Lockout Failure on 9500i?

[NOC]

I have a blue 9500i (born on date of 4407) that works very well. On a few rare occasions though, I've noticed that although its locked onto the satellite at the time, I will pass a known, previously locked out signal and the 9500i will alarm. It's in a rural area where there isn't any newly introduced signals that I know of and it will happen maybe only say twice in 50 passes by this source. Is it possible that the unit can lose its lock sporadically? Or, perhaps the processor sometimes can't compute and compare the location with the signal in time? Or, the source is not calibrated very well and exhibits a wider signal band than what the 9500i will lock out? Welcome your thoughts...

[Esoterica]

I use my lockout feature extensively and while I don't think I could answer your question I can share with you some of my observations in its use.

I think I had a somewhat similar incident to what your describing. In a very rural area I have a cell tower about 100 feet off the side of the road setting just over a hill that causes an annoying and strong X band false. As I approach it the alert slowly becomes stronger till I'm right next to it and I get a full 5 bar hit from it. After the second time passing it and I was certain of the source I waited till the point when the signal was at max and I locked it out.

Worked perfectly, except, the next time as I approached it, just before the hill I would still get a single alert of 1 bar X band, then I'd get the spinning icon and the strong false was locked out. I have to say the distance to the source of where I have it locked out and where I get the first alert is just under 1 mile and at 65mph, yet due to the hill the direct signal is actually in reality even less of a distance.

So what I ended up doing was unlocking the false, then on my next pass through the area I locked the signal out earlier, like at about the half strength point. This resolved the problem of still getting the initial alert for me and effectively blocked out the full force signal when I was right next to it. I know the book says at that speed I should be good for a full mile in that lockout area, but in this one situation for some reason that was not my experience. On all of my other lockouts it works perfectly and as expected, why this one acts differently I have no idea, but locking it out a little earlier did solve it for me so I don't worry about it now.

What it sounds like you may want to do is switch your display settings over to show you the specific frequency of the signal (refer to your operators manual) and/or the setting that displays multiple signals detected with the area unlocked (I don't believe you can make it show both multiple signal sources and freq at the same time, so I'd pass twice and check both). If I had to guess, and I'm no expert by any means, but I am learning, you may be getting two or more different signals from this one source and only locking out one of them, thus allowing the second source to still be picked up as it should do. I don't have my manual in front of me right now, but I know I read either in it, or in someones posting here (may want to read over CJ's excellent post on Truelock thats a sticky at the top of this forum) a specific mention of using lockout when multiple sources at different frequencies within the same band are present. Something like a cell tower or even more than one door opener next to each other (what ever your source is) could certainly be hitting you with more than one hit at the same time in the same area.

[CJR238]

Most likely its frequency drift from the source and is alerting a different 30MHz block. You can see this in Speck Display mode and compare the frequencies.

Also there usually are 2 false sources (In and Out auto door). You may have only locked out the In radar and you occasionally get the reflection of the Out radar that’s on a different frequency. If you put your 9500I in Expert mode and this is happening it will say "Multiple Frequency’s Detected"

[Note:] True Lock blocks out 30MHz blocks, not the specific false (K mart). Its using the frequency it received during lock out to create the block so if it fluctuates enough or there is a new frequency it will alert. :wink:

[Esoterica]

That pretty much confirms my own thinking on the matter, you can certainly learn a lot fast by reading here.

[CJR238]

There is almost too much info here. :twisted:

I always take these alerts seriously when a Locked out location alerts, its better to be safe than sorry. :wink:

At the bottom of my 9500I explanation there are a few good links to look at.