Ka and POP within the city, Calgary AB??

[TorqueDog]

I'm a bit confused here. I was 99.9% sure that Calgary LEOs use Laser enforcement, and the Multanova Ka for the stationary photo radar.

However, twice now, I've gotten POP warnings inside the city. (I'm running a Bel STi Driver, brand new.)

First one was turning left from Centre St N to 16th Ave NW. As I was passing the construction, I got a POP warning. Slowed down, couldn't see anything indicative of any LEO using speed enforcement.

Second one, heading westbound on Bow Trail SW towards Sarcee Trail SW. About 200m from the intersection, I get a POP warning. Again, no LEOs in sight.

Also got a Ka warning when sitting at the intersection at 16th Ave N on Centre St N heading southbound. Warning came in from Ka 1 to Ka 3 to Ka 5, then back to 3, then off.

Any other Cowtown drivers getting POP falses in the city? Are these falses even?

[spankyaf]

It's a false.... Turn Pop off

[TorqueDog]

lol, Then how do I detect POP on the highway, Spanky? Does it show up as plain ol' Ka band?

[spankyaf]

Do you really think anyone is using POP in Canada let alone Calgary??

Do you even know what it is??

Trust me Spanky JR has it turned off and so should you.

It's short burst mode that supposed to provide an "estimate" before the Leo gets a proper legal read. Check out the settings by the experienced members on this board....

But if you like hearing POP alerts... hey fill your boots mate

[TorqueDog]

POP is Instant-On, I know that much.

Wasn't aware we don't use it in Canada. Off it goes! (This now means the only thing my Bel is actually detecting is Ka. Everything else is off. LOL.)

[spankyaf]

Yeah its kind of like the SWS warning band used in about 4 counties in the US

No K in Calagry?? I know I've picked it up from the RCMP

[TSi+WRX]

It definitely would serve useful for you to find out if POP is used in your area - but please remember that this scenario is more complicated than just knowing:

For me, the problem is two-fold.

First, is there POP-enabled hardware in your area.

And second, more importantly, is POP actually being actively USED. Just because the hardware is available doesn't mean that it's used. There's proof of this even locally where I live - a near-by township owns the equipment and their officers are trained for it, but, thanks to the ride-along that a fellow Forum member took, it was noted that they confessed to simply never bothering to use that function.

Unfortunately, the only way to really know whether the second concern is valid would be to verify, through a primary source, whether or not POP is in-use. This can understandably be difficult.

[ Note that while having a tandem-vehicle, dual detector scenario (i.e. one car with POP-off, other with POP-on) would rule-out false positives, it cannot conclusively rule-out a false negative (i.e. neither detector reporting POP, but POP actually being used) - the only way to truly ascertain whether POP is in use is to visually identify the equipment, then have a confession from its operator whether POP was used at the moment it was detected. ]

As-such, you have to evaluate your risk-benefit ratio.

With my x50 Rev5, I do get occasional POP falses. They're annoying, and, to an extent, they also make me somewhat desensitized to the alerts. The former is bad and the latter even worse, as it erodes my trust/confidence in the detector.

The problem with why I keep mine on is because there are surrounding locales with POP-enabled equipment in-circulation. I unfortunately cannot rule-out, positively, their use, so I have taken it upon myself to be more cautions - although I'm always debating the true value of my practice, given the falses.

[Zurk]

POP is Instant-On, I know that much.

Wasn't aware we don't use it in Canada. Off it goes! (This now means the only thing my Bel is actually detecting is Ka. Everything else is off. LOL.)

DONT switch it off! we ARE using it in Canada .. at least ON ...ive run across one gold lettered OPP cruiser on the 420 who was definitely using it. it may have been a one - off test run but it was definitely POP and i got hit at 600ft. and no, they dont need to switch to Ka...they can always inform the courts they did, but they dont HAVE to. Keep everything ON expect SWS which is not used. ive seen OPP using K and ive seen X used against me with radar signs (and a cruise conveniently sitting with an officer watching said sign).

[spankyaf]

I dont trust any detector to accurately differentiate between pop and a regular signal.

Did the OPP follow up with a regular signal? Why would the OPP use pop in a jurisdiction where rds are illegal?

Just because it alerts POP doesnt mean it was used on you.

It's a useless feature on a RD and if its a 16ms pop it wont even alert to it.

[TSi+WRX]

I dont trust any detector to accurately differentiate between pop and a regular signal.

+1.

There's so many things that can make POP false, on any of today's top-flight detectors, that it's really not even funny.

And despite the potential threat in my area, I'm still very tempted to turn my alert off - both in that it's causing me to become somewhat de-sensitized to such alerts (and thus decreasing my overall confidence factor in the detector), as well as the fact that "capturing" even a true-POP hit, in the overall grand scenario, remains rather useless in terms of avoiding detection.

Did the OPP follow up with a regular signal?

Even this does not *confirm* POP usage. You could be seeing an initial detector false, reporting true instant-on as POP, while a second signal is truly captured as the band-related instant-on.

This is what I mean by the fact that it's virtually impossible to eliminate the spectre of having a false positive.