X50 falling out of tune?

[cooltc2004]

Well I searched and read some topics, and it looks like my RD MIGHT be falling out of tune, I dont know. Im not getting any messages, and its acting normal, until it needs to detect something. Today, grant it was over a small hill, but I only got like 2 seconds of warning on a constant on Ka. The hill wasn't huge, but big enough to hide the cop car. In the past I would have had AT LEAST 4/10 - 6/10 of a mile of warning, I figure I got 2/10 of a mile (generous) this time. I went by a known false, and I only got 1 bar instead of the near full hit I get usually.

Does this sound like its falling out of tune? Or is it just me expecting to much? It was the first real snow of the season, and this IS the first time its happened like this.

Also, if its falling out of tune, how to I go about testing the unit to make sure thats whats happening, and do I send it back to escort if it needs tuning.

[Arashi666]

well if its going out of tune I would assume it would give you a SELF CAL message or something like that

[kpatz]

A way to find out if it may be going out of tune is to put it in Spec Mode, and see if the frequencies seem to be consistently off. Once it drifts far enough it will Self Cal.

Ka is inherently hard to detect, as it's more directional and has a narrower beam than other bands. When people claim 2+ mile Ka detections, it's almost always a straight shot, no curves, hills, etc.

The snow could be scattering the beam some too, especially if it's heavy. Precipitation affects Ka band particularly.

[proudNMAmember]

That's a good idea kpatz, if the frequencies are off using the spec mode, the unit might be off. Thx kpatz!

[cooltc2004]

Ok, I put my unit into spec mode, and this is what I came up with.

It falsed at my usual spot as K band, freq 24.1XX
Falsed again on the way to the freeway @ K:24.0XX
I think it was a cop in the other lanes, but I cant be sure, I saw nothing, but K:24.189

Also got an X on the freeway freq 10.8X

(I put X's in the numbers where I dont remember exactly the freq. On the way home Ill write them down.)

Whats weird is that it didnt false at my freeway usual, which was weird.

/edit: Oh and what list should I be checking these numbers against?

[cooltc2004]

On the way home, here are the readings I got:

X BAND:
10.586
10.522

K BAND:
24.153
24.090
24.122 - This was the CVS

Ka BAND:
34.712 - I think this was a cop, but it was dark outside, and I couldn't see him

plz help

[jimbonzzz]

Those frequencies look pretty typical to me.

More than likely, you just experienced a situation where the detector didn't have a lot of signal to detect. Every radar encounter is different, radar is very directional especially Ka, and if the radar isn't aimed directly at you and into the detector's antenna, it might seem like it has poor range when in fact it is just the situation making it appear that way. This could definitely happen in situations such as steep angles, over hills, etc.

I suggest you drive with it a bit more and see what happens. More than likely you'll eventually experience a situation that gives you impressive detection range. It takes a little while to put your faith and trust into a detector...

[cooltc2004]

Alright, thanks man.

[kpatz]

Like Jimbo said, those frequencies look normal. Falses can be just about any frequency, especially if they're Cobras. Some door openers are tuned to 24.125 instead of 24.150. And 34.7xx is a Stalker Ka radar unit, so that was a LEO most likely.

If you want to see "out of tune", my Stalker ATR reads as 34.820 on my X50.

And to post an example of a situation that leads to limited detection range, here's one from yesterday. I was headed north on the highway, when I spotted a cruiser in the median up ahead, facing me, "guarding" some construction equipment. My V1 started sounding Ka, AFTER I saw the cruiser, maybe 200 yards detection.

Lousy detection range?...

Well, here's the rest of the story. After I passed the cruiser, the signal got much stronger and went full scale. The LEO had his rear antenna on, which was facing away from me when I first saw him. Since the beam was aimed away from me, naturally I would get limited detection. On the other side of the coin, if he was clocking traffic, he wouldn't have clocked me as I was approaching him. More likely he was clocking southbound traffic and I was northbound.

So short detection range doesn't always mean trouble.