34.7 falses on the NY Thruway - safe to lock them out?

[samq45]

Dont lock these out - by the end of the month most of them will be gone. As Oldcelt said they are traffic monitors for the new toll system going into effect soon. They are supposed to be replaced by all those cameras we just spent $300 Million on.

 

[samq45]

The counting unit at Catskill is on a pole facing the southbound exiting traffic and on the east side of the overpass.

Other than the one at the 24 tolls, that is the one I pick up for the longest distance.

 

[Euurx]

When taking certain exits on I-90 in NY in the last couple of months (as well as driving by exit 34 even if I'm not exiting), I get a strong Ka band signal on my R3, always very close to 34.7. Could be wrong, but I think it has to do with the new cashless tolling system that was recently installed across the Thruway. I'd like to lock them out, but NYSP pretty much exclusively uses 34.7. If I lock out these falses, and a second 34.7 signal gets detected in the area due to a real LEO running radar, will my R3 mute both of them, or will it unmute since it's picking up two signals despite being at the same frequency?

Hello! I'm on i-90 everyday. I'll say that I haven't ran into a Ka hit by the new cashless tolling.

However, there are some exits (towards the finger lakes region exit 41-44) that have a Radar looking at speed. It will read out 34.7. In the picture below is what I mean. It will false to 34.7

Post automatically merged: Nov 10, 2020

I'll have to pay closer attention next time I'm on the Thruway (I'm in Baldwinsville)!

Baldwinsville is a sketchy spot for NYSP; they like to be pesky.

 

[samq45]

Hello! I'm on i-90 everyday. I'll say that I haven't ran into a Ka hit by the new cashless tolling.

However, there are some exits (towards the finger lakes region exit 41-44) that have a Radar looking at speed. It will read out 34.7. In the picture below is what I mean. It will false to 34.7

Post automatically merged: Nov 10, 2020

Baldwinsville is a sketchy spot for NYSP; they like to be pesky.

Several Stalker Speed signs around the state. There is a concentration near Canandaigua and even more around Lake Placed.

It hard to consider these a false that can be filtered out without GPS, the actual innards are Stalkers.....

Those are great to test detectors against as its the frequency the staties use and they dont move.

Newer ones I have seen put up lately are Stalker Patrol Frequencies.

 

[dstxl]

However, there are some exits (towards the finger lakes region exit 41-44) that have a Radar looking at speed. It will read out 34.7. In the picture below is what I mean. It will false to 34.7

Post automatically merged: Nov 10, 2020

Thanks for the picture! I drove from Syracuse to Utica and back today and I just happened to notice them at both Exit 34A and Exit 31. I think you hit the nail on the head and those signs are causing the falses.

 

[RadarScout]

Thanks for the picture! I drove from Syracuse to Utica and back today and I just happened to notice them at both Exit 34A and Exit 31. I think you hit the nail on the head and those signs are causing the falses.

Could it be those radar antennas mounted above the road as you enter the toll booth? Sure looks similar.

 

[Euurx]

Several Stalker Speed signs around the state. There is a concentration near Canandaigua and even more around Lake Placed.

It hard to consider these a false that can be filtered out without GPS, the actual innards are Stalkers.....

Those are great to test detectors against as its the frequency the staties use and they dont move.

Newer ones I have seen put up lately are Stalker Patrol Frequencies.

Yep! They started putting them in earlier this year/late last year. They have two of them at Canandaigua exit. One facing incoming traffic and the other outgoing. They will both report 34.70 on the dot.

 

[Vortex]

Yeah I’ve come across a 34.7 speed sign false out in some random state like UT before and I’ve seen another mobile one not too far from here. I wish I could find it again.

I don’t see any Ka speed signs on Stalker’s website right now, but I did find an MPH one. https://www.fleetsafety.com/mph-rad...er-100w-class-solar-charging-system-bar-lock/

So Ka speed signs are out there.

Anyone remember how wide Uniden Ka lockouts are? I remember them being pretty tight.

 

[Fixxxer0]

Yeah I’ve come across a 34.7 speed sign false out in some random state like UT before and I’ve seen another mobile one not too far from here. I wish I could find it again.

I don’t see any Ka speed signs on Stalker’s website right now, but I did find an MPH one. https://www.fleetsafety.com/mph-rad...er-100w-class-solar-charging-system-bar-lock/

So Ka speed signs are out there.

Anyone remember how wide Uniden Ka lockouts are? I remember them being pretty tight.

So I drove by exit 19 about five times this weekend. I was paying close attention to the frequency and noticed it is in fact the same exact frequency all the time.

