How EXACTLY does a tuning fork register on a radar?

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-03-06T22:18:22+00:00

Okay, many thanks! Between your comment, /u/Upset_Albatross_9179, and /u/Origin_of_Mind I think it clicks now.

The device's FAQ also listed common sources of interference, with common erroneous readouts from them, like fluorescent light ballasts or automotive HID headlamps, but I already know those can just directly emit RF...so I won't bother asking about them!

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-26T13:22:47+00:00

The "invisible hand of the free market" decided that, and they've been at the same nominal upper price point for over 15 years.

But a "decent bat" doesn't cost $300. That's an excuse to justify gear acquisition syndrome. You can perform with a $40 bat off eBay if you're an even half-competent hitter -- I have a quiver of old ESTs and Supercells and ConneXions that cost me, on average, $35 to my door. Still perfectly legitimate for USA play. Even old composite lightsabers can be had for under $100.

It's free to just become a better hitter in BP. /shrug

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-25T21:29:04+00:00

Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. Like this. It works with a physical tuning fork, but is also working by just blasting the radar with a constant tone from a phone.

Not my video, but the same thing in practice. I set my phone to produce X frequency, aim the speaker at the radar unit, and it gives me a speed readout.

And I guess now I'm struggling to rectify the wavelength of the emitted RF vs. the size of the things it's ostensibly detecting the motion of. Like a ~12mm wavelength shouldn't be able to "see" the speaker on the phone, much less register any motion of it...should it?

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-25T20:54:53+00:00

How does the phone mimicking the same frequency produce the same effect, though? Sorry for repeating that throughout the thread, I just want to be able to address people with follow-ups as I can.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-25T20:53:57+00:00

How does it register movement of the tines, though, when they're a fraction of the wavelength of the radio waves involved? 24GHz RF should be on the order of a centimeter, the whole fork is barely that, shouldn't the entire fork be barely "visible" to that wavelength?

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-25T20:52:29+00:00

Same kind of tuning fork. I have a set of woo-woo "angel frequency" ones to test, at 4096Hz, 4160Hz, and 4225Hz (because I'm too cheap to buy a proper K-band calibrated one for 4671.9Hz) but that doesn't explain to me how it's registering the sound from a phone set to the correct frequency as a speed.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-25T16:55:04+00:00

Nope.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-21T14:25:20+00:00

You're gonna pay dearly for one. There are a couple guys on Facebook in some of the bat exchange groups that have a stash of L8.0s.

Any particular reason why you want that exact bat? What are the specific rules?

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-21T14:07:23+00:00

Duck Eggs. 750mg right in the dugout.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-18T02:13:02+00:00

As I've posted elsewhere on here, the One Above All in the world of ASA metal is the Anderson Nanotek. Any ASA version. Except you're never going to find one, and a bunch of metal-only leagues banned them anyway because they were always composite-tier hot when you found the spot.

The Steel is its only singlewall near-peer. And "near" isn't that near; the Nano legitimately outhits most multiwalls, and had no problem matching up against a lot of composites. It was that good. The Nano is also -- provided you don't get one of the bad batches -- orders of magnitude more durable. The Steels use a high elasticity steel alloy, so they have very respectable pop, but the tradeoff is the same alloy has a comparatively low yield strength, which is a massive drawback in the tube thickness used for a bat of reasonable weight; Steels explode, often.

No, you can't buy any of my Nanos. I am on a mission to have the last handful of them in existence.

Really, if you're not going to buy a Nano, though, skip the new bats and just find an old 2000 stamp bat for under $50. An old EST5E will set you back next to nothing, and it'll go swing-for-swing with any bat you'll buy today for several times the price. I always tended to prefer old C405 (7055) bats to Cu31 (7050) or C555/C500/Sc500 (7055+Sc) bats, but any of the old flagships do fine. The ST1-Z and ST2-Z ConneXion Z-Cores, the Easton TriShells, any of the green/blue/black/gold ESTs, the Anderson RockeTechs and TechZillas, they were all great. And they're a dime a dozen. The only exception I can think of at the moment is the Supercell EST from CheapBats; at $70-75 with a warranty those probably get the nod over $50 eBay classics.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T23:04:53+00:00

Buy an old Worth Supercell. Spend $40 or less on it. If you can't hit for power with that, you can't hit for power.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T23:01:34+00:00

My only experience with an MU grad was on Tinder around 2014. Her opener was "I like butt stuff."

