Ah the Irony

*****Now, before this turns into a bash the Crapra thread, I know it's a crap detector. That's why I have my v955 and 8500. This is an excercise in intellectual curiosity. *******


So, as some of you may have read in the Cobra forum (I don't blame you if you didn't), I just received a new XRS-9940 as a replacement for a 9930 I sent into Cobra b/c it had begun throwing falses.

Well, hooked up the new detector this morning just to see if Cobra had done anything new. :p I'm pretty sure my v955 gave me a dirty look when I took it down. Anyway, it's doing the same thing that the 9930 that I sent in was doing. In the irony of all ironies, it alerted to Ka about 6-7 times in an eight mile trip down an urban interstate corridor. Now, I've driven this particular stretch with a non x50 8500 and my v955 as recently as yesterday. No Ka. And in the 9930 I had in the wife's car until I sent it in did not start doing this until about a month ago.

So, my question is this: What could the Cobra be alerting to (besides other Cobras?) that is tripping up Ka so much? Why would it have JUST started recently? Why aren't the Belscorts alerting to it? I mean, obviously b/c they are better, but....I've never heard of so many Ka falses from anything other than Cobras themselves!:p

i think they must have timers to alert to Ka ever so often so the owners will think they work

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hockey005

i think they must have timers to alert to Ka ever so often so the owners will think they work

---

Yeah, just send it back so they can fix the timer. Once it alerts just a few times a day you will be all set.


But in all honesty, maybe it could be alerting to itself. If cobras leak Ka then maybe that is getting reflected back at itself somehow. Not sure if this will work but you could try putting the other RD up at the same time and seeing if the Ka goes off both at the same time, confirming that the Ka is indeed coming from the Cobra.

Nah, I don't think it's coming from the Cobra, really. It actually seems to be a signal as I remember now that the signals the 9930 was getting were in the same places. But what could be causing so many Ka alerts and only on the Cobras? Could it be misidentifying another frequency as Ka? The DOT did recently install some new solar powered equipment on some of the interstate signs. But I have no idea what it was. We've had those post mounted traffic monitoring radars for a while, but they've never caused falses.

a rd falsing on its self..wow lol

does that unit come with pop mode, if so can you turn it off. would kind of suck if it had pop but you couldnt turn it off

I would say to turn POP off also. It seems to do the trick with most other RD's.

-SuperSalad

My theory is this, the Bels have very good filtering. I am thinking that the Cobra is picking up a junk signal that the Bel is filtering out. Probably nothing wrong with the Cobra just poor filtering.

i had a RX55. everyday i drive past a store with a K band door opener, if my RX55 was in Highway it would alert to Ka every time but in Automode it would alert to K band.

couldnt figure out why

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ck15

does that unit come with pop mode, if so can you turn it off. would kind of suck if it had pop but you couldnt turn it off

---

Nah, I always have POP off on my detectors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by focalcivic

My theory is this, the Bels have very good filtering. I am thinking that the Cobra is picking up a junk signal that the Bel is filtering out. Probably nothing wrong with the Cobra just poor filtering.

---

That's what I was thinking. But I didn't think that the vectors really had any filtering... Maybe it's something on the edge of the Ka band???

The fact that it's only happening on or within a block of the interstate really makes me wonder if it's some sort of new traffic monitoring equipment or something.....given the fact that the 9930 didn't start going haywire until about the time that the DOT guys wrapped up their work.... But what could they have possibly installed that would have caused this, given they'd already put up traffic radar long ago...... Anyone else seen freeway signs with solar panels sandwiched between them lately? Maybe I'll go take a pic...

[quote=bkrell;426014]Nah, I always have POP off on my detectors.




That's what I was thinking. But I didn't think that the vectors really had any filtering... Maybe it's something on the edge of the Ka band???


I don't think that is possible, totally different freqs, I will defer to the professor.

Ah, never mind my prattling on about some new Ka soure, I figured out what's going on-Cobra quality control plain and simple. This brand new 9940 is misidentifying K for Ka. It dawned on me when I took it on a shopping trip today and the thing gave Ka alerts everytime I went near a door opener.... Unless there are some new Ka door openers I haven't heard about.....:p

So I boxed it up and sent Cobra support a nasty gram and plan to follow up tomorrow before I ship this shiny paperweight off.

Lol, okay, I know no one really cares, but for the one or two people who are following, here's the latest. I spoke with a general cust. service rep at Cobra this morn. I explained the situation. She told me that she was of the opinion that nothing was wrong with my detector, because "K never falses on Cobras." I told her while yes, it was true, my Cobra seemed "more focused on the road than on off axis" ;) that I never received non-stop Ka falses before, and that the unit I had sent in had started to do that and the unit I received as a replacement did that out of the box. I related that I had gone to several reliable K falses and all of them were now falsing Ka. She then gave me a direct line to the techs and told me to call them after 9 am, when they get in.

