Hello!

Hi everyone. I found this forum today and it looks like a ton of great information and a place to share experiences and stories. I'm actually trying to decide between a V1 and 9500xi (leaning towards V1 for better range + arrows).

Info about me:

I'm a radar technician for Stalker Radar. I mainly do radar repairs (all units, including the Spectre RDD), phone support, certifications, and officer and service center training. I don't get to mess with the Lidar much but they're definitely fun to play with, especially the new LR.

Glad to be with you guys and hopefully get a decent radar detector soon! :)

Welcome to the forum! I'm sure you will get lots of questions. Is it still possible to get
an ATR that transmits on 34.2 and/or 35.2 GHz?

GTO_04

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Originally Posted by GTO_04

Welcome to the forum! I'm sure you will get lots of questions. Is it still possible to get
an ATR that transmits on 34.2 and/or 35.2 GHz?

GTO_04

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All of the gunn source assemblies we have are 34.7GHz. From what I recall there were only a few that were off that frequency and should be pretty rare. I haven't seen anything but 34.7GHz ATR units in the 3 years I've been here. Did radar detectors have a problem picking those particular models up?

welcome to the forum

Here's another question that only an insider might be able to answer. Evidently, at some point there was a version of the Stalker ATR that was a "frequency hopper" or "spread spectrum".

There's a reference to it on CopRadar.com:

http://copradar.com/preview/chapt11/ch11d1.html


And here's an old post from rec.autos.driving back in 1992 that referenced the unit:

|> at a ham newsletter (sorry, but I didn't write down the name). One
|> small article concerned a radar gun manufacturer who was seeking FCC
|> permission to develop (and presumably sell) a spread-spectrum radar
|> gun.
|>

Sounds like The Stalker, made by Applied Concepts, Richardson, TX. They
had to get special FCC dispensation to go multi-frequency up in the
Ka wideband. Been around a little over a year here, but more in
beta-testing than in real use - partly because of price. Last we
knew, the frequency was set/changed manually - but that was a year or
so ago and A.C. *was* saying that an auto-hop rig was in the works.
Not saying what change algorithm they were planning...

What's the real story on this gun? How did the "hopping" work: did it hop between several freqs between 34.2 and 35.2, or between specific frequencies? Did it simply have a different freq every time you transmit, or did it actually hop during transmission? Did they sell a lot of units? Why did the model get scrapped?

I'm sure you probably don't have the answer since you weren't there back around 1992 ;) But if you could talk to some of the old-timers and get back to us, that would be great!

I haven't heard of anything as far as auto-hopping. I had our senior tech look at your post (he's been here at least 15 years) but doesn't recall anything like that. I could mention it to one of the original engineers here but I think I know the answer. It was probably dumped because I'd imagine anything we or anyone would do in the Ka spectrum a detector could be made for it. So, it would be waste of money in the end I would imagine. Design radar "a". Design radar detector for radar "a". Design radar "b". Design detector for radar "b", etc.

I did play with throwing the frequency off one of our DSR microwaves but my little Whistler 1778 detected it anyway, so I kind of gave up on the idea of being able to run radar and a radar detector at the same time. :)

Welcome.

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Originally Posted by StalkerRadar

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Originally Posted by GTO_04

Welcome to the forum! I'm sure you will get lots of questions. Is it still possible to get
an ATR that transmits on 34.2 and/or 35.2 GHz?

GTO_04

---

All of the gunn source assemblies we have are 34.7GHz. From what I recall there were only a few that were off that frequency and should be pretty rare. I haven't seen anything but 34.7GHz ATR units in the 3 years I've been here. Did radar detectors have a problem picking those particular models up?

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If a BEL radar detector was operated in Accusweep or USA mode, which blocked out parts of Ka band outside of 33.8, 34.7, or 35.5 GHz (plus/minus 100 MHz) yes it would miss that particular ATR. I was operating my BEL 985 in Accusweep mode and it totally missed the ATR, while my V1 picked it up. Once I turned Accusweep off it did pick up the ATR.

GTO_04

Welcome to the forum. Lots of good information to share.

.

Welcome StalkerRadar. I get shot by your radars fairly often around here as the stateys (NHSP) have 'em. Either the Dual or the DSR, not sure, maybe they have both kinds.

