1/4mile k band detection good for rx65?????

[NRTrackChamp2004]

Ok, i've been questioning my radar detectors purformance for some time now for some reason, not really sure why, but..... I have a beltronics rx65. This morning I am coming to school, i turn down this pretty staight road, and get k band, I look at my mileage. My detector keeping getting stronger, and I pass the cop after about .3 miles. How good is this? The cop was coming toward me driving the speed limit (55mph) So I know I probably got a detection farther than .3 miles. But I just would like to know if this is normal or whatever.

Also another question, can a radar gun pick up my radar very far away? Like if my detector say its a 2/9 on K band could the LEO still be picking up my speed? At what point would you say the gun has got your speed?

Thank you!

[amoney]

I assume this is a two lane road (no median) and no traffic. Then that would be poor performance, even with the officer traveling at you at 55 mph. But you still have to leave room for the possibility that the officer just turned onto that road, perhaps he just turned it on. Depending upon conditions, if you are within one mile you are fair game.

[Radar Roy]

Well you said one thing, you turned down the road and started getting the alert.

I would assume that at this point the officers radar gun was pointed in your direction? And you didn't see him till a .3 mile later.

A couple things could be happening here.

1: He has a hand held and the gun was not on the dash, but on the seat or floor

2: Once you were both facing the same direction, you were able to pick up the signal

[f_399]

you should get much more then that fo K band. I know my 8500 gets more than that

i guess it also varies on environment and the situation

[AirMoore]

Your alert was .6miles which isnt all bad... however I would expect more out of the detector. (You said you passed him at .3 miles and he was coming at you)... so you figure twice the distance (yours speed and his).


Again though: He could have just turned on the road like you, or as Roy stated he may have had the unit on the seat or floor... significantly decreasing detection range.

[Rottman]

Where did you get your 65 from? Roy? Ebay?

[Stalcar]

I get heaps more with my RX65, even if the car is around the corner, but as Roy mentioned if he had a handheld sitting on the seat may be not, I have had over 3 (1.8miles)kms on a moving mode radar and 1km+ on a Ka unit facing the opposite direction, I love the way my 65 works. My V1 I don't use that often as it's in the toy car that gets driven rarely. But when I do it works as good.

[Rottman]

I get heaps more with my RX65, even if the car is around the corner, but as Roy mentioned if he had a handheld sitting on the seat may be not, I have had over 3 (1.8miles)kms on a moving mode radar and 1km+ on a Ka unit facing the opposite direction, I love the way my 65 works. My V1 I don't use that often as it's in the toy car that gets driven rarely. But when I do it works as good. That's why I asked where he got it, mine was like his. But it was an Ebay RX 65, but after GOL tests, we see what a difference there can be in the same unit. :shock: :(

[NRTrackChamp2004]

well it is a rx 65 off ebay, which could be the problem. (which is why i've been questioning my detectors performance. As for more information about my scenario, it was just a 2 lane country road. Where the road is, I'm guessing the cop had came around the curve of the road and thats when I first got it. Me personally, i think it was pretty good detection, or atleast enough to low down if I had been speeding. Thats why I asked how far radar could pick up the speed (like how powerful would the detection be on my detector, between the 1-9 and what not?)

[Rottman]

well it is a rx 65 off ebay, which could be the problem. Same type of performance issues I had with mine.

[amoney]

well it is a rx 65 off ebay, which could be the problem. (which is why i've been questioning my detectors performance. As for more information about my scenario, it was just a 2 lane country road. Where the road is, I'm guessing the cop had came around the curve of the road and thats when I first got it. Me personally, i think it was pretty good detection, or atleast enough to low down if I had been speeding. Thats why I asked how far radar could pick up the speed (like how powerful would the detection be on my detector, between the 1-9 and what not?)

