Question on POP mode

[omegajb]

I've been searching online and have found mixed info on POP radar, everything states a ticket shouldn’t be issued in this mode but looking at the radar manufacturers sites they don't seem to state that.
It wouldn't surprise me if LE were to ticket someone using POP and figure on only a small percentage of people fighting it especially out of state drivers. Has anyone heard one way or the other?

That being said, I have a trip up the East coast NC to ME on 95 and am wondering if I should enable POP mode on my 8500 X50? If I do will performance suffer on other bands or would I most likely just get a lot of false alarms.

I tried to search the site for POP but it came back with no results

[jdong]

No, do NOT turn on POP on the 8500 X50, because it will start falsing to Ka from every Cobra detector within a block's radius. It may also report instant-on blasts as POP (when they really are just IO). This might cause you to ignore legitimate Ka band alerts, and I don't need to explain why that's bad.


Whether or not POP is actually used is in high debate. My opinion is that somewhere in this country, it IS being used for its purpose: speed estimation. The design of newer POP guns allows the operate to quickly flick the trigger to obtain POP speed measurements. Once he sees a speed he likes, he just has to hold the switch for half a second more and the gun will give an instant-on reading. Unless you assume that ALL LEOs do not understand how to turn on this feature, it's a bit unrealistic to say that POP is not used at all. Sure those speed estimation POP blasts don't actually pose a threat, but they are your ONLY clue about a pending IO attack.

Now with that said, the bad news:

Most detectors have poor filtering with POP enabled -- you will see more falses caused by other radar detectors (or even itself *glares at Cobra*). The only exception I've personally seen is the Valentine One, which only falses a little bit more with POP enabled (on a long trip, about 1 false per 150 miles or so). This is probably due to its unique J-out filtering mode that remembers the frequencies of recently detected radar detectors. Others have told me the STi and maybe 9500i are similarly quiet.

More bad news: The most recent form of POP (16ms K-band) is undetectable by any detector on the market. Ok fine, the STi detects 1 of 10 bursts at point-blank range.


Bottom line? You can try turning on POP on your detector, but if you notice it causing significantly more falses, turn it back off.

[CJR238]

X2, POP is POOP. I drive from CT to NC occasionally and find no reason to use POP.
I would be more worried about RD's being illegal in DC and speed cameras.

[TSi+WRX]

Until the GOL next tests POP on the Escorts, I'm of the opinion that one should just leave it "off."

Look at *any* of their POP tests, and ask yourself this question - if there was true POP use, can your x50 properly catch it, or is it going to slip by?

Looking at the past GOL data, the seeming inability of the Bel/Escorts to do so, at the current time, is why I eventually chose to disable POP on both my (Rev5) x50 as well as 9500i.

This lack of true detection capability, plus the persistent falsing (at least with the x50; nowhere near as bad with the 9500i, which would lead me to believe that with the current-revision x50, such falsing is also much more minimized), totally screwed-over my signal-to-noise ratio, and led me to become desensitized (a cardinal sin, if there ever was one) to the detector's capabilities.

Have a look at these two old posts of mine, which illustrates the "problem" with POP detection -

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/206758-post7.html

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/325399-post11.html

If you do think that there's true POP use in your area, it would be good for you to try to find out what kind of hardware is used, and then see if the V1 is a good match for said hardware, via the data provided in the GOL tests.

[KnightHawk]

Just turn off POP and you'll be less annoyed than having it turned on. Also, you'll freak out when you get a POP alert mostly caused from other RD's. It is also hard to know if POP is present because they come in Ka and K band. You may guess by using your X50 in spec mode when it shows frequency close to 33.8. When you get a POP alert, it will not show the frequency but will show "POP" in the display with your X50 even in spec mode. With the STi, it will show POP in the display and followed with the voice alert saying "Ka band" even though the source was K band POP - just found this out by accident.

[FoolishOne]

This is probably due to its unique J-out filtering mode that remembers the frequencies of recently detected radar detectors.

Any more info?

[ActiveKAjam]

Any more info?

POP mode, especialy on the X50 is nothing but a cobra detector unfortunatley

[FoolishOne]

Well...more specifically this rolling list of past frequencies. Never heard of that, and I don't think its in the manual. (This is all on the V1.)

[Montu]

Not trying to High jack the thread but on my rx 65 i never disabled pop, anyway a couple nights ago i was siting in a parking lot with my RD on watching LEO's drive by with their radar's on and seeing how my rd picked them up..anyway one of them pulled over and started checking speeds with KA couple seconds later the KA goes out and i get a PoP alert then silence and the LEO drives off again.

I was kind of confused..what do u think just turn it off? btw this was the first time the pop went off on my rx 65

[FoolishOne]

Montu,

There really is no NEED to turn it off, but it would save the detector from having to scan everything that is coming into the horn for known POP characteristics. (Imagine IO Ka signal sitting in the queue to be analyzed, waiting on the "POP signal" check to finish?) Also, POP is not considered a valid method of speed measurement.

The only problem I see: Officer shoots you with POP, gets 15+, and then hits you with I/O. You may want that <= 1 sec. of reaction time before he hits you with I/O. (The risk is similar to TrueLock, with the chance that the LEO is running the exact freq., in the exact location, the door opener has been turned off, and you're speeding. Slim to no chance of happening.)

I personally have my POP turned off on my V1, because of the falses and POP not being 'legal'...yet.

It may not be what you wanted to hear, but its a personal choice.