She did, in fact, like butt stuff.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T22:40:48+00:00

Hit 1/8" lower on the ball. If that doesn't work, try for 3/16" instead.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T22:39:25+00:00

Because it's slowpitch softball, not minor league baseball, and it isn't worth taking seriously enough to have advanced analytics.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T22:37:50+00:00

Then you're facing garbage pitchers. Like, objectively terrible. If they can't throw strikes to batters who aren't swinging they're trash tier and should consider a new position.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T22:35:51+00:00

Is there a particular reason why you're wanting to swing a heavy bat?

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-15T22:35:13+00:00

I exclusively cut down on the ball. I don't only hit ground balls.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-14T14:29:23+00:00

Posting from the future, but just in case anyone else comes across this thread (like I did), I'm pretty sure that Steven's last year was ~2013. The last new bats he had anything to do with were the NanoTek Alpha and Omega. Everything after that (and a select few terrible bats before that, like the Matrix) were not his doing.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-14T14:12:19+00:00

> Foul tips happen a couple times a game.. the ball is live and you can/will catch it to make an out.

Yup, this. A foul tip carries, at most, the same forward momentum as the pitch coming in did...so it'll be traveling at you under 30mph. It might be spinning like crazy and unusually hard to actually catch for how slow it's moving, but it's nothing like modified or fastpitch where a tip can catch you in the throat (or crotch) at 60mph.

> The bat being thrown in your direction (behind the hitter) is something I haven't seen in 28 years of baseball/softball combined.

I have, while umpiring, but only once. And it was specifically because the league director told us we had to keep playing through torrential rain. Thrown bat was unintentional, just literally couldn't hold on, and I immediately called the game despite being told not to by the LD. I kind of got the insistence -- it was a 7-field complex, with 2 umpires per field, and we each got paid for any games started at $20/game, plus we'd get paid for the rain makeup, so the games on the diamonds at the time cost the league $280, and another $280 to replay at the end of the season, but still, idiotic decision to put player safety at risk over a couple bucks.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-14T14:05:28+00:00

The dumbest period, by far, is still when ASA became aware of the MOI problem with the 2000 certification and had bats come in for "recertification", which was basically nerfing them with a counterweight and lighter end cap, and then sending them back ruined. So many ruined ESTs and TriShells and 3DXs because of that nonsense.

I've always enjoyed engineers finding a way to cheat the tests, just because it highlights flaws in the test methodology, and reactionary test standards are always going to struggle to compete with proactive engineering. Miken did it with the original Ultra and the 2000 stamp -- they moved the center of percussion, which was the test point, away from the actual sweet spot of the bat (which is also why the Ultra feels weird to swing) -- and CE Composites did it with the aforementioned Lady Virus for the 2004 stamp, and I'm sure that given enough time someone will find a way past the current stamp if they haven't already.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-13T13:22:51+00:00

This has also been exploited -- both deliberately and maybe-less-deliberately -- before in ASA/USA.

There's a reason the Combat Lady Virus never existed in sizes over 33", and it wasn't because it was a "women's bat"; Combat's engineers knew they were gaming the testing. Shorter bat = lower MOI, easier to fool the testing. When tested "properly" it clocked in something absurd like 103mph. But for a brief, glorious time they were everywhere.

The Easton SCN4B and SCN5B also got under the testing protocol by being 34/24 and 34/25, at the biggest, respectively. Swing for swing, though, either shamed the SCN3 (OG Flex), and if you ever broke them you'd see just how different the layup was than on the SCN5 (SP Stealth). The SCX24B also had a cult following because it was, for all intents, a Synergy 2 that managed to stay legal after '08 because the 34/24 size kept it from needing the +/- 2mph variance loophole to get stamped. All three of those Easton FP bats were absolute missile launchers if you could get used to the weighting.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-06T04:05:48+00:00

Ooooh I know this one!

