In this ppaer, we propose a new detector based on the median-shift sign, and then investigate its asymptotic and finite sample-size performance. We call it the median-shift sign (MSS) detector, which is an extension of the classical sign detector. First, we consider the asymptotic opti$$mu$</TEX> median shift values and their characteristics. Next, we consider the asymptotic relative efficiency of the MSS detectors. we then consider the problem of detecting known signals in noise of known probability density function, and the problem of detecting known signals when only partial information is available on the noise.