Radar Detectors
 

Hello,

I live in Canada where radar detectors are illegal.
Many times I've thought about buying one but I've heard a couple of urban myths that keep me from doing so. Since they are legal in the US I figure some of you will know the truth when it comes to these babies.

1. I've heard that the police have "radar detector - detectors". Is there such a thing? Or is it just the keen observation of the police officer that results in a car being pulled over for having a radar detector? ... and then confiscated and possible fine.

2. Lasers - We have these up here and apparently there is no way to detect them. Of the ads for detectors I've seen, some say they detect the laser. Is this possible? ... If so how good are they at it?

Any input would be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,

Kato,

The truth is that there is a radar detector- detector.

There is plenty of good info at www.valentine1.com which is by far the best detector out there.

Alex

D'Oh!

Perhaps I'll stay detector free...and just dream about the possibility.

Thanks,
Kato

I live in Ottawa and have a few cop conections here.

1st. They do sell radar detector -detectors but they cost alot of $. Ottawa has a few but the budget isn't there for the whole fleet to have some.

We also have laser here, but just like every other type of instant on radar if you are all alone on the road and you get an instant scream from the detector, you've been hit. Ain't nothing you can do about it. If there is lots of traffic movement around you, you will get the refections from the other cars to warn you. If you get stopped, unplug the unit right away and shove it down your crotch, they can search your car but not you. Also, the law in Ontario is it's illegal to use a detector but not to own one. If they do see the detector most cops will ask you to prove that it doesn't work.......ie step out of your car and accidently smash it on the road. Then they can't prove it worked.

If you do want to buy one they are legal in Alberta. Go on line and check out Futureshop in Calgary, they sell them all.

Good luck.

Re: Radar Detectors
 

Actually, radar detectors are legal in a few provinces such as British Columbia.

For me, my Valentine One has saved my butt a few times!

Cheers,
(from the rest of Canada)

Michael

Very interesting. So since they are legal to own I could purchase from Alberta, B.C., or from the US?

As far as hiding the unit if pulled over ... sounds like the only option after spending $500 or so on the unit.

Perhaps I'll think more about it.

Cheers,
Kato

I checked out future shop online and it seems they have them hidden somewhere.

What search parameters bring them up?

I tried radar, radar detector, radar locator, valentine one, valentine, etc...

nothing???

Actually they're not legal in every state in the US. I believe in Conneticut it was legal to own a detector and have it in your car but not legal to have it turned on.

Sorry about that.
You have to call them. Also they do not ship them out of province. I paid for it over the phone and had a friend in Calgary pick it up and ship it to me. They don't sell the valintine but carry Escort, Cobra and the cheaper models.

So the worse case sinario is you loose your detector and you have a pissed off cop who will now give you the full ticket. ( no reduction) But if you play with speed quite a bit it will probably save you $$$$$$$$ before this happens.

A cop friend of mine has his own detector detector system.

He'll come up behind a group of cars going too fast, and blip his radar on for a second. The cars that hit the brakes instantly have detectors.

The result is the entire group slows down, and the cop feels he has done his job without writing any tickets.

I have a radar detector in my car - Bel 980. It is an older model but I use when I know I am blatantly going to drive fast or drive in an area that I don't know. Otherwise I really don't use it because I know my driving route, I know where possible speed traps are and can slow down enough before I reach those points. Radar detectors will not save you from a ticket if you are doing 120 in a 55 and fly by the officer, keep your eyes open and moving and watch for common signals like everyone else hitting their brakes. Don't hit your brakes but lift your foot of the gas. Those those hit the brakes can cause someone at the end of the line to hit and cause a chain reaction that leads to 5-10 car pile ups. Their are so many techniques to effective and safe driving if you are going to go over the speed limit.

Valentine ONLY sells direct...no middlemen

Subjective comment. :D

I bought both the Valentine One and Escort 8500. I returned the Valentine and bought a second Escort 8500.

The directional arrows on the V1 were "cool" (and helpful) but they also slowed my reaction time (I would hear the alert, look at the display for a second to determine where my hit was coming from - traveling another 100 feet or so - then slow down. With the Escort, I hear the alerts and slow immediately).

I have never received a radar ticket when driving with the Escorts.

Both are excellent units - if you know how to use them.

"The West is the Best". Radar Detectors are quite legal in Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC. Not that I care much for them. I own one only because it came with the car.

I have a Bel 880 and live in Alberta (legal). The killer here is photo radar and with the 911 it's SO EASY to be 10 to 15 mph over the limit. These are not big tickets, but they add up.

