First Radar Encounter with iQ

[jochi123]

So I had my first Radar Encounter last night with the Passport iQ, been test driving it for 3days now.
OK so onto my first encounter I was headed East on a 4 lane divided by median city road approaching an intersection which I've previously gotten K-Band falses on from a door opener at the corner CVS store(I have autolearn turned off, I'm a first time RD user and wanted to get experience with some real falses to familiarize myself with how the detector reacts to them).
So I'm about 1000ft from were I have been normally getting the false and I get a K-band alert. The display shows its 24.161 and the signal is weak so I assume it must be the false. As I get closer to the intersection around were I normally get the false, the signal starts ramping, I glance at the display and first thing I notice is there are 2 K-band signals now. The original 24.161 which is now at fluctuating around 50% "rampage?" and the new signal at 24.142 was barely registering on the meter. At this point I'm about midway thru the intersection and the 24.161 signal is hitting max ramp so im thinking this has to be a Local Revenue Collector. I scan the road ahead at a small opening in the median for turning traffic, I spot him South Miami's finest blacked out facing East running C/O K-Band trying to catch speeders headed West I'm assuming. I passed him and was getting a full ramp signal for about a half mile after that then it suddenly cut off.
I decided to run some tests and made a U-turn about a mile from where he was at, as soon as I had my car turned around I had picked up the signal and it ramped to full at about .8 miles from the source. Wanting to see the max range I could pick up the signal at, I turned off the road and got back on about 2 miles from the source. I was traveling at 35mph eying the radar screen at about 1.2 miles I got my first alert, ramp was good it maxed at around .5 miles from the source.
I have a little bit of a sad story to tell that resulted from my testing. So I'm about to pass the officer approaching the same intersection I originally passed heading East (heading West this time) I was going like 10 under the limit trying to ID the cop car. The guy behind me must have got frustrated as he stepped on the gas and switched into the left lane, literally completing the lane change as he passed just a few feet from the cop. As he did this luck would have it that the light changed to yellow, poor guy put the Pedal to the metal when he saw this. I was like no don't do it but it was too late the guy was f'ed, disco lights came on promptly and he got pulled over on the other side of the intersection I saw him pull into the shopping center probably cussing me and the cop out.
So I must say I'm quite pleased with the iQ so far. Is this about average performance that I should expect from it?

[<<JAZZY>>]

Don't be sad if you see red and blues and they aren't behind you. This means that there is one less a**hole to mess with you or write you a ticket.

[nine_c1]

I'll take a 1.2 mile detection any day!

From what I've read, most folks are very pleased with the Radar performance of the iQ. It takes some heat for the nav functions, some people have had laser falsing problems and others complain about volume or washed out display.

While it's not on my hot list of must haves.......I must say, your account of the display showing both the locked out K-Band motion sensor and the active Radar signal makes me drool a bit. Showing both signals, their frequency and segregating real from false is cutting edge technology that has to be admired. I hope that sometime in the future they seperate this display into it's own module so that it can be mounted independant of the "detector" itself. Nav functions should also be another optional module.

In any case, thanks for posting this. A very interesting read!

[KaPro]

1.2 miles is good! You will probably do better (range wise) depending on your surroundings. Smart to leave autolearn off while you learn the ins and outs of the iQ. Maybe you should leave autolearn off all the time, especially since your locals use k band.

[jochi123]

Is it safe to assume that all the South Miami leo's run K band after 2 confirmed K-band run ins? I believe they also use some type of laser unless it was a handheld radar unit. Also was wondering if its normal for door openers to change frequency from day to day.

[nine_c1]

Not necessarily........some departments run a mixed bag of radar units. Ka is the most popular band out there today, and if they don't have it now they eventually will. The FHP run the Stalker 34.7 Ka in any case.

And yes......the micowave transmistters in motion sensors (and real police radar for that matter) will fluctuate a minor amount from day to day with ambient temperature being a factor. However, they usually will NOT fluctuate more than 30mhz (the lockout block bandwidth) once up to normal operating temperature.

Keep in mind that the oscillators inside your detector will vary by a small degree as well and the frequency read out is not 100&#37; accurate.