SACK559 asked:
I bougth the Cobra xrs-9430. The detector works great. The alarm goes off and says all these at different times; X Band. Ku Band. K Band. Ka Band — Wideband (Ka) Radar Sometimes right after i will indeed see a police officer or highway patrol. My question is what do each of those codes mean so i will have a better understanding right when an alarm sounds. Thanx a lot guys. Carson
Peejay
I bougth the Cobra xrs-9430. The detector works great. The alarm goes off and says all these at different times; X Band. Ku Band. K Band. Ka Band — Wideband (Ka) Radar Sometimes right after i will indeed see a police officer or highway patrol. My question is what do each of those codes mean so i will have a better understanding right when an alarm sounds. Thanx a lot guys. Carson
Peejay
October 8th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
The radar bands (frequency) are not used exclusively by the police. In fact supermarket door openers (motion sensors) use the same band (frequency) as police X band. So it is very difficult for a simple machine to decipher which is which.
That is why you have HWY switch. On the HWY it is less likely you will pass a super market and get false X band reading. So the HWY setting is more sensitive.
The various K bandS are harder to detect so when you hear an alarm for K bands you need to take action immediately. With X band you will probably have anywhere between 15 second (1/4 mile) to 1 minute (1 mile) advance notice. With the K bands you might not get more than 15 second notice.
Also the K bands are more like a spot light and does not follow the curve of the hills and curves. So the police often hide around the curve or over a hill and nail a car, but the car just behind might not get an alarm. But the X band is more like radio transmission and they are easier to detect around hills and curves.