Does it work? Without it in one year I was half way to losing my license and with it I haven't gotten a ticket in 3 years. Might be just luck, but I've noticed two factors in my favour. One, radar is so easy for the police they can write their quota of tickets without being tricky. Usually they just leave their radar on all the time and go for the real juicy tickets. Two, you learn were they are and what they look like so you actually adjust your driving habits.

I would never drive a sports car without it.

You could do what a guy I know did, although I don't know how it would work out in a p-car. He got a unit with a remote sensor and remote display/controls. He mounted the sensors behind the front bumper, and wired up the display/controls in his ash tray in the cabin. Nice stealth type radar detector.

Unfortunately, I don't know what make/model detector he got.

I would heavily caution you against using a radar detector in Ont or any other jurisdiction where they are illegal. You will lose it; think about it this way...

Your chances of getting a ticket driving without a detector are pretty remote. I know it seems like cops are out to get us - but really, it almost has to be a "perfect storm" before we get nailed, right? Cops might be looking for you - but only when you speed.

Now if you drive with an illegal detector, you've just raised the bar about hundred notches on the scale of probability that you'll get caught. Cops are always looking for you (at least passively) whether you're speeding or not. And when they find you - they will not be happy campers. And when they find you; your sins will cost you much more dearly than simply the wages of speeding.

Without detector: you speed you might get caught.

With detector: you drive you might get caught - with much larger consequences.

...you decide.

I got 5 miles across the Sask/Man border (into Man) before I got nailed with mine. I just forgot (honestly) to turn it off. Nice RCMP let me keep it. Nailed again in Ontario - nice OPP let me keep it. Everyone loves an Albertan - you ain't so lucky.

Laser jammers are legal everywhere (afaik) and are pretty much undetectable. Escort unit works like a charm. Valentine useless against laser. Go for it...

A good way to test your laser radar detectors is too drive near an airport. They use the laser radar for planes on approach. My detector always goes insane near LAX or JWA.

Agreed on the following use. That's how most survive without them.
Thanks for all of the great responses!

Kato

That explains it :eek:

I thought that the local gendarms had a permanent laser speed trap by the airport

Thanks for explaining that little mystery!

I live in CT, and they used to be illegal. A friend got in my car, looked up and saw mine and said, "Dude! Those things are illegal!"

I replied, "yup...so is speeding". The friend in the back had a cow.

So, count me in as a supporter, and I will take a radar detector fine/confiscation any day over a $350 points adding, insurance busting speeding ticket any day.

And...I have been pullled over numerous times in the old days when they were illegal, and the stuff it down your pants trick works. Be prepared though, the cop might point down and ask, "Is that a Gatorade bottle in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?"

Finally, instant on seems to be beatable.

That's very interesting considering the Valentine seems to have the better reputation ... or is that just the adverts that have brainwashed me?

Do you know if I could purchase from out of province or the US and actually get it? I'm assuming because they're legal in Ontario (but not to use) I can receive one in the mail?

Radar detectors are also legal in Saskatchewan. I've got a Bel 950 and regularly travel the highway between Edmonton and Saskatoon. My Saab 9000T is a great Q-ship highway cruiser and I do 130 kph and stretches at 150 kph. I've just bought my 911 and haven't yet had it out.

The detector is good to have but you've got to be smart and watch the road and traffic conditions. A detector isn't a get out of jail pass and if you're not smart about how you drive, you will - and should - get caught.

Seems to me that possession of a detector is illegal in some provinces (Manitoba?), so even if you're caught and its not on, you'll lose it.

Rod.

Valentine One is a radar/laser detector - Escort ZR3 is a laser jammer - two different technologies/tools. I'm not talking about the Escort vs Valentine radar detectors. You should not use either in Ontario (like I said) - you will get caught, lose it, get fined for speeding and get fined for having the radar detector. Cops know you have it (with technology or based on observation/behaviour) - "hiding it down your pants" will do you no good, my friend. You can run but you cannot hide.

Escort ZR3 laser jammer (useless against radar) will save your butt in a laser speed trap. They are a hardwire install, expensive ($600 CDN or so) and legal everywhere in Canada.

More and more cops are going to laser (in the west, anyway). Your fancy radar/laser detector (including the excellent Valentine) is completely useless against laser. Once the laser detector goes off - too late - you are toast - no other option but to kiss your unit and butt goodbye.