After closer inspection it definitely is the wrong way alert, I saw the antenna myself mounted on the led sign. All these years now I thought it was the state trooper barrack right next door haha.

Either way I still would not lock this out there's heavy enforcement in this area and the actual cruiser radars are the same frequency sometimes.


Antenna circled in yellow, state troopers parked in red

 

[rd4117]

I was getting blasted with 34.728 today on 684 traveling towards 84, alert went away after taking the sweeping off/on ramp to rt. 84.

Same speed monitoring devices? That or a c/o LEO traveling with me for miles...

 

[dstxl]

After closer inspection it definitely is the wrong way alert, I saw the antenna myself mounted on the led sign. All these years now I thought it was the state trooper barrack right next door haha.

Yep, I've been able to confirm myself since making this post that those are the sources of the falses. Not speed signs, but rather digital wrong way signs. Very odd that they use Stalker antennas. I had never even noticed them until after starting this thread.

Have wrong way drivers been a problem on the Thruway in the past? Especially with the toll booths, it seems like it'd really take some... talent... to get yourself on the wrong side of the highway. Were the good old "do not enter" signs insufficient to the point where the digital signs were necessary?

 

[dstxl]

I was getting blasted with 34.728 today on 684 traveling towards 84, alert went away after taking the sweeping off/on ramp to rt. 84.

Same speed monitoring devices? That or a c/o LEO traveling with me for miles...

Do you drive that route often? If it's one of these wrong way alerts, you'll consistently pick up the signal every time you drive through the area. My R3 picks up and loses the signal at the exact same point on the road every time, it's that consistent.

As others have said however, don't assume that it's a false until you can point to the source without a doubt. I will say, in my experience with these signals the range is relatively short, not much more than a quarter mile for any of them.

 

[rd4117]

Do you drive that route often? If it's one of these wrong way alerts, you'll consistently pick up the signal every time you drive through the area. My R3 picks up and loses the signal at the exact same point on the road every time, it's that consistent.

As others have said however, don't assume that it's a false until you can point to the source without a doubt. I will say, in my experience with these signals the range is relatively short, not much more than a quarter mile for any of them.

Good point! Drive it at least once a week and this was the first time it happened.

 

[OldtimeRadar]

Yep, I've been able to confirm myself since making this post that those are the sources of the falses. Not speed signs, but rather digital wrong way signs. Very odd that they use Stalker antennas. I had never even noticed them until after starting this thread.

Have wrong way drivers been a problem on the Thruway in the past? Especially with the toll booths, it seems like it'd really take some... talent... to get yourself on the wrong side of the highway. Were the good old "do not enter" signs insufficient to the point where the digital signs were necessary?

I agree that many of the Ka signals on these ramps are wrong way signs. There must have been a grant or initiative to install this type of systems. I believe they are using the directional feature of the Stalker Ka antennas, to sense wrong way drivers.

Not sure if wrong way drivers were a big problem, but almost all Thruway toll plazas do have a split where (if traffic was light) you could possibly go to far left and choose to go on the wrong ramp. They are removing the toll collection plazas, so they may be fixing the problem with a guardrail.

 

[Euurx]

I agree that many of the Ka signals on these ramps are wrong way signs. There must have been a grant or initiative to install this type of systems. I believe they are using the directional feature of the Stalker Ka antennas, to sense wrong way drivers.

Not sure if wrong way drivers were a big problem, but almost all Thruway toll plazas do have a split where (if traffic was light) you could possibly go to far left and choose to go on the wrong ramp. They are removing the toll collection plazas, so they may be fixing the problem with a guardrail.

It's just another thing for our NYS tax payer money to be used up. I don't see a real big purpose aside from maybe knowing the speed of the traffic flow.

 

[Fixxxer0]

Have wrong way drivers been a problem on the Thruway in the past? Especially with the toll booths, it seems like it'd really take some... talent... to get yourself on the wrong side of the highway. Were the good old "do not enter" signs insufficient to the point where the digital signs were necessary?

Yes, they used to alternate the booth lane directions depending on peak traffic flow so the striping on the approach to the split was not great. They haven't really done that in a while, unless something broke down on one lane.

They switched over to cashless tolling this weekend, and all boths are scheduled for demo. they are currently unmanned and not lit up, and have had the speed limits bumped to 20mph. without a guide rail or some plastic cone divider being installed, i think the situation will be WORSE without the toll booths for the risk of wrong way drivers.

 

[dstxl]

They switched over to cashless tolling this weekend, and all boths are scheduled for demo. they are currently unmanned and not lit up, and have had the speed limits bumped to 20mph. without a guide rail or some plastic cone divider being installed, i think the situation will be WORSE without the toll booths for the risk of wrong way drivers.