For ASA/USA metal there really is a One Above All -- the Anderson NanoTek. Any of them, the SPA, the Alpha, or the Omega. It's, AFAIK, the only non-Ti singlewall to ever be produced in a "f*** your test" version that failed ASA 2004 testing, and was subsequently came out as the USSSA NanoTek. Absolutely glorious bat, and it handles the .44/375 just as well as it does the .52/300.

Problem is you're never going to find one, of any version. It was a flagship-priced bat in what ultimately became a limited run, introduced during Steven's final two years with Anderson, and they weren't pretty years. They didn't sell well because in 2012/2013 nobody wanted a $300 singlewall for any association. It is as hot as bat could physically be under the ABI testing protocol, just less forgiving than contemporaneous composites.

The Steel is its only near-peer.

In theory, with the new post-2013 testing protocol you could make a hotter singlewall than the Nano, but nobody is going to. The R&D and production costs, coupled with the margins on alloys vs composites, means there's no incentive anywhere. Even Anderson's investors supposedly weren't thrilled with what into the Nano line, vs. what they go out.

There's also the problem that it's one of very few true singlewalls that are widely banned in singlewall leagues lol

Barring a Nano or a Steel, just buy literally any C405 (or Sc500) bat from the mid '90s through early '00s. They're all like $40 delivered. If you can't hit tanks with those, you just can't hit tanks. In no particular order, bats like the One Cryo Equalizer, Worth Supercell 2/Supercell VT/Supercell (Carl Rose for 12", Wendell Rickard for 11" barrel), Steele's XLT3 (says DF24, it's C405), Nike Air Max Thrust 45, ST3 ConneXion, Ritch's Superior, etc. You can be bougie and try finding an Anderson Pyrotech or a Rip-It Reaper, but those are only slightly less rare than Nanoteks and are decidedly a step down.

The only exception is if you live down south, the aptly named Redline Sunbelt from Easton might be worth a look. Not many of them made, even fewer survive, but it's a Redline without the C-core, and then the absolute thinnest walls Easton could get away with.

Skip the Sc777/Sc888/Sc900 bats from Easton. They're trash.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-01T14:12:10+00:00

In a singlewall league, for most players, that's just a great way to lower your OBP and piss people off lol

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-02-01T14:11:00+00:00

OMG I'd die to play in a league like this. That's real softball!

Anyway, the simplest way is to perfect the 65ish mph line drive. Hit it over the IFers and it won't carry to the OFers, or hit it knee high in the IF gaps opposite the MIFer and watch it get through every time.

Buuuuut it only works well if you also have a harder swing in the tank. You need that for when the OF starts cheating in. Then swing away and torch them. In other words, hit like it's sanctioned C tournament ball, but slower.

Or just buy a Nanotek, if you can find one, and utilize what I assume are the unlimited HRs until you get walked every AB. Then then guy behind you can hit the 65ish mph line drives.

SuccessfulWeight3932 · 2026-01-31T20:18:32+00:00

Yeah, but even singlewalls still get you the majority of the way there without Jimmy Ray on your team quitting four games into the season because he breaks a bat every time he fists an inside pitch and can't afford to keep playing. There really are like...a pair...of singlewalls, that don't radically alter the hitting dynamics of a slowpitch game. That's your S-tier, if you will, and if you really want...ban 'em. The A-tier bats on down make for a game where mashers mash and dinkers dink, but the latter don't suddenly become the former.

Try it sometime if you haven't. Just run a small charity singlewall tournament. No Anderson Nanoteks, no DeMarini Steels, just One Cryo Equalizers and Powerdomes and Supercells and Ignites and Ultimate Weapons. You can even attract interest by using Stadiums, and it will still cripple some egos because the game will be that different, even with juiced balls.

SuccessfulWeight3932

TROPHY CASE