What is up with PA State police radar?

**Gabian** · 10-21-2011 12:24 AM

I drive the PA turnpike everyday between Harrisburg and Reading and I have noticed that I see very little state police activity as compared to a year ago. Not only that but I almost never see the radar units that are attached to the car any more. I see people pulled over, some that have just passed me a couple minutes before but my V940 never goes off. Its not the detector I pick up the radar at toll booths with no issues. (k band). Any insight would be appreciated. They have me wondering.

**Google Adsense** · 10-21-2011 12:24 AM

**krypton2** · 10-21-2011 07:25 PM

As you probably are aware, only PSP can use radar in Pennsylvania...city, municipal, county, regional, park, etc. police are prohibited from using radar.

A lot of the equipment that PSP uses is outdated...they generally only order new equipment after the majority of their supply is gone due to getting broken and other unrecoverable equipment issues. This is true with almost every aspect of PSP's technology...one example is the lightbars. For the longest time they have been using the old Vector halogen lightbars and after a year long real world test, they've finally decided to purchase flat LED lightbars - what, 6-7 years after most other police departments first purchased them? Even still they're very slowly replacing them and we won't see the majority of the LED lightbars for another 2-3 years.

I would imagine that there are still the "car-mounted" radar units in the state police's fleet, but I'm sure by now most have met their mark and are being replaced by newer handheld or inner-mounted units. PSP uses a lot of low-powered K-band handheld units anymore, so if you see one of their vehicles and a radar unit isn't mounted somewhere on the interior of the vehicle, the car may be equipped with a handheld gun sitting elsewhere in the car. Or it might not have a radar unit at all...

As far as the lack of activity, that could be for a few reasons. It seems like state police activity follows no pattern at all and you will see a ton of activity for a month and then nothing for a few months.

**mikered30** · 10-24-2011 06:25 PM

Ever see KA in that area of the turnpike?

**Gabian** · 10-24-2011 10:32 PM

Only K-band either C/O or I/O. Just saw an unmarked with a mounted unit on the rear window. Haven't seen that for a while. They are quite good with their instant on and can be very patient.

**irSuw** · 10-30-2011 10:13 PM

A lot of the PA State Police use the Handheld Genesis Radar Guns. Despite the amount of news behind the products unreliability, they still continue to use it. A suppliers website claims:

"Just point and squeeze trigger. As soon as trigger is pulled, the radar emits a signal and reading is displayed. Then release trigger, the reading will lock and stop transmitting signal to defeat radar detectors."

I too have seen people getting pulled over, and my QI 45 radar detector" onclick="replacer_hook(239)" target="_blank" href="http://www.radardetector.net/qi45">Qi45 never went off. =/

**KaPro** · 10-31-2011 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by Gabian

I drive the PA turnpike everyday between Harrisburg and Reading and I have noticed that I see very little state police activity as compared to a year ago. Not only that but I almost never see the radar units that are attached to the car any more. I see people pulled over, some that have just passed me a couple minutes before but my V940 never goes off. Its not the detector I pick up the radar at toll booths with no issues. (k band). Any insight would be appreciated. They have me wondering.

The PA state police have been transitioning to the Falcon HR handheld radar. Very difficult to detect due to the type of antenna used. It is k band though.

**Gabian** · 11-01-2011 12:30 AM

What can you tell me about this Falcon HR? What is different about its antenna? I have been hit a couple of times when the rabbit in front of me should have been hit first and my detector never went off till he shot me. Both times it was with a hand held unit, Additionally the other day I went passed an overpass and sitting way off the side of the road and parallel to it was a cruiser with the window mount radar, it was pointed at the side of the bridge and he was so close it was apparent that he would have hit the bridge but as i went passed he hit me. Can they bounce the radar and get you that way? Never saw anything like it, then just today same thing at the same place. Very puzzling.

**KaPro** · 11-01-2011 08:09 AM

The falcon uses a patch antenna and is a low powered gun. Easily id'd when you see the square face of the antenna as it is aimed at you. They are also blue colored. The statie by the bridge (with the window mount) probably had the antenna turned around so he was shooting you in the gashole when you went by.

**Gabian** · 11-01-2011 09:22 PM

Any reliable way to detect these units? Are they giving up range because of the low power? Man I got a thousand questions!

**mikered30** · 11-01-2011 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by Gabian

Any reliable way to detect these units? Are they giving up range because of the low power? Man I got a thousand questions!

A lot more info about it, plus video:
PA- Another Encounter with Kustom Falcon HR

Might consider a V1 to detect it better, should be better than the V940, plus IO detection is way better too.