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Automotive News & Views Radar/Lidar detectors
1206 messages, Last post on Dec 28, 2008 at 5:16 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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LASER DETECTORS ARE USELESS. I'll say that again, slowly: Laser detectors are useless. There is not ONE detector, not even one, that can provide you with any protection against a laser gun. Period, point blank, not one of them can do it, so don't even factor this into your decision. The laser beam is simply too narrow to provide any signal if you are down the road and the cop is plinking cars in front of you. The only reason to have them is to jog your brain for excuses, because when and if that thing goes off, you ARE getting a ticket. As far as detection goes, the higher on the car, the better, but I really think that in the real world, there's little difference between a bumper and a windshield mount. A dash mount is problematic because of the metal wipers shielding radar, and some cars have metallic window tints up top which attenuate the strength of the incoming signal, so there are problems everywhere. Additionally, rearward protection is also useless...after you've passed a cop, it doesn't matter whether you can detect him at maximum range. If he's instant-onning cars in front of you (from behind an overpass or something as they go by), you will get a reflected signal off of the back of their cars before you are into the beam yourself. While in the beam, even a detector with no "rearward" protection will provide a strong reading. If you seriously want to avoid laser detection, you have to buy a jammer and K40 makes one of the best, along with Laser Blinder, I believe, although don't quote me on the second one. The V1 has some interesting features, many of which are useless, like the multiple radar and directional crap. Radar has such a short range that you're out of the detection zone in the real world in a pretty short time, so who cares whether the radar is beside you or behind you? When the meter is pegged you stay slow until the signal goes away and it's quiet for a couple seconds. While this V1 stuff is maybe cool to watch, it's of little use for actually avoiding tickets which ALWAYS come from radar sources that are IN FRONT OF YOU before you enter the tracking zone. However, the V1 has top-flight range and anti-falsing, so it's still probably the best bet. I'd much rather see their technical features without all the Star Wars crapola in a more reasonably priced package. Because the Bel 855/955STI has equivalent range, it makes it tough to justify spending the additional $150. My personal recommendation from driving with a detector for years and getting NO radar tickets in that period is buy a detector with #1 the most range and #2 good antifalsing. #2 becomes more important in urban areas. In rural areas, nothing, NOTHING can substitute for range, because the facts of speed traps these days dictate that instant-on will be used. Stationary, always-on radars are NO challenge even for a $40 detector. Your ONLY chance to avoid instant-on radar is to get a signal when it is used on a car ahead of you on the road. If there are no cars, the cars are too far ahead, or the terrain is not amenable to radar carrying a long way, you are SOL. The detector with the most range gives you the best chance because it allows detection (maybe literally only ONE beep before you hit the speed trap) for cars the furthest ahead of you, effectively extending your detection zone. Pretend that this is like submarine warfare and you'll get the picture...detector driving is a skill that you learn. |
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I will respectfully disagree with some of the items that were just posted. I LIKE the multiple hit counter of the V1. I can certainly see how a cop could hang out near a Walmart, tagging people as they go by, because they are so used to the detector going off from the automatic doors at the front of the store. It was nice to know that while passing a Walmart, that fifth radar signal was probably NOT the doors, especially since I had just passed said Walmart and four of those signals were behind me. Oh, I like that directional indicator very much. Even in submarine warfare, the more information you have, the better your decisions will be. The V1 provides more information than any other detector, and while you may choose to ignore that extra information, I for one would rather have it available. In conclusion, I will respectfully disagree with your statement about how the direction indicators and the hit counter are "crap." I found them to be most useful. |
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I'm not interested in speeding in town. I guess if you are speeding by Wal Mart, then you have a use for the hit counter. I've found that the vast majority of these instances of "multiple" hits or places where the auto door opener will set your detector off are in town/city and I obey the speed limits there. |
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Neither was I. I was making a 1700 road trip from Texas to Virginia, and the Walmart/Sams/Lowes or whatever was visible from the highway. In Atlanta, they have some radar-activated stop lights, instead of the magnetic detection types found in VA. Every overpass I went through, the V1 would pop up & say "bogey" and then let me know when I passed it. One particular overpass, it popped much earlier than before, and it was practically having a conniption by the time I got to the overpass. The reason was some guy had stalled and a cop was parked under the overpass, helping him / writing him up and he had left his radar on. Hit counter read "2". Much more usefull than just a light and a beep, 'cuz I was getting really used to ignoring signals from overpasses in that town. Using a detector when you're in town and not speeding... the easy way to fix this is to shut the thing off until you hit the highway. At that point, every brand is just as effective. 
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Anyone know of a website that keeps track of towns or states that use Laser? I just received my V1 today and I do agree Laser is a toughie to get away from. Might as well avoid the towns. Also, are there any techies out there that have a spec for the V1 interface to the remote display? I am in the works of building an mp3 player/gps unit for my car and thought having an onscreen readout would be cool. They (Valentine) were not willing to give away the spec though. Hard thing to hack too since you gotta spark the alarms. G |
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| try speedtrap.com | |
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| ok, I'm witcha now, Bhelper. | |
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In Atlanta, before the 96 Olympics, they installed a traffic monitoring system to tell which roads were congested. The system uses radar to determine average traffic speed. It also has video cameras that they can switch to to look at the traffic flow. No, you can turn on your TV in the morning, and see how busy the traffic is before you depart for work. |
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| hey everyone. ok, i just got my first ticket yesterday and obviously i'm not too happy about it. luckily i can go to traffic school to get the points off my record so my insurance doesn't go up. well, anyway, i don't want this to happen again so i've decided to go ahead and get a radar detector. i know that the v1 is probably the best detector on the market, but to be honest i just don't have 400 bucks to spend. i was just curious as to what u guys would consider to be the #2 detector on the market and the price for it. thanks a lot | |
| I was wondering where and how much a radar jammer would cost or is it standard with some radar detectors? | |
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