Radar detectors

[70SWT]

I have had a V-1 and currently have a Passport. I probably preferred the V-1 because of the arrows. They are both great with respect to old-school radar that remains on for varying time periods, which is still in pretty extensive use.

With respect to instant-on radar and laser, these are much greater threats, so you have to combine the detector with strategic driving. As much as possible at any given time, keep other cars in what would be the line of sight between you and the relatively distant positions ahead in which cops might sit.

It will be much more effective at detecting radar targeting other cars than laser when used this way. And you WILL get some warnings for laser this way, as the beam sometimes intermittently comes on and goes around/between other cars.

But, if the fuzz can target your particular car with laser at some point, you are done. If you are the only car on the road, the protection against these threats is minimal. Either slow down or take your chances. With cops behind you, the V-1 is your best friend, but you are sometimes limited by the time you can spend scanning behind you.

[dicklague]

Originally Posted by ronnie's.930

my bro is po'lees and he says that radar detectors do nothing except cost a lot to purchase - if the detector goes off, that means you have been sighted - and not then getting stopped is simply because the officer chose not to stop you.

bs

[dicklague]

I use a Bearcat scanner that picks up CHP frequencies. Also and Escort Qi45 remote detector. Has antenna in front, main ECU under the dash with speaker and a small control box. Very sensitive and has saved my butt many times.

You can also get a laser "shifter" for this unit. 2 heads that plug into the main unit. They send the laser gun and error message when hit. I hear you have to turn off the main unit when you are first hit. Cops don't like to get a second error message or a 3rd!! That is what I hear. of course I would not have the laser shifter

Let me just say I like this set up. We have a highway here that was 55 MPH for 50 years and then they decided it should be 45 MPH.......now the CHP and Sheriff have a great time writing tickets for the quotas they don't have. lots and lots of revenue

[darrin]

i use a passport 9500ix on my daily commute and really like one feature it providers that the valentine lacks and that hasn't been discussed above. My passport has gps functionality built in that "learns" where static radar emitters are and, after seeing the same signature in the same place on multiple occasions, blocks out the signal. This eliminates the frequent alarms from grocery store doors, and other non-LEO radar emitters. Since my commute is primarily urban, I get a lot of these and would be more likely to tune out real alerts if I was barraged by many falses -- The GPS also alerts me to red light cameras,etc.

Another issue that's worth mentioning is that many new cars' collision avoidance systems appear to operate on the Ka band and I'm seeing an increasingly high number of false signals when I'm close to a new mercedes, etc.

Agree that at best, a radar detector is a tool that MAY help more than simple common sense, but is no substitute for prudence.

[Tidybuoy]

My radar detector has saved me many times and I would not drive without it. The CHP has to have you targeted pretty well since radar covers a very large area. The detector sees radar and alerts you. I find that the detector gives me enough advance warning to slow down when a cop is in the area. It has also changes some of my bad habits and caused me to slow down (at least sometimes).

Just recently, my laser detection went off and the sound was much different than ordinary radar. I did not recognize the alert and thought it was my phone. Fortunately, I was not speeding so I did not get stopped. However, the following day I was going about 80 when the laser detector went off and I instantly hit the brakes hard as I noticed a motorcycle chp with the gun pointed right at me. I did not get pulled over, so I figure that I slowed down fast enough for him not to get a good reading.

Regarding brands: I have an escort 8500. I like everything except the suction cups suck (actually, they don't suck enough). It occasionally will fall off the windshield which can be annoying.

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by Ronnie's.930

My bro is po'lees and he says that radar detectors do nothing except cost a lot to purchase - if the detector goes off, that means you have been sighted - and not then getting stopped is simply because the officer chose not to stop you.

Interesting. My nephew is a police officer and had his patrol car at Thanksgiving as he was working that evening. He told me that radar detectors could not keep up with modern police systems and I challenged him to a test. I drove around the block and he was to paint my car a certain number of times. I would let him know how many times he tagged me. He told me that I would not be able to tell because he has a instant-on system that radar detectors could not keep up with.

