Passport 8500 x50 and POP detection
 

I've got an 8500 x50 and I turned on the POP detection. I've had it go off several times and I've _never_ seen a cop when it "detects" POP. What's going on? :confused:

Go read the Valentine 1 website. It talks about POP there and how the mfgers of the radar guns that use pop say that it isn't accurate. I don't want to find out, but I doubt POP would hold up in court if Valentine is right...

OOOOtherwise, do you have the problem at the same spot every time, or different? It might be detecting some odd random radar signals from various sources... From what I understand, POP is just instant-on-instant-off radar. It might hit a weird signal.

At risk of sounding like a complete ass to someone who actually knows something, the second paragraph is a really really big guess. I do realize it might be a bad guess. Don't take away my cool points if I'm really really wrong.

I have the same detector, I believe POP just tends to make the detector more sensitive. ie you will have alerts if the detector detects a blip as opposed to the more steady radar needed to make the detector go off under the regular mode.

Thats the reason the detector comes default with POP off. I would leave it off unless you know for sure Houston uses POP.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

POP is something that one manufacturer is trying to shorten the amount of time the radar signal is transmitted. So far, it hasn't proven to be accurate, and technically can't be used to determine if someone is speeding, but we know how that goes in alot of traffic courts. So, some detectors are trying some things to try and pick it up more reliably, probably getting more false alerts at the same time.

---jps

Passport 8500 X50 with POP
 

Turning POP mode on your Passport 8500 X50 will increase your chances of detecting other radar detectors. POP mode operates at 33.8 GHz (Ka-band) which is exactly where some poorly designed "dirty" detectors transmit a low powered oscillator signal. This signal can be detected by the X50. Since there are very few POP guns in use across the country, I suggest turning POP mode off to reduce the false alarms you're experiencing.

Just becasue you don't see a Cop, doesn't mean their not around.
Radio waves travel FOREVER unless they are reflected, refracted or absorbed.
So you could get a hit, but the Cop could be to far away to get a return.

Actually when POP mode is being used, it is line of site. The officer is taught to target vehicles within 1000' or less.

True. But if the officer triggers the unit to track the guy in front of you, your detector could pick up the signal even though your not the target, the radio waves don't know line of sight. So when the thing does off, I slow down.

We used to do leap frog runs to Vegas with the lead car being the sacrificial lamb. I can only recall a couple of times any of us getting stopped. But it sure was an educational experience in the real world.

POP described
 

Either "Radar Roy" www.radar-detector.com &/or Craig Peterson, www.radartest.com have a lengthy explanation of the POP radar system.

Valentine aparently deigns to include POP detection in his units. I guess the arguement runs that since it shouldn't be used to ticket a car, it's not necessary to worry about detecting its presence, which BTW is supposed to be hard to do.

POP currently is apparently in very small use by very few pokice departments. It is a "quick" look radar that may not be "court" worthy, i.e. legally probative of speed. To officially clock a car for ticketing & court purposes, I belive the POP operator is supposed switch from POP mode to lock in a speed with a different.

I think Carig Peterson's discourse on the technolgy is at
http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9080

hth