In the US, the legality of having a radar detector has never been truly tested, AFAIK. Remember, a state legislature cannot make any law they want - they are limited by state and US Constitutions, and sometimes by federal statutes (the Federal Communications Act in this case). That would be a hard fought battle if you wanted to fight it, however.

Practically speaking, a hidden detector would be hard for the cops to find if it were switched off by the time they stopped you. This applies to a quality detector, not to the el cheapo heterodyne things which emit like crazy.

So, I disagree with Purrybonker in some respects.

There is no such thing as "laser radar" anywhere in the air traffic control system. In fact, there is no such thing as "laser radar." Laser is laser, radar is radar. The former uses light, the latter uses microwave. If controllers at LAX "used laser radar for airplanes on approach," it would be useless, assuming such a thing existed, if the visibilty was lousy...which is exactly when you'd most want it.

Been a pilot for 38 years, and the only radar I've ever experienced is microwave.

Stephan

I think the term "laser radar" is proper as both work via the same principle: the doppler effect. Or something like that.
"Microwave radar" vs "Laser radar"?

Kato

Semantically not possible. Radar stands for "RAdio Detection And Ranging." Laser stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation." Combine the two phrases and they make no sense.

In any case, using laser as a radar-like device--i.e. to measure the range between the emitter and the object being lased, and to calculate the change and rate of change of that range--only works when the visibility is good enough for the laser light to be transmitted successfully. That's why laser target designators don't work in bad weather and why you couldn't track aircraft in IFR conditions with a laser "radar."

Some car manufacturers, such as Mercedes, have true rader cruise control, which uses microwave energy. They work in all conditions, as long as you don't put something impervious to microwaves in front of the transmitter (usually somewhere in the grille). Other manufacturers, such as Lexus, use a laser for their "radar" cruise control. (And yes, they call it "radar," but that doesn't make it right.) They don't work worth a damn in bad weather or if you get dirt on the laser.

Stephan

No such thing as laser? My Bel 880 says it detects X, K and Ka band radar AND Total Tracking Laser (TTL). So there is a laser system, we don't have to call it radar so don't worry your pretty little heads about it, but it does exist. But as I said before, whatever system the police use it's so easy for them to write tickets that they get sloppy and that's where the detectors pay off. Mostly they just leave the system in their patrol cars on all the time so not only do you not get speeding tickets but you don't get moving violations either.

Read the thread. I didn't say "there's no such thing as laser." I was responding to a poster who claimed to have sensed "laser radar" used at LAX "to track aircraft on approach."

Stephan

Let's just call it Lidar.


And, BTW, if you think there is a lot of it around commercial airports, try driving near the USAF flight test areas in the Mojave -- drove my V1 nuts.

Touchy, touchy! You could be an English teacher.

That would be me. Let me clarify, I used the term radar incorrectly. They use laser to track aircraft on approach. I have a radar detector and it detects a laser signal when I drive near the airports or in the terminals.

How does a 'radar detector' detector work? I thought radar/laser detectors were simply passive receptors of a signal and did not emit a signal themselves.
Has anyone here tried to the Escort laser jammer? It would be a nice supplement to a Valentine detector since, as others have noted, once the laser detector goes off, you have already been zapped (as I found out the hard way). There is also an increasing amount of 'instant on' radar where I live.

In a nutshell: Like most radio recievers, a radar detector generates an internal signal and hetrodynes or "beats" (superimposes the wqaves in a certain way) the two signals. This makes it easier to discriminate the outside signal...

A 'detector' detector is able to pick up leakage from those circuits thru the box and your car...
Ever notice your radar det. often goes off when going past a big truck? It is picking up from the trucks (usually cheap) radar det.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: ;)

Chris, Chris:D Shall I get out the back hoe or would you like to stop while you still only have the very large shovel in your hand?

Forget Laser when thinking aviation. Let it go. Let it go.;)

Radar is used for tracking aircraft.

Actually, there is another way to track airplanes over Oceanic airspace, but I won't go there...

I apologize as this is an assumption on my part that laser is used to track aircraft on approach. I assumed they used a system such as LIDAR or similiar to LIDAR to help determine distance.

I will throw in a little more for you guys to read where I based my assumptions -

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-04-12-laser-entrepreneur_x.htm

In context they could. LASER light is a form of EM. So are radiowaves. The LASER light in this context is being used to detect doppler shifts and catch speeders. So it could be called LASERURADAR. U=used for

?

but really. It's ridiculous to go on about this as LASER and RADAR technologies are being used to detect doppler shifts to determine your instantaneous speed. Er something.

Kato