Pro 78 and 2 week business/vacation trip

[Rebel Gent]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading these forums for several months now and have always enjoyed many of the stories told here. I was wondering if I should post the results of a 1,500 trip I took around the 4th of July week and decided, heck, why not...maybe it'll give someone a few minutes amusement.


I had two weeks of vacation tied in with a business trip to OH and Mich, and was looking forward to seeing how my Pro 78 would perform.

My trip started just south of the NC border. I-77 is but 10 minutes from my house, and it was a straight shot north on I-77 to the Cleveland, OH area.

As fate usually has it, whenever I've purchased a new RD, I cannot find a LEO monitoring traffic to save my life. I once drove from Nashville to Detroit without one hit.

It looked to be the same story with this trip, too. Happily, though, I was wrong :0)

As I was tooling along, I knew RD's were frowned upon in either VA or W. VA., but couldn't remember which one it was. I do recall, though, each time you crossed the state line you'd be reminded by a sign that advised you radar detectors were illegal to use in whichever particular state banned them. So, as I crossed over the VA state line, I looked for this sign, and truly didn't see one. So, I thought..."Ok, it must be W. VA that didn't allow RD's" When I crossed the state line for W. VA, guess what? I didn't see the sign there either.

Ooops. . . . .

Apparently I missed the sign in VA.......

As it was, my first hit did come Just as I entered VA at mile marker 15...this was a nasty trap. I didn't get but 3 blips on the RD before finding him hidden in the trees so well you really couldn't see him until you were within spitting distance. This LEO was sitting around a down hill turn and probably had his radar pointed at nearly a 90 degree angle to the road. I never did get anything more than 1 or 2 bars as I passed in front of him. Just as a precaution, when I passed him up, I shut the RD off in the event he noticed I had one hanging on the window....remember, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to run an RD or not in VA. I do remember, though, the Pro 78 had very little leakage, and I know I was out of his sight in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail because of the foliage he was hiding in.

Did the Pro 78 give enough notice? Maybe barely, if one was to immediately respond to the first blip. I was at the PSL when it first alerted so I had nothing to worry about. But if you were waiting for a ramp up, you would have been toast with this trap.

My second encounter came very quickly afterward at MM 25. Again, this time I had only a couple of blips warning before I saw the LEO coast across the median in the turn around lane to begin monitoring traffic going Northbound on I-77. I'm thinking his radar gun was not pointed directly at traffic as he was still positioning himself in the median when I saw him.

I also had my first Laser alert in VA, but did not see a LEO monitoring traffic, so I can only assume this was a false alert.

After staying in Ashtabula OH for the night, I made my way West to Detroit. I was on I-90 when I passed a LEO standing at the back of his car pointing what I believe to be a lidar device down the road at on coming traffic. I did not get any alert with this encounter at all.

After my week's vacation in Mich {The fishing was great! :-0) } and having no encounters while in Mich., I started back home.

Just as a side note, I have traveled and driven through a lot of the US...I wonder which state has the most lax speed enforcement? My vote would be for Mich.

As I traveled through OH, the storied and well known speed enforcement was abundant throughout the state. I encountered an I/O X band in the middle of nowhere and found a trooper waiting patiently for someone to get his attention at MM 173. Another alert at MM 166 sounded when an I/O k band was triggered a few times by a LEO traveling in the opposite direction. A few miles down the road at MM 148 another I/O X-band was employed by a trooper, and then about 100 miles further, my first Ka band experience allowed my Pro 78 to experience every band a LEO uses in just one state.

I wonder how many other states use all four bands....X-band, K-band, Ka-band and laser?

Anyhow, as I passed from OH to KY, I was alerted to a trooper running C/O k band at MM 155, and then about 135 miles later, another trooper running C/O Ka band at MM 16.

My impression of the Pro 78 is that it does a pretty good job with most bands when the radar is right ahead of me, even if hidden by a hill. If I was in a hurry to go somewhere, though, I would be very cautious if I had to travel a winding road. I understand from reading these forums that 35.5 Ka band is the most difficult to detect, and maybe that's what I ran across when I was in VA and only received a couple blips before encountering the LEO. However, the two encounters I had in VA were off axis detection and gave me very little warning. The Pro 78 has yet to prove its mettle with me with this type of radar enforcement.


False alerts were just about non-existent during my travels, which is very important to me. All in all, I am happy with my decision to get the Pro 78. It normally gives me sufficient time to check my speed, but then again I usually only have to lose a few MPH before I am at the PSL.

