[Camarino]

Originally Posted by fastball

Pop is when the police turn their radar on and off. With most older radar (X, K bands), the police just sit with the radar on constantly all the time. That sends out the radio frequencies which bounce off your car at different frequencies in relationship with how fast you go (that's how a radar calculates speed). A decent radar detector can pick these up from upwards of 2 miles away (I have an Escort and it has extremely long range on lower band radar). These radio frequencies bounce off anything metal, so the more trafic the sooner you will be picking them up as you approach.

With Ka band, it's a much higher frequency, so the radar doesn't need to be on all the time. The police can basically treat it like laser and pull the trigger on any time. Only difference between that an laser is you can aim laser like a sharp shooter with a rifle and pick off one single target in the pack of doezens. With Ka, the police would still have to determine which car is going the speed that is showing on the display.

So, that is "poping". A good detector might give you some time if a cop is poping and there's alot of trafic, but if not, it's about as good as laser, and when you get hit with a Ka pop or laser, you might as well pull over.

ahhhhh thnx