Tips for San Francisco to Buffalo NY? (i80 -> i90) CA NV UT WY SD MN WI IL IN OH PA NY

[FusionLegend69]

I will be driving this route in August, switching from i80 to i90 via 287/220/25 in WY.

Uniden R1, iphone with google maps, android with highway radar.

Any advice for the Mountain/Prairie part of the trip? What bands/freqs, cars to watch out for, places to cc at 55mph, etc? I am fine with having a falses on R1 (rather have a 10:1 false ratio than to get caught flat out through the cornfields)

Thanks!

 

[RRJ]

My experience with Nevada has been 33.8 for their Hiway Patrol, but I can’t say much for the agencies between Reno and the Utah state line at Wendover. I’ve heard you don’t want to speed though Wendover on the interstate.

If you’re going to open it up a little, the Salt Flats just outside of Wendover heading toward Salt Lake is the place to do it. The interstate is very divided, it is extremely flat, and it’s hard for a patrolman to hide along that stretch. However, I’m told their tactic is to either hit you with LIDAR from an overpass, or sit on the on-ramp just past an overpass and LIDAR you from behind. I’ve actually seen them sitting on the on-ramps but since I don’t have jammers, I’m not sure if they were monitoring traffic via LIDAR, a timing device, or not at all. I would keep your eyes pealed for anything stationary on an overpass or the on-ramp on the other side between Wendover and Tooele.

For radar the UHP is almost exclusively 34.7 and most agencies I’ve seen on the interstate are as well. There was a K band in Tooele (a few miles West of Salt Lake) a few years back, but I haven’t heard of that gun being active in a while. Once I get into the SLC area I just run City on the R3 because K band is very rare there. (I run K 60% between Wendover and SLC). For Ka, I started out running segmentation but after seeing a video of a UHP gun most segments would have missed, I switched to Ka Wide and have personally seen two additional out of tune UHP guns so now run Ka Wide. All guns were north of I80, so you are most likely okay segmenting. I seldom if ever get falses, so I feel safer scanning all bands, even if it takes slightly longer to do so. Segmenting in other states might be completely safe, but with the UHP, there is a slight risk of missing something.

I don’t run the stretch between the Salt Lake valley and the Wyo border much so I’m not much help there. Maybe @sdrawkcaB or @fireparamed have more on that stretch, additional LIDAR traps, clarification on the stretch across the Salt Flats, etc.

Enjoy your trip and be safe. Sounds like a good time.

 

[sdrawkcaB]

In Utah, don't use Ka Segmentation. There are too many high and low guns across the State. If you have a Uniden R series, run Ka Wide with Ka Filter turned on to reduce false signals, and you'll be safe.

 

[FusionLegend69]

My experience with Nevada has been 33.8 for their Hiway Patrol, but I can’t say much for the agencies between Reno and the Utah state line at Wendover. I’ve heard you don’t want to speed though Wendover on the interstate.

If you’re going to open it up a little, the Salt Flats just outside of Wendover heading toward Salt Lake is the place to do it. The interstate is very divided, it is extremely flat, and it’s hard for a patrolman to hide along that stretch. However, I’m told their tactic is to either hit you with LIDAR from an overpass, or sit on the on-ramp just past an overpass and LIDAR you from behind. I’ve actually seen them sitting on the on-ramps but since I don’t have jammers, I’m not sure if they were monitoring traffic via LIDAR, a timing device, or not at all. I would keep your eyes pealed for anything stationary on an overpass or the on-ramp on the other side between Wendover and Tooele.

For radar the UHP is almost exclusively 34.7 and most agencies I’ve seen on the interstate are as well. There was a K band in Tooele (a few miles West of Salt Lake) a few years back, but I haven’t heard of that gun being active in a while. Once I get into the SLC area I just run City on the R3 because K band is very rare there. (I run K 60% between Wendover and SLC). For Ka, I started out running segmentation but after seeing a video of a UHP gun most segments would have missed, I switched to Ka Wide and have personally seen two additional out of tune UHP guns so now run Ka Wide. All guns were north of I80, so you are most likely okay segmenting. I seldom if ever get falses, so I feel safer scanning all bands, even if it takes slightly longer to do so. Segmenting in other states might be completely safe, but with the UHP, there is a slight risk of missing something.

I don’t run the stretch between the Salt Lake valley and the Wyo border much so I’m not much help there. Maybe @sdrawkcaB or @fireparamed have more on that stretch, additional LIDAR traps, clarification on the stretch across the Salt Flats, etc.