I've been noticing that there are now concrete barriers between the old toll booths and the metal guardrails- maybe not at all exits, but at least the ones I've been to in the last week or so. It looks like they'll be there at least until construction is finished with the toll booths and something more permanent is put into place.

 

[Leadfut]

Do NOT lock it out. NYSP very very very frequently leaves a car running radar at Thruway exits with nobody in the car (or with the officer not actively looking at traffic).

Next time you notice an alert by an exit, look over (or even pull into) the parking area near the small office building by the tollbooth. You will see a NYSP unit idling there.

I predict that this practice will be reduced due to the move to cashless tolling - I figure the police like to stop to talk to the thruway employees working there (tolltakers going on or off shift, and other administrative or maintenance workers in those Thruway buildings) - but now that there won't be any people, there won't be as much desire to stop.

However, I think they still like to pull over at the exit areas to do paperwork, check the computer, take care of personal business on their phones, and meet with other police, and they feel safe doing so on Thruway property. Plus, remember, they can go back and forth through the tolls without paying, and make U-turns at the exit without going through the tolls (neither of which you can do). Doing this at the exits rather than on the Thruway proper makes it much safer for them because traffic is going much more slowly and drivers are paying better attention. My point is you will continue to see some of this activity in the future, even after all the thruway tolltakers are gone.

 

[dstxl]

Do NOT lock it out. NYSP very very very frequently leaves a car running radar at Thruway exits with nobody in the car (or with the officer not actively looking at traffic).

Next time you notice an alert by an exit, look over (or even pull into) the parking area near the small office building by the tollbooth. You will see a NYSP unit idling there.

I predict that this practice will be reduced due to the move to cashless tolling - I figure the police like to stop to talk to the thruway employees working there (tolltakers going on or off shift, and other administrative or maintenance workers in those Thruway buildings) - but now that there won't be any people, there won't be as much desire to stop.

However, I think they still like to pull over at the exit areas to do paperwork, check the computer, take care of personal business on their phones, and meet with other police, and they feel safe doing so on Thruway property. Plus, remember, they can go back and forth through the tolls without paying, and make U-turns at the exit without going through the tolls (neither of which you can do). Doing this at the exits rather than on the Thruway proper makes it much safer for them because traffic is going much more slowly and drivers are paying better attention. My point is you will continue to see some of this activity in the future, even after all the thruway tolltakers are gone.

We actually did discover that the falses are being caused by digital "wrong way" signs, which use Stalker antennas to detect vehicles before turning on the sign. You'll find a couple pictures of them if you scroll up through the thread.

 

[Rocket Jockey]

When taking certain exits on I-90 in NY in the last couple of months (as well as driving by exit 34 even if I'm not exiting), I get a strong Ka band signal on my R3, always very close to 34.7. Could be wrong, but I think it has to do with the new cashless tolling system that was recently installed across the Thruway. I'd like to lock them out, but NYSP pretty much exclusively uses 34.7. If I lock out these falses, and a second 34.7 signal gets detected in the area due to a real LEO running radar, will my R3 mute both of them, or will it unmute since it's picking up two signals despite being at the same frequency?

NYS Police Are "1" of the Few State Police In the Country That Station "Ready-5" Intercept Vehicles!

Just Like In the Movie Top Gun When Maverick's Skipper Say's, "Put Maverick In the "Ready-5 Aircraft"!
That Means, To Take Off In 5-Minutes! or, Less! Comes From WWII Carrier Operations To Intercept Kamikaze Pilots!
They Should Call It the "Ready-2-seconds Pursuit Vehicle"!
That's What It Feels Like When They Come Flying Up Your Rear With the Disco Ball Lights! "PANIC-LIGHT"!!!...

On the NY Thruways, State Troopers Are Monitoring ALL-Traffic! Mostly For Emergencies On the Highways!
But, Always Standing By To Pursue & Intercept Speeders! Also, At the Tollbooths! Either Facing Opposing Traffic!
or, Parallel To It! Troopers Lingo For This Is, "Ready-5 Launch Position"! "2-seconds"!!!

Who Would Expect A State Trooper To Be Locked! Cocked! And Ready To Rock! From Their Barracks???!

As dstxl Will Attest To, NY State Trooper's Barracks Run Parallel To the Highways In New York!
A Motorist Can Turn Off Into the Barracks Right Off the Highway In New York!

So NO! Don't Lock Out Your Ka-34.7 Alerts! EVER!...

The LEO's Have Their Tricks!

We Have Each Other! To Keep "US" Informed of Their Tricks !...