From: yerazunis@cthulu.enet.dec.com
Subject: Laser, Stalker, Valentine 1 test _results_ (long)
Organization: Turing Police
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:56:50 GMT


In article <9535.74.uupcb@cutting.hou.tx.us>, erich.lim@cutting.hou.tx.us (Erich Lim) writes...
>   What I meant to say before my line got cut off was that if your state
>has Stalker listed, but with no city or county, it means that the state
>doesn't release the locations where Stalker is used to the public.

You may want to re-post your message; it was pretty garbled in the middle 
by the time it got here.

Also, add Marlboro, Massachusetts: laser.  They _definitely_ have one ProLaser
(no, I didn't get tagged.  Someone I trust did.  Talked to him last night and
confirmed it.)

-----

Re: Valentine 1: 

Mine came in yesterday (jeez, a whole 4 hours before I found out that 
my hometown is now running laser.  Talk about lossage...).  Sensitivity
in my thorough [ :-) ] tests seems to be better than Escort DSP in
X band, MUCH better in K band (in other words, better than anything 
else by a good margin).  I have no way to test Ka or Stalker sensitivity
at this point.

I took the V1 out for a test drive anyway, and sure 'nuf, used it to
hunt up a few speed traps.  Instant-on K-band (low power) traps show 
up over a mile away, even with multiple hills between me and the
radar source AND the source was pointed away from me!  Yowza!  
This is the first detector I've ever seen that lets you go hunting radar!

The locator system is useful in that it tells you when you've passed the
threat- or that you haven't ( i.e. an instant-on party is _finally_
distinguishable from a weak side-of-the-road burglar alarm  Yeah!!!).  

The manual admits that the locator can be confused by strong reflectors 
nearby.  This happens, but only when the sources are strong (i.e. six
LEDs on the meter or better.)   By the time that happens, you've already
had a chance to sort things out and get below the speed limit.

The "multiple target lock" tone " (a deet-deet sound) is nice.  It's 
worthwhile. The threat counter seems less useful; it's fun to watch 
the numbers roll by but not otherwise useful.  I'm ignoring it for now.

The "smart modes" are necessary.  Driving down Rt. 9, in an area with a few 
hundred stores concentrated in a square mile of solid strip-malls, the
counter overflows; the threat locator looks like a pinball machine
on the way to a tilt and the audio indicator (with the deet-deet of 
target lock alternating with the beeps from X-band) sounded like 
Space Invaders.  Of course, every other detector I've seen goes
into screaming orgasms in this area as well.  Engaging "logic" mode 
made the racket less annoying.  Valentine says that when there are more 
than 9 threats, only the top 9 are remembered in the internal buffer; 
thus as threats move in intensity as reflections change, a threat
may "deet-deet" more than once as it moves in and out of the top
9 repeatedly.  Well, there were probably twenty or thirty threats
out there...

Immunity to noise: Good.  No problems with falsing even when my big 
>35 watt VHF/UHF ham transmitter keyed up.  However, when the V1 was next to
an Escort DSP and both were powered up, got an occasional false on 
the V1.  No falsing otherwise.

The downsides: it's big- about the size of an Escort DSP, or a tad
larger.  It looks like a prop from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  
The visor clip is strong but doesn't have a release lever (unlike the
suction cup mount, which _does_ have a release lever.  The V1 does 
a pretty good imitation of a video game when you pass a large
shopping center (could be distracting).  The power cord is too short 
(but that's easily fixed; it really _does_ use standard RJ-11 modular 
telephone cords for power)

-----

Overall:

     Sensitivity:  Tops.  Best in the world.  No kidding.  Instant-On
	operators are gonna have to wait a darn long time between 
	pulses to defeat this baby.  

     Human Ergonomics:  OK.  The blinking threat locator is needed to
	discriminate low-level falses from instant-on radar ahead of you, but
	it gets downright distracting when you pass by the big shopping mall.
	Too bad the arrows aren't color-coded (they're all red).  The
	threat counter is fluff.  Logic mode selection should be a
	three-position switch, not push-and-hold.  The logic modes 
	themselves are good, they do just what I want.

     Gizmonic Potential: Extremely High.

	-Bill

Copyright 1992 William S. Yerazunis (aka Crah the Merciless)
All rights reserved, no responsibility taken.

     "Caveat Ineptus"
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