Enjoy your trip and be safe. Sounds like a good time.

Thanks for the detailed information. Hopefully the heatmap will help with the LIDAR overpasses.

How much worse is the Ka alert time with Ka Wide? I don't see a reason to ever use narrow if there is a possibility of out of tune guns (even in other states).

Post automatically merged: Jul 17, 2020

In Utah, don't use Ka Segmentation. There are too many high and low guns across the State. If you have a Uniden R series, run Ka Wide with Ka Filter turned on to reduce false signals, and you'll be safe.

Gotcha.

Considering going north at 93 in Nevada -> twin falls -> i84 -> i86 -> 20 -> 14 (yellowstone) instead. Assuming I should have K wide through these towns

 

[sdrawkcaB]

In my opinion, it is relatively trivial. Can segmentation give you more distance for the segments you have enabled? Yes, it can be advantageous for areas where selective I/O is used heavily. If you are in an area where you have the risk of off-center frequency guns, I do not believe the benefit of segmenting outweighs the risk of missing the guns entirely.

This link has some actual data that was gathered using the method of observing the heartbeat indicator icon and the flash interval, which Uniden has told us beats in conjunction with completing a scan cycle. Using a high frame rate and by tracking the appearance of the icon over time frame by frame, the scan cycle times were derived for various segment and filter configurations.

Comprehensive R1/R3/R7 Scan Cycle Times for Various Settings

EDIT- New R7 Data Below! Thankfully Uniden listened to us and brought back the heartbeat, allowing me to repeat this study for the R7! New Conclusions- The overall conclusions are summarized in the table above. Nothing shocking. It does seem that the R7 will scan slightly faster than...

www.rdforum.org

 

[RRJ]

Considering going north at 93 in Nevada -> twin falls -> i84 -> i86 -> 20 -> 14 (yellowstone) instead. Assuming I should have K wide through these towns

Coming from Twin Falls, you’ll just miss the worst trap on I-15 by Pocatello. It’s been a great while, but in the old days US 20 was bad news for IO between Rexburg and West Yellowstone MT, especially before going over the pass from Island Park to West Yellowstone. It is rural enough, I thought the odds weren’t that high, but was blasted a couple of times on different trips. This was several years ago, but I suppose the tactic is the same.

I’ve also been hit in the park. Was C/O during the day and I/O when I was in the dark going back to a motel in West Yellowstone MT.

if you go that way, I would hit 47 in Ashton, ID and see the upper and lower Mesa Falls (Upper Mesa Attached) The road is more narrow and windey than 20, but it’s oiled and doesn’t beat your car if you’re reasonable. It eventually meets up with 20 again so there is no back tracking. I’ve never seen a LEO on that road, but it’s not much of a speeding road anyway.

If you like impressive views, I’d consider exiting the northeast entrance of the park and going over Bear Tooth pass. The road has several switchbacks along the mountain but Mountains are amazing. I’ve heard people call them the Alps of the US. All of this depends on how much time you have.

 

[FusionLegend69]

Coming from Twin Falls, you’ll just miss the worst trap on I-15 by Pocatello. It’s been a great while, but in the old days US 20 was bad news for IO between Rexburg and West Yellowstone MT, especially before going over the pass from Island Park to West Yellowstone. It is rural enough, I thought the odds weren’t that high, but was blasted a couple of times on different trips. This was several years ago, but I suppose the tactic is the same.

I’ve also been hit in the park. Was C/O during the day and I/O when I was in the dark going back to a motel in West Yellowstone MT.

if you go that way, I would hit 47 in Ashton, ID and see the upper and lower Mesa Falls (Upper Mesa Attached) The road is more narrow and windey than 20, but it’s oiled and doesn’t beat your car if you’re reasonable. It eventually meets up with 20 again so there is no back tracking. I’ve never seen a LEO on that road, but it’s not much of a speeding road anyway.

If you like impressive views, I’d consider exiting the northeast entrance of the park and going over Bear Tooth pass. The road has several switchbacks along the mountain but Mountains are amazing. I’ve heard people call them the Alps of the US. All of this depends on how much time you have.

View attachment 154150

Interesting, I usually see I/O during the day and C/O at night. This was in the park itself? By rangers?

Mesa Falls looks sweet. Bear Tooth is a bit out of the way since I want to overnight at Cody and hit Buffalo.

Thanks for the info!

 

[RRJ]

Interesting, I usually see I/O during the day and C/O at night. This was in the park itself? By rangers?

Yes, this was by rangers. It’s been a lot of years, but I suspect they still radar in there.