I drove around the block and counted radar tags 9 times. One of the times was over 1/2 mile away. When I pulled into the driveway, he was amazed that I had it 100% correct (9 times it was). Not once did he catch me over the limit as I slowed down to the limit every time.

[86 ssinit]

I have been using beltronics and escort for years now and I think they work. Have one in all my cars. Beltronics owns escort so they are the same detectors. Just got a pro 500 and it works great. When I get hit by laser it show me how fast I'm going through their gun and I believe it then scrambles their signal. I've been hit over 100 and never pulled over. Also the waze app works great if people in your area are using it. People report where the cops are and the reports show up on your map. It's pretty cool.

[jbrown]

Look at independent test. The valentine one and passport max are the best. The problem with the valentine is that it picks up very good but also picks up the most false signal so you don't know if its radar or a false signal. That is were passport technology shines. It virtually eliminates false signals. I have had both..

[SoCalSK8r]

My V1 has saved my butt so many times that I feel naked driving without it.

The directional arrows are super helpful too. For where I live and drive the GPS feature on the Passport is useless , but I could see the point if I were in a more urban area.




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[X JBM X]

I too have a V1 in my 911... but I find I get so many falses, that I don't really pay that much attention to it. I have to figure out how to reduce the falses it gives off...

Anyone have some suggestions for me on how to do this?

[ZOA NOM]

Most of us drive a similar pattern daily. That is where the V1 works well. You develop a mental "map" of the falses, and you find yourself tuned in to anything that isn't a normal pattern on your daily trip. This keeps the V1 at the top of my list.

[helosixx]

Those who have an iphone, check out the free app called "Waze". I like the V1 also but don't have it installed in my car at the moment.

[Jeff NJ]

Originally Posted by X JBM X

I too have a V1 in my 911... but I find I get so many falses, that I don't really pay that much attention to it. I have to figure out how to reduce the falses it gives off...

Anyone have some suggestions for me on how to do this?

If the police don't use X band in your area, you can turn that off, since that is what most falses are. Also, you can turn off POP, which is what causes the V1 to go off around Audi's with their active cruise control (or lane control, or whatever it is).

I have the V1 and I cant tell you how many tickets it has saved me. You do need to learn how to use it though as it is not absolute protection. It is just one layer of protection. Being alert to your surroundings, knowing where they hide, and understanding what the alerts mean are imperative. I almost always know which alerts I can ignore and which ones that I had better pay attention to immediately.

The arrows and bogey counters are so important on the V1 once you know how to use them because I can't tell you how many times I have (for example) passed cops with radar running that pulled someone over and had an extra alert showing another radar hit ahead. Without the arrows and bogey counter, you would assume you just passed the only radar and get nabbed. Knowing what the V1 can do with these features, I would feel very insecure driving with anything else, let alone nothing at all.

The gps feature in the passport is cool, but what about when the cops start sitting in the parking lot where the false hits are coming from. You will not know what hit you. I want to know where all of it is and if I am around town and not going fast, I just turn down the volume, but leave the lights on.

In states like VA where they are illegal, the cops use radar detector detectors to sniff out who is using them, (not sure how they work), so be careful in Ontario if you get one.

[RSBob]

Added Waze this afternoon and it's a great app. All it really needs is an audible warning when the revenuers are nearby rather than just an icon on the screen. I like its turn by turn audible navigation and fastest way from A to B based on traffic jams, construction, etc.

[tirwin]

There is a lot of good information and misinformation out there.