To further clarify your last question, like I said before, depending upon conditions, anything up to a mile you are fair game for the officer. Thats is, legaly speaking, he the officer can visualy see you and id your car (easier if your the only one on the road). The radar gun could probably get a reading even a bit further (we are talking on hell of a strieght road), but again the legality of the ticket at that distance would be in question. The officer needs to see what the hell he is clocking and that he is clocking it correctly. And again because of conditions and other variance your RD does not have to be necessarily full strentgh when you right on top of the LEO or approaching. Particularly if the LEO is useing moving radar.

[Stalcar]

I get heaps more with my RX65, even if the car is around the corner, but as Roy mentioned if he had a handheld sitting on the seat may be not, I have had over 3 (1.8miles)kms on a moving mode radar and 1km+ on a Ka unit facing the opposite direction, I love the way my 65 works. My V1 I don't use that often as it's in the toy car that gets driven rarely. But when I do it works as good. That's why I asked where he got it, mine was like his. But it was an Ebay RX 65, but after GOL tests, we see what a difference there can be in the same unit. :shock: :(

Yes, see what you mean here davekr, ebay sellers giving the RX65 a crappy name, with there iffff ones.

[Stalcar]

Might organise a test with my V1 & RX65,against the Silver Eagle/Falcon & Prolaser I have and see what I get .

[microbb]

I've been using detectors since the FuzzBuster days and recently purchased an RX65 from an authorized re-seller to replace an Escort 7500, not the "S" version. After the first two encounters against moving constant on K-band I was not impressed, seemed equal to the 7500. So I found two separate K-band doors openers to test against, and the RX65 & 7500 are neck & neck. Checked the door openers freq in Tech Mode and registered 24.151GHz. The RX65 is being run w/ POP on, Ka=USA, HWY mode.

Later had two more moving encounters and am still not impressed. All four encounters were with different agencies and around curves. Two in 50mph zones & two in 35mph zones where I was not over the PSL, and ended up not even having a chance to reset the trip-dometer before we were eyeball to eyeball.

Detector is correctly mounted high and level just below the tint line. Just to check out all possibilties, I even tested the tint with a handheld pulse induction metal detector probe.

I live in a mountainous heavily forested area with lots of hills and curves, so the tests that have been performed by SML in Texas, Peterson in Colorado and those in Arizona are a complete farce. I found the tests performed by GOL to have very limited value, and those performed by the car magazines at the "Chrysler Proving Grounds" to be laughable.

A "real world" test where I live, is on narrow two lane roads over hills and around curves where the heavy forestation absorbs scatter. Buildings/houses are widely spaced and set back from the road by several hundred feet, and offer very little reflective help. How many tests have you seen on the web or in magazines under these conditions? Wonder why, give it a little thought, you won't see references to 2000ft cone positions in next months magazine ads after such a test.

I believe two detectors I have owned in the past would easily best the current two on K-band, the original Escort from CM and the Whistler Spectrum 2. I have not tried a V1 but almost all posted data shows the RX65 & X50 to be within 10% or so. But once again the tests available have very little validity in relation to my geography.

So if anyone has done any testing of the RX65 in heavily forested areas on K-band, I'd sure like to hear about it, because I am very underwhelmed so far.

microbb

[amoney]

So if anyone has done any testing of the RX65 in heavily forested areas on K-band, I'd sure like to hear about it, because I am very underwhelmed so far.

He buddy, did you check out GOL test last month, it has all that and more!

http://www.guysoflidar.com/testjan06.html

[microbb]

Yes I did see it and thank you for the link. But the testers ended up in a situation where they had to punt, simply because the geography didn't allow them to have a long enough distance to set up properly. I won't go into the probably 10 or so other issues with the setup that can affect it's accuracy, but the major one is the angling the radar units across the road. This creates a major problem with what are known as side lobes. All microwave feedhorns/antennas create them as can be seen on P.15 of this document. http://www.ottery.com/Handbook/Speedar-log-vision-disp.PDF#search='microwave%20horn%20lobes%2024ghz'

That drawing is a very simplistic representation of the side lobes. If you could put on special glasses that would let you see what's coming out of the feedhorn, it would look like a porcupine with his quills raised. The side lobes vary in length and thickness which means the signal strength varies.