Okay, final update, evidentially, before I throw this thing up on fleabay. I spoke with the tech guy. I described the situation to him. His response was that there was obviously a signal there or it wouldn't be falsing. I inquired about the fact that the detector was misidentifying K for Ka. He said that well, the frequencies are so narrow that it's not uncommon for them to be misidentified. Well, I asked why my 9930, the "detector" that I had originally sent in, didn't begin this behavior until recently and haad been pretty false-free up until a month or so ago? He replied that maybe it was a problem with the 9930.... In fairness, he told me to take another week, seeing how the unit behaved, and then maybe call back if the detector appeared to be randomly falsing. But he said he wasn't really thinking it was a cause for concern if the unit was giving alerts, just on another frequency. I asked him if there was a way to reset the unit. He said no. He then asked if I had POP on. I told him no. He then reiterated I should just maybe wait a week.

Well, I'm not. The only reason I am even fooling with this is b/c the wifey is not happy with the Escort 8500. She liked the relative blindness of the Cobra b/c it had such poor off-axis that it wasn't getting any falses. But, either it began going screwy (as well as the new one) or the weather is just amplifying off axis signals....which doesn't make sense b/c I would think in the summer heat and humidity the opposite would happen..... But I didn't get the original Cobra until the end of last summer so I can't really say it didn't behave that way in high heat....

I know I'm rambling and I am worrying too much about this stupid Cobra, but crap, you'd think any detector wouldn't be crazy right outta the box.....The tech guy certainly doesn't think so.....

^ Ow.. And you would think the new ones were much more improved.. It does look nice uh?

Well, I tell ya. I'm starting to believe him. I got a chance to try some C/O K today and the unit did pretty good. Can't say it was as good as my 955 ;) But...maybe he was right, and the xrs-9930 I had was a dud and this 9940 is working, with "normal" behavior of these units to false a tad more... Truthfully it hasn't been that bad since my 1 experience where it was going crazy on Ka. I even went to some K door openers and it id'd them rigt. I also turned off X for good measure.

Still, as soon as I'm done dorking around, the 955 is going back up...:D

I can't believe so many have overlooked the obvious here.

Finally we have proof that the Cobra is better than other detectors, specifically the 8500 and the v955.

I mean, it's obvious the Cobra is picking up radar signals the others can't. Why is that so hard to believe???!

Hopefully that was humor.:p But what's sad, though, is the poor lady in customer service I spoke with yesterday morning was a true believer. When I explained that my 9940 was falsing on Ka in areas that my 8500 and 955 weren't, she said, "Well, you do know different company's detectors react differently, right? And... ours are the best so I can see how they might be picking up extra signals...":o But, I do have to say they were certainly a nice bunch of folks to deal with on he phone. Maybe I will have to buy a CB from them or something....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hockey005

i think they must have timers to alert to Ka ever so often so the owners will think they work

---

lmao

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bkrell

Hopefully that was humor.:p But what's sad, though, is the poor lady in customer service I spoke with yesterday morning was a true believer. When I explained that my 9940 was falsing on Ka in areas that my 8500 and 955 weren't, she said, "Well, you do know different company's detectors react differently, right? And... ours are the best so I can see how they might be picking up extra signals...":o But, I do have to say they were certainly a nice bunch of folks to deal with on he phone. Maybe I will have to buy a CB from them or something....

---

You know, a lot of people talk about V1 zombies, but I think there are Cobra zombies too.

I have been thinking of getting a V1 and I was telling my friend this and he said I should consider looking at Cobra's newest detectors that have GPS or some garbage. When I told him how much I disliked Cobra he said "mine has saved me a lot" or something along those lines.

Those CO saves do miracles for Cobra users.

I mean, that's great and all, and I'm glad he was saved, but still when you can avoid Ka IO or laser, that's an awesome detector. Don't know if the same can be said of Cobras in this regard.

Well, from my experience, if I lived in a world that had flat straight roads and all LEOs used C/O 34.7, a Cobra would be great.:o

I hope GOL is going to test at least one for reference. He who tests radar but must not be named :p turned in some bizarre test results showing they were fine on 35.5 Ka. I find that a tad hard to believe.....

As for teenagers and Cobras, I think y'all might not be looking at it from a parent's perspective. I'd love to give my kids Cobras when they are old enough to drive. I'd tell them, hey, they don't always work on every band or in every situation. That way they could have a cool gadget AND they wouldn't speed.:D