*THIS* is why I own a radar detector…

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

“Brap…Brap…” said my Valentine One radar detector, telling me of ONE K-band Bogey Ahead, signal strength of one, and climbing…

I knew that Dover PD had recently put a “your speed is” portable K-band speed signs on the road, I passed it this morning driving into work, it was shooting oncoming traffic, and I was in the outgoing lane, but now, I was the oncoming traffic, an orange Mazda Miata a bit of distance in front of me was the only other oncoming traffic, I was in his radar shadow

I checked my speedometers, yes both of them, the in dash speedo, and the digital one on my iPhone, both read 25 MPH on the dot, the speed limit for the road, I noticed the Miata pulling away slowly, and estimated him at around 35ish…

We were still about a half mile from the radar sign, typically this is where the V1 starts picking up reflections and generally locks a second Bogey

Right on cue, De-de-boop! The Bogey Lock tone sounded and the Bogey Counter now showed two bogeys, this is normal for this road

A quick speedomers check confirmed both were in agreement, 25MPH

The Miata approached the speed sign, it sprang to life; YOUR SPEED IS; 35 SLOW DOWN! flashed on the LED screen, and a white light flickered from within the left hand digit…

I’ve seen plenty of “your speed is” signs, seen many “slow down” messages for the drivers in front of me, but I have never seen a white strobing light inside one of them before, instantly, my paranoia kicks in… “probably photo radar” I think, maybe that Miata will be getting an unwelcome bit of mail from Dover PD shortly…

The Miata passes by the speed sign, doing the requisite brake-dance, probably too little, too late, I glance at my speed, both speedometers confirm a legal, steady 25 MPH

I approach the speed sign, it springs to life…

YOUR SPEED IS; 35 SLOW DOWN! <strobing white LED>

WTF?!?!? I glance at my speedos, there’s no way in hell my '07 Saturn Ion accelerated a full 10 MPH in less than 100 yards, both speedometers show I’m legal, and the iPhone’s Speedometer uses the GPS satellites to confirm speed… the speed sign is CLEARLY defective or miscalibrated

It continued to read the incorrect speed until my car’s front bumper was less than 50 feet from it, at that point, it changed to;
YOUR SPEED IS; 25 THANK YOU!

Thing is, I practically had to be on top of the bloody thing before it read correctly, I can only imagine how many false readings the smegging piece of crap was giving, it’s almost like they programmed it that way on purpose so they could write a bunch of false tickets, hoping people wouldn’t fight it and just pay the fine

(no, I don’t trust radar (or cops), why do you ask? :wink: )
So, at the earliest convenience, I pulled into a Dunkin Donuts (amazingly free of cops, actually…) and called the Dover PD dispatcher who connected me with the shift commander’s voice mail, I left him a message that they may want to check the calibration on the sign, and let him know additionally that;

1; I have a Valentine One radar detector that detected the sign well over a mile away (I forgot to mention that this road was very hllly and I first picked the signal up while I was in the trough between two hills, a very difficult signal to acquire as the slope of the hill blocks line of sight/directional signals, which police radar is

2; I WAS NOT SPEEDING, and I had two speedometers that agreed on my speed, one of them using GPS signals to read the speed, even if I had been speeding, which I wasn’t, I had one full mile to slow to legal speed, so why would I be speeding if I knew I was entering a radar zone?

3; the speed sign was off by a full TEN miles an hour, there was no car in front of or behind me to influence the reading, it was reading my vehicle speed, and was clearly WRONG

I was very calm and collected, and left him my contact number if he had any questions or needed to talk to me

Needless to say, if I get a speeding ticket from that speed sign, I will most definitely fight it

And that, my friends, is why I own a radar detector, radar makes mistakes, and very rarely in the favor of the motorist, police radar cannot be trusted, especially glitchy X and K band…

2

The signs in my town have strobe lights. They’re definitely not speed cameras (enforcement cameras are banned by the city charter, and the signs were installed as replacements for the speed cameras that were once on the same poles). And if you’re talking about Dover, Delaware, it looks like there are no (legal) speed enforcement cameras there (or anywhere else in Delaware).

3

Nope, Dover NH, sorry

4

New Hampshire doesn’t have any, either.

5

Good, so now the only issue would be the DEFECTIVE “Your Speed” sign

6

I disagree about the “rarely in favor of the motorist” part, as cosine error can greatly benefit you. On my recent sojourns I saw a few cops which were camped in places where the cosine error would have been huge for just about any target they would have locked onto.

