| IDiOM |
Hey All;
I am looking to buy a decent radar detector, but am not really sure which would be a good one. I checked out the Valentine One's, and they look pretty nice, but a bit pricey.
Any info on what radar detectors are good, which are not so good would be very helpful. :)
Thanks! |
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| Dopey88 |
| I have a valentine one and on the highway it is great but i hate it in the city! I find it works great city and highway in the states though. I have also been testing the Bel 985 and it is awsome wicked in the city and wicked on the highway!!! It does how ever have a little less range on the highway with Kband radar |
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| BLK_LBL |
yup, the Escort Passport 8500 is pretty much the best radar detector you can buy.
basically all you need is 360* detection, All band detection (x,K,Ka), something with auidable as well as visual displays, and something with a learning feature that will detect false alarms, and prevent them from happening later.
you can get a really deecent Bell, cobra, or whistler for around $175-$250 |
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| Spike7ss |
| I have a cheap old fuzzbuster and it works jsut fine :bigthumbup: |
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| BLK_LBL |
yeah the cheapo detectors work well. Basically with something higher price, you're going to get a bigger range (faster notification) and also the ability to filter out almost all false alarms.
most radar detectors have "VG2" which basically shuts off the detectors signal after it detects radar. This beasically means that a cop will not know you have a radar detector in your car (in some provinces its illegal, and cops have a way of finding out if you have one) This feature is useless in alberta.
like i said before, something around $175 - 250 should be more than enough for you |
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| SplineZ |
Gauge, you get another speeding ticket or what? ahah :)
I have an old fuzzbuster somewhere, I think my parents are using it, but it works fairly well on the highway..
Anything usefull against LASER radar? that'd be the bomb :)
oh yea.. and welcome to v8less! :P hehehh
James Z |
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| BLK_LBL |
| All the new stuff says "all band" which should include LASER, but who knows how good it will actually perform. :fingersx: |
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| rexxrally |
My cousin is an RCMP in BC. When he was stationed in Lytton, he was fulltime highway patrol through the Fraser canyon. He took his job of controlling speeding very seriously, because he's seen some really bad accidents due to speeding. Most of the time, he scraped the remains off the canyon walls with a spatula, if you know what I mean. He showed me the fatality inquiry photos; *shudder* pretty brutal.........
Anyways, I got to go out with him on patrol a few times, and I learned a lot from "the other side of the radar gun".
He would see a line of cars going the other way, and he would know that the guy in front was holding up the speeders behind. After 16 years of patrolling, he can tell by looking at a car coming towards him how fast the car is going, and dang! if he wasn't within 1-2kmph everytime! He still uses the radar gun for official speed on the tickets, however.
So, he could tell the guy in front was doing the speed limit. If the other guys are bunched up behind him, that means they were going faster than the speed limit until the front guy slowed them down. He'd wait until the cars passed, go around the next curve, and then hit the brakes, spin a U-turn, and casually crawl up to the end of the line.
He'd wait until the slower cars pulled out and passed ("watching the back bumpers hitting the pavement", he calls it), let them get up to speed, and then flick on the instant-on radar gun. He'd call out "1-2" and point out the windshield, and the brake lights of the cars with radar detectors would all go on in unison. He already had their speeds before they even knew he was there. He'd also know which cars had radar detectors before he even pulled them over.
Another thing he'd do is look for the cord going down from the rear-view mirror to the dashboard. That cord means radar detector, and radar detectors are only used by people who want to speed.
He drives an unmarked car, by the way, with a McDonalds bag and a baseball cap in the back window. The baseball cap is on top of the blue light (with the mesh facing backwards) and the McDonalds bag has a hole in it for the red light. He'd sometimes also have a baby doll in the back window, too, just to make him look like Joe Public, if a speeder came roaring up behind him.
He said that, in the old imperial system days, the RCMP would give drivers 10MPH over the speed limit before they would pull them over. When metric came along, they converted, too, and most of them would allow 16kmph over the speed limit. My cousin said that, unless they were having a bad day, most of them would give people to 20kmph over the speed limit. But, he said, don't count on that one. I know the city cops will only give you 10kmph before they pull you over.
I got lots of stories I could tell about my 2 days on the road with "the man", but it would take me too long to type them all. Let's just say that I ran up 13 points on my license before I went out with him, and I haven't had a ticket since I went out with him. It was a very valuable couple of days.
Oh, one more thing that you might find valuable: black bras on the front of cars make it more difficult for laser radar to pick up your speed. The more flatter/squarer the front end of your car, the easier it is for laser radar. The curviest car, according to them, is the Mazda MX-6. A Mazda MX-6 with a black bra is almost impossible for laser radar to pick up. |
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| IDiOM |
Hey All;
Wow, Rexxrally, thats pretty interesting for sure. Thanks alot for all the info guys, much appriciated. ;)
Thanks there splinez, altho, you don't know how to spell my name be-yatch.
:) |
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| SplineZ |
quote:
Originally posted by IDiOM@Jun 28 2003, 10:00 PM
Hey All;
Wow, Rexxrally, thats pretty interesting for sure. Thanks alot for all the info guys, much appriciated. ;)
Thanks there splinez, altho, you don't know how to spell my name be-yatch.
:)
haha! auto-dictionary musta kicked in ;)
sorry GAGE :P
James Z |
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| Z3r03rr0r |
| I have heard that flat black paint is also good protection agaonst the laser radar |
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| Redcoat Roaddog |
A little on Laser (by the way laser and radar are two different methods of obtaining vehicle speeds- they are not related).
The info about vehicle shape is correct. The hardest car to get actually is (her it comes. . .) a V8 Corvette. Fibreglass curved front end. Doesn't mean we won't getcha, just that you'll have to slam on the brakes quicker - no reaction therefore higher speed, if you don't see us first!
The black vinyl bra thing. . . not really. Besides, that's not where I aim the laser. |
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| POX |
quote:
Originally posted by rexxrally@Jun 28 2003, 08:12 PM
Oh, one more thing that you might find valuable: black bras on the front of cars make it more difficult for laser radar to pick up your speed. The more flatter/squarer the front end of your car, the easier it is for laser radar. The curviest car, according to them, is the Mazda MX-6. A Mazda MX-6 with a black bra is almost impossible for laser radar to pick up.
note to self, make MX-6 next project car
and get a bra for it.. |
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| BlueTurboEGG |
Redcoat Roaddog, welcome to the boards :)
Are you a traffic cop I take it?.
I remeber a while back regarding the laser radar in Car and Driver.
THey performed some test against a laser gun with infrared pass filters on large rally style aux. driving lamps.
The laser's range was reduced by half.
Now, I haven't tried this, but in theroy, it should work. |
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| SplineZ |
quote:
Originally posted by Redcoat Roaddog@Jul 3 2003, 07:58 PM
A little on Laser (by the way laser and radar are two different methods of obtaining vehicle speeds- they are not related).
The info about vehicle shape is correct. The hardest car to get actually is (her it comes. . .) a V8 Corvette. Fibreglass curved front end. Doesn't mean we won't getcha, just that you'll have to slam on the brakes quicker - no reaction therefore higher speed, if you don't see us first!
The black vinyl bra thing. . . not really. Besides, that's not where I aim the laser.
I heard the plastic cars like the fiero, corvette and saturns are hard to pick up.. and instead of aiming for the front of the car they'll go for your flipup headlites.. (if they are up) true or not?
James Z |
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| rexxrally |
| They try to go for the flattest part of the car so the most amount of the signal will bounce back, and not deflect or be absorbed. |
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| HKSpowers |
| Bel 970 it saved my ass many times!! |
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