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Situation 9:
You’re driving down a highway and Instant-on radar—a long
way ahead—is zapping traffic as it passes.
Your Warning:
The Ahead arrow will glow. The Bogey Counter will show 1.
You’ll hear a very slow Beep or Brap that will last just 3-5 seconds. Then the
alerts ends.
What happens next depends on traffic and terrain. If there’s light or medium
traffic between you and the radar, you’ll hear the same pattern again, maybe
repeated several times, as the radar zaps each car ahead in turn. If you hear
this pattern, watch out.
If there’s no traffic within sight ahead, watch out, because you could be next.
With ordinary detectors, short, weak alerts are usually shrugged off as false
alarms, leading the motorist to drive right into an Instant-on trap. The Radar
Locator is critical to your defense in this circumstance. If it points off to the
side, the bogey is not a threat. But if it points ahead, watch out.
How Photo Radar Works
Most photo radars operate on Ka band, but there are exceptions. Unlike
ordinary radar traps—ambushes hidden within terrain contours—photo
radar operates out in the open, usually in a van parked along the road.
However, occasionally it operates as a permanent installation that looks
much like a red light camera.
Instead of hiding, photo radar uses a low-power beam that it angles across
the road to reduce the range at which it can be detected. So warning
range is short, too short if you have a weak detector. Valentine One Gen2
readily detects photo radar. But it will be reported for what it is, a weak
signal. All bogeys, even weak ones, should be identified before they are
dismissed.
Situation 9
