Brick's V1 Junk Alert Theory (A little 'out there' )

[brick]

I had kind of a strange thought today. What are the odds that this false alarm guard problem has always existed but we didn't know about it until it became part of the user interface? As far as I know the filtering scheme hasn't actually changed. What's changed is that some alerts get through before a signal is fully processed. Makes sense, right? What else would they have done to it? So this could have been going on in the background without anybody even knowing it. Where the POP units are alerting and then cancelling the signal, a non-POP unit that works the same way would just stay silent. Or, if it's a range thing, it might alert for a while and then just stop when you came within closer range of the gun. That might be visual distance, it might not. In that case it would look just like instant on. These days it isn't all that out of place to see a trooper parked but not running radar.

I'm not trying to start a fire storm here, as I don't know everything. There might be other factors at work that only the VR engineers know about. But isn't this totally plausible? Especially considering that the effect that we're seeing is pretty rare to begin with?

[RacerX]

Hey, i keep an open mind when it comes to ideas like this.
You could be on to something.
Seeing as this has been reported with several revisions and i believe the "J"unk feature is fairly new. The addendum that came with mine has a revised date of 10/29/04.
Prioir to this it would have been all done internally without user notification and now it has a setting that enables user notification.
Good thoughts.

[edweird]

Based only on my use of an older version of sw, I can't really recall a strong signal alert just disappearing, when I thought I should be getting one.

In L mode there are weak signals that will then mute. In A mode most signals will build in strength, the side arror lights up, followed by the rear before they die out. In l mode, the lights come on some before it gets loud.

I'm holding off on a PoP2 + Euro for $75 upgrade until it seems like some of the questions folks have with the latest options and sw are answered.

Ed

[Arvetus]

I have 3.813. Brick, you may be well on to something with this theory. I get false Ka alerts, but 9 times out of 10, they're a cheapie detector setting them off, and they usually alert to the rear as someone is coming up behind me. But in fairness, the Ka falses don't happen all that often. So the Ka false alarm guard problem does exist on prior firmware versions. I don't have the "junk" feature, so if I get a false Ka alert from a junk detector, I'm left up to my own discretion to seek out the source and then choose to ignore it or not. Which, my first course of action is to do a speed check, and then seek out the source.

This should be everybody's course of action...however, I see the concern with it not working properly and "junking" out a real threat. If I could make a suggestion to Valentine Research, I would say, leave the false alarm guard on, but take off the "junk" auto-mute, and leave the decision up to the operator as to whether to ignore it or mute it themselves.

I'm still debating on whether I want to update to the latest and "greatest." But I'm leaning more towards waiting through another couple firmware updates. I like how my detector works. It works great. Would I like POP capability? Absolutely! I would like the faster sweeps that it does, it might even make plain ole instant-on a bit easier to detect. But I'm also wary about it junking out a real threat. Not that it would be a big deal, because I would still do a speed check. I am just somewhat of a perfectionist and would prefer things to work properly. The K-band muting problem I could care less about because I don't use it, but the junking problem...yeah, that's a problem for me.

[RoadKillDave]

I sold my older 2003 era V1 1.8 on ebay for $350.00 and just got my new V3.824 V1. I hope I didn't make a mistake. I really like the performance of the old one but wanted all the lastest features.