When a Test Turns Into Reality

I was radar testing after midnight on the main road in my town. There is a radar sign that tells you your speed. It’s on a straight road. I wanted to see if there was a difference in V1’s range with its forward antenna vs. the rearward antenna. To start, I drove far away from the radar sign, turned around, and started back. As soon as V1 gave me a signal, I reset my odometer.

I then turned around to let the sign hit me from behind. As the sign gets smaller in my mirror, V1 is still beeping K band behind, but suddenly the bogey lock tone overrides and Ka starts flashing ahead.

There is a police station on that road less than a block up, so I figured it was just a squad car parked outside with its radar still on; happens all the time. But as I pass the police station, the Ka warning does not move to the side. So now I’m confused, but stay at the 25mph limit. Suddenly, bam! there he is, LEO sitting pitch black in a gas station, waiting in ambush. No way my human eyes would have seen him sitting there in his black unit facing straight into traffic.

Yet V1’s eyes always see, night or day. The bogey counter, arrows, and V1’s capability to warn of multiple radar threats on all bands is something you simply cannot get from any other detector.

Oh, yes, as for the radar coming-and-going test, range was the same front and back. That’s truly all around protection.

Nishan Gharibian
Wood-Ridge, NJ