NorCal--K blasts and Pinky's Pizza

**Venusian_Artist** · 08-08-2008, 08:33 PM

I grew up in the Bay Area, but have been living in Portland for the last few years, and got my first radar detector up in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm down in the Bay Area this weekend and have been getting blasted by K-band on highways 13 and 24. My V1 will be totally quiet, and then out of nowhere, tilts on full bars for a few seconds of K, and then goes totally quiet.

It looks very much like an instant-on blast from close proximity, but there's no cop to be seen anywhere, and word is the CHP only uses Ka.

Also, I got a strong Ka band blast when I passed a BART train on the 24. Anybody experience these falses and have an idea what's up? The K-band is not automatic doors, it's got to be a drone or speed flow monitor, but it's a much stronger signal than the ones in the Northwest.

Lastly, anybody in the region who wants to party or hang out, come down to Pinky's Pizza in Walnut Creek this weekend. They're closing their doors after thirty-plus years in business at the end of the month; I'm friends with the owner Tom, and will be there off and on. Just ask for James. Later

**djrams80** · 08-09-2008, 04:55 PM

The Ka band alert I have no idea about. The K band alerts however are the traffic monitoring radar guns that are fixed along just about every freeway in the Bay area and in Ventura County here in SoCal. Those suck and are exactly why I use my 9500i when I travel to the Bay area instead of my V1. Those full blast K band alerts were giving me a heart attack.

They are used to run systems like this:

Sigalert.com - Bay Area Traffic Report

Here's one I took a picture of a while back.

**Venusian_Artist** · 08-09-2008, 08:12 PM

Thanks for the confirmation. I figured it was something like that. Those suckers put out a strong signal.

And yes, when I first encountered one on highway 13, I just about gave birth on the spot. I thought I'd been tagged doing 20 over PSL, and was just looking for the lights to signal the pull to the right.

The Ka alert near BART could have been legit. But for a moment, I was thinking it was like the K-band radar on tractor speed systems, that help give a more accurate reading even when the tires are spinning. BART doesn't have tires, but I could still see some sort of utility involved; maybe Ka-band radar that sets off the lighted signs at the stations as the train pulls through the target area, with a calculated arrival time somewhere in the scenario.

**djrams80** · 08-10-2008, 10:33 PM

If they're just at the right moment, they scare the bejezus out of you. I got one of those crazy strong K band blasts just as I peaked a small hill. Thought I was smoked!

**Phillip559** · 08-10-2008, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by djrams80

The Ka band alert I have no idea about. The K band alerts however are the traffic monitoring radar guns that are fixed along just about every freeway in the Bay area and in Ventura County here in SoCal. Those suck and are exactly why I use my 9500i when I travel to the Bay area instead of my V1. Those full blast K band alerts were giving me a heart attack.

They are used to run systems like this:

Sigalert.com - Bay Area Traffic Report

Here's one I took a picture of a while back.

Dj Rams, I'm pretty sure it would be rather difficult to lock out those k band drones. They emit radar in intervals and are rather hard to predict. PLus, they are littered all over virtually every freeway.

When I lived in the bay and found that k band automuting on the V1 was quite efficient at handling the problem.

**djrams80** · 08-11-2008, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by Phillip559

Dj Rams, I'm pretty sure it would be rather difficult to lock out those k band drones. They emit radar in intervals and are rather hard to predict. PLus, they are littered all over virtually every freeway.

It's taken me a while, but I've done a pretty good job of it using my 9500i. I go to the Bay area quite a bit and rarely get any alerts from these things on my 9500i anymore. I don't know how well the autolearn will do on these things though. Probably not very well. It's probably a manual Truelock only job.

Originally Posted by Phillip559

When I lived in the bay and found that k band automuting on the V1 was quite efficient at handling the problem.

I have full K band automute on my V1, running in small L mode. It works decently, but I found that if I was right under one these things when it went off, it went off at full blast and at full volume! It sounds exactly like a point blank, I/O K band blast. I'd say automute worked on 80 - 90% of them, at least for me, but those 10 - 20% were a mother f**ker.

**Phillip559** · 08-11-2008, 01:59 PM

Strange

If you have k band muting enabled, run in either of the logic modes, and adjust the muted volume, it should work 100% of the time.

It will always mute for the allotted time and then unmute.

I recommend running the muted volume at a slightly audible level. You begin to tune the instant blasts out. However, if for some reason there was a legitimate k band source on the freeway (as you have shown in your LA videos), you would still have a heads up and be able to hear it ramp up. It might not work for everyone but it does for me since I'm pretty attentive.

**djrams80** · 08-11-2008, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Phillip559

Strange

If you have k band muting enabled, run in either of the logic modes, and adjust the muted volume, it should work 100% of the time.

It will always mute for the allotted time and then unmute.

I recommend running the muted volume at a slightly audible level. You begin to tune the instant blasts out. However, if for some reason there was a legitimate k band source on the freeway (as you have shown in your LA videos), you would still have a heads up and be able to hear it ramp up. It might not work for everyone but it does for me since I'm pretty attentive.

I have mine set up rear K muted, 30 sec K band mute and The ones that came in at the muted volume were no big deal. The ones that came in at full volume were the sucky ones. Do you have E or F down? Maybe I need to go F down or something.

**Montu** · 08-11-2008, 03:50 PM

My 9500ix doesn't do very good Auto Locking them and they're usually so quick and unpredictable that I never really get the chance to lock them out manually :-/
Some times I feel like turning K off....Since I've never seen a CHP or local Leo use K

**Venusian_Artist** · 08-16-2008, 02:06 PM

I ended up just killing x and k band in the V1 itself for the duration of my stay. I took a bit of a chance driving to and from Monterey, but the highways are so congested in the Bay Area, I rarely went faster than the flow of traffic. Had a couple of Ka saves, though.