the rest of the sweep, reducing sensitivity on the other frequencies.

Some detectors might not change their sweep when POP is turned off, and only turn off the reporting of POP alerts. But, some other detectors DO change their sweep accordingly, and disable the "priority" POP sweep when POP is turned off. This should result in a slight sensitivity increase. Which detectors work which way is difficult to say... Michael B did sensitivity tests on the V1 and Some Belscorts, and the way the results are presented it would appear that ther is no difference in sensitivity with POP on or OFF. But these were results for delay information. Whether sensitivity was actually re-tested or just duplicated in the results, I don't know...

Jim