As far as detectors go, you really can't go wrong with either the higher end Escort or Valentine. I am using the Escort Redline with the SmartCord Live and the app for iPhone. Escort was I believe the first to market with this capability but I think other companies have a similar capability. Here's how it works. The detector connects to he app running on your smartphone via Bluetooth. As users are driving around and the detector goes off, it either automatically reports (in the case of Ka or laser) or gives the user the choice to report. There is a simple "report" button on the app and on the SmartCord itself right next to the mute button. So all of this information is fed into a system along with the GPS location. As other users come into the vicinity, they are notified of possible police presence. My detector displays "Live Cop" and there is a chirp followed by a voice that says "live police alert.". This technology is amazing. I get alerts well before I ever detect the radar or laser signature.

So here's the thing. This type of technology is called "crowd sourcing" because you're using the information of the crowd and notifying other users. The larger the crowd, the better the data gets. Driving around Atlanta, there are TONS of people using the Escort app. When the LEOs are set up on one of the major roads I have literally had a couple of dozen notifications in a few minutes (I wish Escort had an "acknowledge" feature or a way to rate limit when they come in rapid fire!). But if you're out in the sticks, you might be the only be the only user around.

Another key point to remember is that Valentine's system doesn't share it's info with Escort and vice-versa. So all of these systems are closed information islands, so picking the company with the biggest installed base of users is also to your advantage.

That brings me to Waze which is a free app that accomplishes much of what the Escort app does but it's free. The positive here is it's free and seems to be growing in popularity AND it's completely legal in places where radar detectors aren't (as far as I know). The negative is you might be the one that finds the LEOs for everyone else if you have no detector!

In the US, all forms of radar jamming are illegal because you don't have an FCC license to broadcast on that frequency. Laser jamming is different because the laser frequency bands are not controlled by the FCC. Now, some jurisdictions may have separate laws that classify jamming (shifting) as something akin to interfering with the police but that is slightly different. Selling a radar jammer is illegal. Selling a laser jammer/shifter is not.

I bought my Redline a couple of years ago and it has been the best detector I've ever owned hands down. I have not looked at the new Max from Escort but I suspect it is comparable if not better. I just got back from a trip to FL with my family. Wife and I took turns driving and we were shot with laser several times. We had already been notified well in advance by the app so we were driving the speed limit when we were shot. I noticed that it took the officer several seconds to get a lock on us. I have only been hit with laser during the day and the officer is always standing outside the vehicle so it seems that laser is only used in certain conditions.

Around here Ka band is by far the most common. X and K are almost always a false positive. When the LEOs are using Ka the Redline always picks it up far ahead.

By the way, Escort CLAIMS the Redline is invisible to radar detector detectors. The 9500ix is NOT invisible. The Redline is more sensitive than the 9500ix but it lacks the integrated GPS lockout feature (but you get that back if use the app). Basically the Redline is the same detector used in the 9500ci system.

[hbueno]

For those of you who are concerned about orivacy, research Waze before you use it.

Hugo

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Jeff NJ

The gps feature in the passport is cool, but what about when the cops start sitting in the parking lot where the false hits are coming from. You will not know what hit you. I want to know where all of it is and if I am around town and not going fast, I just turn down the volume, but leave the lights on.

My understanding is that Valentine has a patent on the directional arrows so Escort can't replicate that feature but the lockout feature on the Escort knows the number of sources. Let's say that there are two automatic doors at the grocery store and you lockout that location. If a cop set up in the parking lot, the Escort would detect 3 sources and notify you because of the change in source count. It also notifies you if there are multiple sources on different bands. Each source also has a signal strength bar indicator on the display.

[tirwin]

I took a screenshot in map view of the app so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

[TheSt|G]

V1 for my radar detector(can't beat the arrows/bogey counter). Can't count the number of times that they have saved my backside.

Laser Interceptor for laser jamming. They really do work, having field tested it a number of times myself.
https://www.laser-interceptorusa.com/index.php?route=common/home

[kodioneill]

Like some others said the Passport Max and the less expensive 9500x have GPS capability to mark false alarms also there's a weekly update that you can download new red light camera positions. There no false alarms at all after you set it up.