[I have an Escort BTW, even if I hardly used it on my trip]

7

The op seems overly verbose and I still don’t see what part your radar detector played even though you went into great depth explaining how complicated and technically superior it is. You already knew there was a slow down radar sign up ahead. You passed it that morning. Plus it wasn’t even a ticket camera. And besides, if it had been, do you think your phone call would have mattered? Would the chief have been so impressed with your valentine one that he would have just tossed out the ticket.
I think you are much more excited about you radar detector than most people.

8

No, what annoyed me about this situation was the clearly defective “your speed” sign, all the detector did was warn me about a threat I was already aware of, the “I have a V1” comment was mainly to emphasize to the shift commander that I KNEW they had radar running in the area a mile before I encountered the sign, so why the hell would I be speeding, there was NO possible way I was traveling at 35 MPH

either the sign was defective/miscalibrated or it was displaying the speed from the last target for some reason, these speed signs are supposed to be able to change readings very rapidly, this one didn’t, and was off by a full 10 MPH

since it’s not a photo radar sign, I don’t need to worry, but at the time, I wasn’t sure if NH used photo radar, I was simply stating to the shift commander (actually, his voicemail) that the sign was not reading correctly and they needed to repair it

9

Yeah, so this guy called me today because he thinks we’ve rigged the speed limit warning sign to scam the public. Like all us cops are corrupt and have a monthly ticket quota we have to meet.

So first he tells me about this high-dollar radar detector he has. So right there he’s lettin’ on that he’s not above perpetrating a few improprieties himself. It’s not like he bought it to protect himself against malfunctioning traffic calming devices, right? I mean those things cost at $400, so you know he’s got cruise control in that car of his.

Yeah and then he brags about how he picked up the signal from a mile away, on the other side of the hill. That’s always a good position to take when talking to the law, telling them how much more clever you are than they are. Yeah, must be fun listening to that beep every time you pass a sign saying there’s a school zone ahead.

Then, to top it off, he tells me how he kept checking his speedometer. And get this, the idiot’s got some cell phone thing telling him his speed too. Like that big round dial in front of his face wasn’t obvious enough.

This is why we have to put up all these warning signs and why we have to keep the speed limit at 25mph. Guys like this who’d rather dick around with electronic gadgets instead of actually driving. I tell you, I can’t wait until those automatic Google robot cars take over and taxi all these soccer moms and tech-heads around in the back seat. Probably doesn’t even know how to drive a stick.

So, I acted interested and made some scribbling noises on my napkin. Then I tossed it away as soon as he hung up. Like I got time to worry about the accuracy of radar that’s not even generating any revenue.

10

…or maybe suspect the caller is a tweaker…

11

Nope, Nunzio couldn’t be more wrong, the car is a bare bones base model Saturn Ion (not exactly known for it’s blistering performance) with a manual transmission, sorry, go back to rigging your speed signs :wink:

And no, I don’t intentionally speed either, I just don’t trust the reliability of fixed antenna directional speed radar, it’s too error prone, that’s the only reason I own a detector

12

I don’t follow your logic at all. If you don’t believe they are accurate, why do you care where they are? They’ll bust you even if you’re doing 10mph below the limit, right? :rolleyes:

(BTW has it ever occurred to you that the 35mph display was still from the Miata you mentioned, and your speed hadn’t registered until you almost reached the sign? We have those type of speed displays here in the UK, too, and I generally find they’re still flashing from the car ahead for quite a few seconds after it passes.)

13

Let’s see. If I were so convinced that the police were crooks and were installing miscalibrated radars to trap me that I installed a fancy radar detector in my underpowered Saturn Ion, I would also take the time to familiarize myself with the laws in my state that say the cops can’t use speed cameras.

And if I were a corrupt police department, why would I miscalibrate a non-enforceable speed camera to warn drivers they were going too fast? Why wouldn’t I set it to read low, then have a car with an accurately calibrated radar waiting to nab gullible drivers who trust the big sign instead of their own speedometers?

Basically, the OP is pissed that a machine with no legal authority told him he was driving too fast. Thanks for doing your civic duty by reporting the malfunctioning equipment to the proper authorities.

14

Indeed. And I, for one, am glad that someone was finally thinking of the children!