Therefore the any slight variance in radar gun position or detector position can cause the detector to be at the tip of a side lobe(high signal strength) or deep in a valley(low signal strength). This is not so much of an issue when approaching the guns in more of a dead on nature, as the main signal beam is usually much stronger. The manufacturer in the link tries to keep the side lobes 24dB weaker than the main beam. The main beam of this gun at the -3dB half power point is only 13 degrees wide. The angle of the radar vehicle in the photo of the GOL 2006 test looks much greater than 6.5 degrees to me, figuring half the width off the center line of the gun's feedhorn and assuming most K band guns will have a similar beamwidth. i.e. the Kustom Falcon used has a 12 degree beam width with side lobes 25dB weaker. http://www.pbelectronics.com/custimages/falcon_specs2.jpg

The GOL testers were between a rock and a hard place making the best they could of a bad situation. However, there's no guarantee the detectors were not being driven in and out of the side lobe's peaks and valleys creating invalid data. And as they state at the onset of their test " it was very straight and flat course about 3000 feet long. " Not exactly the type of terrain I was looking for data from.

microbb

[NRTrackChamp2004]

ok well, today driving to school, i got what I would call good range. I as coming down this road (city road, kinda) but there were two cars in front of me when it first went off we was running about 40 in a 35, so i slowed down just in case. Well coming to an intercestion and a slight curve, i saw the cop having someone pulled over over 200m down the road. I'm not sure how far it was, but I impressed with it, plenty of time to slow down it had to. I would have gone back and checked the distance but I didnt want to be late for school. But I'm now confindant in my radar detectors ability. But i'm always weary when driving.

[amoney]

Yes I did see it and thank you for the link. But the testers ended up in a situation where they had to punt, simply because the geography didn't allow them to have a long enough distance to set up properly. I won't go into the probably 10 or so other issues with the setup that can affect it's accuracy, but the major one is the angling the radar units across the road. This creates a major problem with what are known as side lobes. All microwave feedhorns/antennas create them as can be seen on P.15 of this document. http://www.ottery.com/Handbook/Speedar-log-vision-disp.PDF#search='microwave%20horn%20lobes%2024ghz'

That drawing is a very simplistic representation of the side lobes. If you could put on special glasses that would let you see what's coming out of the feedhorn, it would look like a porcupine with his quills raised. The side lobes vary in length and thickness which means the signal strength varies.

Therefore the any slight variance in radar gun position or detector position can cause the detector to be at the tip of a side lobe(high signal strength) or deep in a valley(low signal strength). This is not so much of an issue when approaching the guns in more of a dead on nature, as the main signal beam is usually much stronger. The manufacturer in the link tries to keep the side lobes 24dB weaker than the main beam. The main beam of this gun at the -3dB half power point is only 13 degrees wide. The angle of the radar vehicle in the photo of the GOL 2006 test looks much greater than 6.5 degrees to me, figuring half the width off the center line of the gun's feedhorn and assuming most K band guns will have a similar beamwidth. i.e. the Kustom Falcon used has a 12 degree beam width with side lobes 25dB weaker. http://www.pbelectronics.com/custimages/falcon_specs2.jpg

The GOL testers were between a rock and a hard place making the best they could of a bad situation. However, there's no guarantee the detectors were not being driven in and out of the side lobe's peaks and valleys creating invalid data. And as they state at the onset of their test " it was very straight and flat course about 3000 feet long. " Not exactly the type of terrain I was looking for data from.

microbb

Great now we have to invaidate all the data and now we are back to square one regarding QC performing better then its twin. Just kidding. :D

I understand what you are saying, and your added info is greatly healpfull and appreciated. I just saw your question regarding in a wooded area and I thys referenced GOL lasted test. A test trying to set up the most difficult situation and see how the RD would perform.

Now taking that data and your information, we can combine the two and at least say that even for the minimum performing RD, they actually did a great job, and if in a more real threat setup, we would expect even better performance.