I used to have an ATR which transmitted at closer to 34.9 than 34.7, actually it was around 34.8. Were there older ATRs at 34.9?

On the frequency-hopping/spread-spectrum and tuning issues things...aren't the Gunn diodes in the antennas fixed frequency? There's no way to "tune" or change the frequency of them is there?

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Originally Posted by kpatz

Welcome StalkerRadar. I get shot by your radars fairly often around here as the stateys (NHSP) have 'em. Either the Dual or the DSR, not sure, maybe they have both kinds.

I used to have an ATR which transmitted at closer to 34.9 than 34.7, actually it was around 34.8. Were there older ATRs at 34.9?

On the frequency-hopping/spread-spectrum and tuning issues things...aren't the Gunn diodes in the antennas fixed frequency? There's no way to "tune" or change the frequency of them is there?

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You can tune the frequency on the gunn diodes by basically running a set-screw in and out of the chamber. It can only be tuned so much though, and the diode works best around the frequency it is rated for. I've played around with adjusting them high and low, usually the power drops off and range decreases quite a bit.

About the ATR, it sounds like that one is just a little off frequency. I've never seen any ATR that was pre-set to something other than 34.7GHz. Also, do you know how old that unit is? I'm actually working on an ATR right now that was made in December of 2000. Once I'm done with the flex circuits I'll check the frequency and see what it is, should be 34.7.

Edit: Checked freq, 34.74GHz (within spec)

StalkerRadar, welcome to the forum. It seems like you are really helping out us forum members quit a bit, thanks for the helpful info.

I don't know how old it was, I sold it a year or so ago...

I thought Jimbonzzz (one of the tech gurus here) said one time that the very first ATRs were 34.9, then Stalker changed to, and standardized on 34.7 later on.

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Originally Posted by GreenRadar

StalkerRadar, welcome to the forum. It seems like you are really helping out us forum members quit a bit, thanks for the helpful info.

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No problem at all, I'm happy to help and find all of this stuff very interesting.

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Originally Posted by kpatz

I don't know how old it was, I sold it a year or so ago...

I thought Jimbonzzz (one of the tech gurus here) said one time that the very first ATRs were 34.9, then Stalker changed to, and standardized on 34.7 later on.

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I just spoke to the head of engineering who was in here talking to my supervisor, I asked him about that and here is about what he said. "Like you, I've only been here a couple of years but it is possible some of the earlier models were set to different frequencies and retained the same functionality".

Looks like it is possible, but unfortunately it seems like solid information on that sort of thing is hard to come by here.

Welcome to the forum. Out of curiosity, are the traffic sensors that you guys have been making lately pulsed K-band radar?

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Originally Posted by Woodscolby

Welcome to the forum. Out of curiosity, are the traffic sensors that you guys have been making lately pulsed K-band radar?

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Are you referring to the S3 antennas?

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Originally Posted by StalkerRadar

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Originally Posted by Woodscolby

Welcome to the forum. Out of curiosity, are the traffic sensors that you guys have been making lately pulsed K-band radar?

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Are you referring to the S3 antennas?

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I don't think so. The one I saw was a cube shaped k band radar antenna that appeared to be pulsed. Unless those S3 antennas are cube shaped?

Are you also stalkervision on youtube?

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Originally Posted by Woodscolby

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Originally Posted by StalkerRadar

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Originally Posted by Woodscolby

Welcome to the forum. Out of curiosity, are the traffic sensors that you guys have been making lately pulsed K-band radar?

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Are you referring to the S3 antennas?

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I don't think so. The one I saw was a cube shaped k band radar antenna that appeared to be pulsed. Unless those S3 antennas are cube shaped?

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Sounds like a standard sport or basic. We don't have anything pulsed, the oscillator is always on or off.

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Originally Posted by snoopyc4

Are you also stalkervision on youtube?

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Nope, I am speedycpu there.

Welcome to the club... hang out for awhile... I'm sure would be fun to post other queries as they crop up.

Anyway, Stalker 34.7 is my favorite - I have had multiple detects in open desert valleys as far as 10 miles with an Escort Redline. It seems to be the market leader, at least in state agencies out west.