Yesterday (Sunday), I drove my usual Northeasterly route - which takes me through parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey that go by some heavily populated areas and heavily traveled highways.
Oftentimes, it is in these kinds of areas, where the Valentine One's extreme sensitivity can become...well...tiring...to put it nicely. Sure the V1 alerts with high frequency to the presence of both X-band and K-band door openers and the like which every strip mall in northern Jersey seems to have, but it is also not uncommon for the Valentine alerts with a relatively high number of Ka-band falses - which come from a plethora of cheap and poorly insulated radar detectors that are operated by the majority of the great motoring unwashed (please forgive my hubris).
Wouldn't it be nicer world if everyone who thought about owning and operating a radar detector - to potentially save them thousands of dollars - would be willing to drop a few more dollars to really have a chance at accomplishing such a thing [by owning an ultra-premium radar detector] while at the same time providing relief to guys like us, who have already made that wise decision?
Pollution is everywhere in these extra-urban areas, it seems - noise pollution, air pollution, and yes RADAR pollution. Things, of course, may be getting better (at least on the air front), but wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to easily abate some of this without having to wait for the driving public to wake-up to its senses and turn their RADAR polluting devices (cheap radar detectors) into solid waste?
Well, there just may be a short-cut to that nirvana, at least with the Valentine One. That short-cut is entitle 'J-feature' disabled. Some of you may be wondering, 'what the heck is J-feature disabled'? Very simply, it is the turning off of POP radar reception. In all of the years that POP radar has been out (now several), I have yet to encounter a real speedtrap that has been employing POP radar as a precursor to standard instant-on police radar usage.
This, of course, is not to say that this specialized operating mode of a particular series of police radar guns manufactured by MPH Industries is not being utilized or more likely mis-utilized somewhere in the country, it's just that I have yet to encounter one in the many of thousands of miles that I have traveled.
Instead, what I have encountered, frequently, is either reduced operating performance of many of my radar detectors when operated with the reception mode enabled or one particular radar detector that, despite it's quieter nature as compared to previous versions (when POP reception was first incorporated into it), is a noisier detector than it has to be.
Yes, I am referring to my Valentine One. More times than not, when I travel on busy highways like I-78, I-287, I-80, I-95, GSP in northern NJ and the outskirts of New York City the Valentine frequently alerts to Ka sometimes followed by the J[unk] alarm muting sequence, sometimes not. At any rate, it all can become pretty fatiguing.
By disabling POP reception, with programming, which is not the default mode of this detector, I have found that my V1 is much more quiet and more livable as a result in these areas. Not once in almost 300 miles today through very heavily traveled roadways did I receive one Ka-false nor J alert. Other times through these same areas, such alerts routinely happen totaling 8-9, on average, a day.
In fact, for now, I am going to leave my Valentine in this quieter mode (as well as my other radar detectors). What I give up for all this peace and quiet is POP reception. But, I keep my blazing sensitivity to all standard police radar band forms of X, K, Ka, and of course the blistering laser reception ability of this radar detector is unaffected in any event.
If I ever end up getting ticketed by some knucklehead operating only POP radar to obtain my speed, I'll know it, because the detector would not have gone off. I don't believe that POP radar can be used to legally issue speeding tickets in and of itself, anyway, and what better way to collect that kind of information at the time of stop. I'd sure like to hear the explanation of the offending-officer to the court why he thinks his in-admissible evidence should be allowable. In other words, I really don't believe that could really ever happen.
My advice* to all existing post-POP owning Valentine One owners, is to try disabling the J operating mode...You may like it and like it enough to leave it off.
My advice* to all owners of Escort Passport 8500 X50, Escort Passport 9500i, Beltronics RX-65 Pro, and Beltronics STi Driver radar detectors is to leave POP reception off so you can not only enjoy a quieter radar detector, but a generally higher performing one, at that.
*Of course, have POP reception enabled, if you are certain you are deriving a benefit from it in the unusual case you actually encounter POP augmented radar speedtraps and receive advanced notification to them with it on.
4 comments:
When reading this, I thought you were confusing POP mode with the "J" (junk) feature. To clarify, you want to disable POP mode, but leave Junk mode enabled. Once I double-checked the V1 programming guide, I realized that POP mode is option J in the programming (while Junk is controlled by option 6). So just to clarify, you are recommending option 6 enabled (up) and option J disabled (down).
jwardell,
I was strictly referring to disabling the J-feature, that was the only thing that I changed from the factory defaults. Not once yesterday did I receive a false Ka signal, nor a J[unk] alert after doing so =, in the heavily traveled byways of Northern Jersey.
If POP is disengaged then does that mean I will drastically cut down on Ka-band false alerts or does it just refer to cutting down on cheap radar detector leakage? I am thinking about getting the V1, but since I live in a heavily populated area with lots of shopping areas, Iam kinda leaning towards the Escort 9500i(x) instead because of the false alert lockout features. Here in TX we don't use X band so I would program the V1 to completely shut off X band. Please help.
Vincent
Vincent,
In my experiences, I have found that by disabling POP-mode (J-feature disabled), the V1 tends to be quieter and falses a bit less to brief transmissions of Ka leakage from certain other detectors (namely 9,10,11-band Cobra and Uniden models both manufactured at the time by BG Tech) and consequently cuts down on the [J]unk alerts that can happen when in close proximity to them. It's from detectors like those that the majority of this Ka-falsing comes from. If you prefer the sophistication of a detector like the Passport 9500ix, it is my belief that this detector will do a better job a resisting alerting to these sources of falsing, if that is your priority.
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