9500ix vs. Ka 35.5

[yamaha1]

Here's the situation:

On my way to the post office today, I passed the Police station in town here. I quickly noticed that one of the patrol cars was in the lot with its radar on. I am unsure of the make/model of the radar but every time I have encountered this patrol car it is transmitting Ka 35.5 c/o. The patrol car was parked parallel to the road I was driving on facing the same direction I was traveling. I picked up a strong signal that quickly faded once I rounded a slight left hand curve in the road. I didn't think much of it since I was traveling away from the patrol car. Upon leaving the Post office I decided to check this out traveling head on towards the patrol. The post office is approx. 3/4 mile from the Police station and I expected that I would see something almost immediately, however I did not. Once I rounded this same slight curve, I picked up a strong Ka signal almost instantly and reset my trip meter. I clocked exactly .4 mile to the patrol car and had it been parked on the street would have had line of site to it. Seems a little short to me! BTW the 9500ix was set to highway mode and I was approaching a locked out location of a K band signal.


1) Does this sound normal or is there something potentially wrong with this detector?

2)Is off axis Ka detection really that bad on 35.5?

3)If the answer to #2 is yes, has anyone experimented with a slight modification of the bellmouth of the radar receiver internally in the detector to improve off axis detection?

Any info/insight into this will be greatly appreciated!

[V1 on the go]

What part of IL do you live in. 35.5 ka band is very hard to pickup espescailly off axiss.

[yamaha1]

What part of IL do you live in. 35.5 ka band is very hard to pickup espescailly off axiss.

I live north of Rockford, about 10 miles south of the Wisconsin border. The "village" is called Roscoe, right next to Rockton.

[snoopyc4]

Here's the situation:

On my way to the post office today, I passed the Police station in town here. I quickly noticed that one of the patrol cars was in the lot with its radar on. I am unsure of the make/model of the radar but every time I have encountered this patrol car it is transmitting Ka 35.5 c/o. The patrol car was parked parallel to the road I was driving on facing the same direction I was traveling. I picked up a strong signal that quickly faded once I rounded a slight left hand curve in the road. I didn't think much of it since I was traveling away from the patrol car. Upon leaving the Post office I decided to check this out traveling head on towards the patrol. The post office is approx. 3/4 mile from the Police station and I expected that I would see something almost immediately, however I did not. Once I rounded this same slight curve, I picked up a strong Ka signal almost instantly and reset my trip meter. I clocked exactly .4 mile to the patrol car and had it been parked on the street would have had line of site to it. Seems a little short to me! BTW the 9500ix was set to highway mode and I was approaching a locked out location of a K band signal.


1) Does this sound normal or is there something potentially wrong with this detector?

2)Is off axis Ka detection really that bad on 35.5?

3)If the answer to #2 is yes, has anyone experimented with a slight modification of the bellmouth of the radar receiver internally in the detector to improve off axis detection?

Any info/insight into this will be greatly appreciated!

for question 2, Ka 35.5 radar is extremely hard to detect when off axis. Alot of LEOs in Houston use it. The radar company that makes that radar is called Kustom Signals and it projects a very narrow stream of radar, so LEOs sitting on a side street can use it to detect speeders as they pass the front of the police car. If u ever pick up 35.5, be very cautious because it could be coming from a side street

[dpatel01]

I think of 35.5 Ka alerts like laser scatter.. if you get the alert, the LEO isn't far away or far off your path so act accordingly.

[yamaha1]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Apparently, Ka 35.5 must not spread out as much as some of the others.

I guess that pretty much answers the first two questions then and renders the third pointless. I've been away from RD's for quite a few years and have to relearn everything (and more with the new technology now).

Thanks!!

[MEM-TEK]

Here's the situation:

On my way to the post office today, I passed the Police station in town here. I quickly noticed that one of the patrol cars was in the lot with its radar on. I am unsure of the make/model of the radar but every time I have encountered this patrol car it is transmitting Ka 35.5 c/o. The patrol car was parked parallel to the road I was driving on facing the same direction I was traveling. I picked up a strong signal that quickly faded once I rounded a slight left hand curve in the road. I didn't think much of it since I was traveling away from the patrol car. Upon leaving the Post office I decided to check this out traveling head on towards the patrol. The post office is approx. 3/4 mile from the Police station and I expected that I would see something almost immediately, however I did not. Once I rounded this same slight curve, I picked up a strong Ka signal almost instantly and reset my trip meter. I clocked exactly .4 mile to the patrol car and had it been parked on the street would have had line of site to it. Seems a little short to me! BTW the 9500ix was set to highway mode and I was approaching a locked out location of a K band signal.


1) Does this sound normal or is there something potentially wrong with this detector?

2)Is off axis Ka detection really that bad on 35.5?

3)If the answer to #2 is yes, has anyone experimented with a slight modification of the bellmouth of the radar receiver internally in the detector to improve off axis detection?

Any info/insight into this will be greatly appreciated!

The M4 antenna used inside your 9500ix has good off-axis response to 35.5 Ka radar up to about 15 degrees off-axis. The funny thing is that virtually all radar detectors have virtually the same sudden falloff in sensitivity beyond 15 degrees off-axis. The Valentine V1, unfortunately, has an even deeper drop in 35.5 sensitivity beyond just 10 degrees off-axis. This is exactly why everyone hates encountering 35.5 Ka band radar. So in short...

-- I hate 35.5 with a passion.

-- Everybody else hates 35.5 with a passion.

-- 35.5 gets more readily absorbed by moisture in our atmosphere. This makes you hate 35.5 even more! This also would make cops hate 35.5 too, but they also know that Cobra radar detectors have extreme difficulty detecting 35.5 Ka radar. This is why cops like to say to ticketed motorists, "Radar detectors don't work."

-- 35.5 Ka is a harmonic of the LO frequencies used in a variety of radar detectors. Three manufacturers, Bel/Escort, Whistler, and Valentine, have patents for detecting this radar frequency rather well yet while ignoring false alerts caused by other radar detectors. Cobra, unfortunately, is left in the dark since all the good electronics solutions for adequately detecting 35.5 Ka without falsing to other radar detectors have already been patented.

-- One of the best radar antennas for detecting 35.5 Ka off-axis was the older "S7" antenna platform used in older Bel/Escort RD models.

Well, there you have it!

[stlcardsfan]

My last 35.5 on the ix was .4 miles straightaway in plain view. Were talking a top of the line detector and less than a half mile of detection.

[MEM-TEK]

My last 35.5 on the ix was .4 miles straightaway in plain view. Were talking a top of the line detector and less than a half mile of detection.

I bet that it was a very humid day.

[kuba]

35.5 is hard but I think my 9500i performs pretty well on it. I didn't know this when i used my pro 78 (no spec mode) but everything in my area is 35.5. I haven't had any 34.7 except a ka speed sign. Just today I had an about .4mi detection on a huge curve on the high way. This was one of my weakest detections but still gave me time to slow down since i was doing about 13ish over. On the other hand I've had really good detections. Couple weeks ago I had I/O 35.5 on a hilly and tree dense road (but straight). I got about .7mi. Just play the curves smart and its all good.