Ok, I know this is long and wordy. Once my fingers get typing, they don't know when to shut up!

Safe traveling, folks....

Rebel Gent

[Ken_Allen]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading these forums for several months now and have always enjoyed many of the stories told here. I was wondering if I should post the results of a 1,500 trip I took around the 4th of July week and decided, heck, why not...maybe it'll give someone a few minutes amusement.


I had two weeks of vacation tied in with a business trip to OH and Mich, and was looking forward to seeing how my Pro 78 would perform.

My trip started just south of the NC border. I-77 is but 10 minutes from my house, and it was a straight shot north on I-77 to the Cleveland, OH area.

As fate usually has it, whenever I've purchased a new RD, I cannot find a LEO monitoring traffic to save my life. I once drove from Nashville to Detroit without one hit.

It looked to be the same story with this trip, too. Happily, though, I was wrong :0)

As I was tooling along, I knew RD's were frowned upon in either VA or W. VA., but couldn't remember which one it was. I do recall, though, each time you crossed the state line you'd be reminded by a sign that advised you radar detectors were illegal to use in whichever particular state banned them. So, as I crossed over the VA state line, I looked for this sign, and truly didn't see one. So, I thought..."Ok, it must be W. VA that didn't allow RD's" When I crossed the state line for W. VA, guess what? I didn't see the sign there either.

Ooops. . . . .

Apparently I missed the sign in VA.......

As it was, my first hit did come Just as I entered VA at mile marker 15...this was a nasty trap. I didn't get but 3 blips on the RD before finding him hidden in the trees so well you really couldn't see him until you were within spitting distance. This LEO was sitting around a down hill turn and probably had his radar pointed at nearly a 90 degree angle to the road. I never did get anything more than 1 or 2 bars as I passed in front of him. Just as a precaution, when I passed him up, I shut the RD off in the event he noticed I had one hanging on the window....remember, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to run an RD or not in VA. I do remember, though, the Pro 78 had very little leakage, and I know I was out of his sight in 2 shakes of a lambs tail because of the foliage he was hiding in.

Did the Pro 78 give enough notice? Maybe barely, if one was to immediately respond to the first blip. I was at the PSL when it first alerted so I had nothing to worry about. But if you were waiting for a ramp up, you would have been toast with this trap.

My second encounter came very quickly afterward at MM 25. Again, this time I had only a couple of blips warning before I saw the LEO coast across the median in the turn around lane to begin monitoring traffic going Northbound on I-77. I'm thinking his radar gun was not point directly at traffic as he was still positioning himself in the median when I saw him.

I also had my first Laser alert in VA, but did not see a LEO monitoring traffic, so I can only assume this was a false alert.

After staying in Ashtabula OH for the night, I made my way West to Detroit. I was on I-90 when I passed a LEO standing at the back of his car point what I believe to be a lidar device down the road at on coming traffic. I did not get any alert with this encounter at all.

After my week's vacation in Mich {The fishing was great! :-0) } and having no encounters while in Mich., I started back home.

Just as a side note, I have traveled and driven through a lot of the US...I wonder which state has the most lax speed enforcement? My vote would be for Mich.

As I traveled through OH, the storied and well know speed enforcement was abundant throughout the state. I encountered and I/O X band in the middle of nowhere and found a trooper waiting patiently for someone to get his attention at MM 173. Another alert at MM 166 sounded when an I/O k band was triggered a few times by a LEO traveling in the opposite direction. A few miles down the road at MM 148 another I/O X-band was employed by a trooper, and then about 100 miles further, my first Ka band experience allowed my Pro 78 to experience every band a LEO uses in just one state.

I wonder how many other states use all four bands....X-band, K-band, Ka-band and laser?

Anyhow, as I passed from OH to KY, I was alerted to a trooper running C/O k band at MM 155, and then about 135 miles later, another trooper running C/O Ka band at MM 16.

My impression of the Pro 78 is that it does a pretty good job with most bands when the radar is right ahead of me, even if hidden by a hill. If I was in a hurry to go somewhere, though, I would be very cautious if I had to travel a winding road. I understand from reading these forums that 35.5 Ka band is the most difficult to detect, and maybe that's what I ran across when I was in VA and only received a couple blips before encountering the LEO. However, the two encounters I had in VA were off axis detection and gave me very little warning. The Pro 78 has yet to prove its mettle with me with this type of radar enforcement.


False alerts were just about non-existent during my travels, which is very important to me. All in all, I am happy with my decision to get the Pro 78. It normally gives me sufficient time to check my speed, but then again I usually only have to lose a few MPH before I am at the PSL.

Ok, I know this is long and wordy. Once my fingers get typing, they don't know when to shut up!

Safe traveling, folks....

Rebel Gent

SWS Off will give you better Ka range

[cooljay]

Also try Just Filter mode (Not Filter 1 or Filter 2) as that will give you a little bit extra response time.

As for the off axis detection so far my 78 hasn't been too bad on it. I had one K band encounter the other day where a LEO was parked up in the entrance of a school which had a fence, lots of grass etc. grown up so you couldn't see the LEO till you were right up on him in a PSL 25 area, right after a 35 zone. The 78 seemed to do very well in picking him up way within time (first alert till I passed him was roughly 35 seconds) of course this is a very flat and straight road which is usually very empty.

Ka band though setup JUST right on a hill/curve even running C/O can act just like I/O even with some of the big dogs at least from what I've read. Ka is deadly if used right

[VicRod74]

Rebel, thanks for sharing your trip story. It was very entertaining an informative. I'll be hitting the road for vacation myself by the end of July. I'll be using I95 from NY all the way to FL; taking the kids to Disney World . And as you know D.C. and VA are in my path so I'll have to remove my RX65 completely, but I'll be taking notes all of hits I get along the way.

[Ck15]

great review, i also had a long trip recently too to michigan and had only two encounters with police from tx to mi. i have the same feelings about my 78 aswell, but i still have to drive back to texas on saturday

[dmo1028]

SWS Off will give you better Ka range

POP off gives you better Ka range.

SWS off will give the 78 maybe a 1/2 second better reaction to K-band radar.

[AirMoore]

If you travel a lot on main highways and such... I would suggest a CB radio set-up. Even a cheap $100 set-up just to listen in will prove its worth the first trip of that length that you take.

I'd say its a 95% chance that in the two VA encounters... you would have received warnings from truckers before you got to it (most likely miles in advance). Also you could have explained to the truckers you are a 4Wheeler and are inquiring if detectors are legal or not. (Don't give out any more information, other then you are a 4 wheeler).

[Jag42]

Sounds like u ran in to some Ka 35.5. It gives really brief Ka warnings at short distances the full alert about 500 feet from you or so.

[Rebel Gent]

After reading the responses to my trip, I went out at lunch and I've gone and switched from POP off to POP on, and from Filter 2 to just Filter. We'll see how that works for a while.

You know, I did have a CB radio with me on this trip. It has saved me not only from LEO encounters many times, but twice that I can recall, it has saved me from running into complete shut downs on the highways and I was able to exit and detour before getting trapped in the back up. One of these back-ups was over 20 miles long!

However, my CB radio is very old...get this, it's a Hy-Gain with only 23 channels. Up until this trip, it has worked well for me for many years. I wasn't getting any response at all when I looked for a radio check, nor was I hearing any banter during my ride, even with the squelch all the way down. When I looked at the antenna cable leading into the radio, I noticed the wire had pulled free from the coupling, so there wasn't any connection from the radio to the antenna. It looks like a trip to the store for me to get another antenna. I won't talk any more about it here, I recognize this isn't the forum for CB radios.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone,

Rebel

[djrams80]

After reading the responses to my trip, I went out at lunch and I've gone and switched from POP on to POP off, and from Filter 2 to just Filter. We'll see how that works for a while.

You know, I did have a CB radio with me on this trip. It has saved me not only from LEO encounters many times, but twice that I can recall, it has saved me from running into complete shut downs on the highways and I was able to exit and detour before getting trapped in the back up. One of these back-ups was over 20 miles long!

However, my CB radio is very old...get this, it's a Hy-Gain with only 23 channels. Up until this trip, it has worked well for me for many years. I wasn't getting any response at all when I looked for a radio check, nor was I hearing any banter during my ride, even with the squelch all the way down. When I looked at the antenna cable leading into the radio, I noticed the wire had pulled free from the coupling, so there wasn't any connection from the radio to the antenna. It looks like a trip to the store for me to get another antenna. I won't talk any more about it here, I recognize this isn't the forum for CB radios.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone,

Rebel

Yep, you're hooked! You just wasted some of your valuable lunchtime adjusting your RD. That's surely on the list of symptoms somewhere.