Radar Detectors

[TheBeast]

Mine's hidden. Works like a charm. You'd have to sit down in the car, then move your head uncomfortably in a way to actually look at it. It's also solid black on a solid black head liner, behind tint, in a tiny little space. This is in my mustang.

 

[daniel3507]

Are the illegal in SC? In Oklahoma they are legal but laser jammers are not

 

[TheBeast]

As far as I know. I've been pulled over with them in the car. Never heard a word about it, and none of my cop friends have ever said anything to me. Most of them have one LOL... SC is extremely relaxed when it comes to laws with cars. Trucks with rockwells, 42's, and stacks are common, you don't need mud flaps, let alone anything else. About the only two things that screw you over here, is if your dragging a bagged car/truck, and if your racing. Otherwise loud exhaust, radar detectors, no catalytic convertors, and alot of other things like missing body parts and all pretty my flys. No inspections, no emissions = lovely.

 

[daniel3507]

Sounds like Oklahoma

 

[BigJohn76]

the best thing ive seen was when i was doing a ride along. we were cruising down highway 60 and 2 cars came up behind us. we clocked the guy in the passing lane at 80, its a 65 road, and pulled him over. he had a kid in the back so he was getting a ticket anyway. the trooper comes back to the car and as hes writing the ticket, he sees the radar detector. he asked the guy if the thing worked and the guy said yes. trooper said, "thats good. Here's your ticket, have a nice night."

 

[TheBeast]

Lol.

 

[n9emz]

I was told that it's good to mount it behind tint in order to protect it from UV rays. I believe I read it on there website somewhere. Seems to work just fine, and the upside is it doesn't fry on my dash board any longer. That thing used to get SMOKING hot during the summer.

Auto glass is treated to block UV but, even if it weren't, angularity of the windshield is perpendicularly parallel with the antenna lens. RD's need to be checked, factory recalibrated, and/or tuned before any UV damage would be apparent. My Bel RX65 is a 2004 model that been back to the factory twice over the years, and the last time was in March....speaker, antenna, upper plastics replaced, tune-up and firmware upgrade. Lens was undamaged but replaced with the antenna.

RD's are illegal in Virginia, Washington D.C., on all military bases and illegal nationwide in commercial vehicles. They're illegal in all Canadian provinces except Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan. Note there's still some debate regarding Virginia....consensus seems to be that a licensed Amateur Radio Operator (HAM) can be ticketed but RD can't be confiscated.

Laser Jammers and Radar Jammers are illegal in the states of Nebraska, Minnesota, Utah, California, Oklahoma, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois and Washington DC.

On the subject of radar detector detectors, most of the newer models are full stealth to VG2, but only the latest and best can't be detected by Spectre. All of mine have VG2 stealth capability claims from the manufacturer, but show poor performance where auto-stealth is concerned. Upon the RDs alerting to VG2, it has to be immediately turned off or it will be detected. Makes no difference because I don't run where they're illegal.

Mounting recommendation for all radar detectors is level, straight ahead, and as high as possible on the clear part of the windshield. Radar is line of sight and the higher it's mounted, the farther it can "see" beyond the horizon....we're talking increased range in feet and every foot of detection's a plus. For best performance at capturing laser signals, it should be dash or lowest point windshield mounted; however, if you take a laser hit, it just means you've got a citation coming if you're excessively speeding.

The only chance you have against laser is a jammer and you're talking $2K plus installation for the very best front and rear countermeasures available.

 

[AllanD]

Amateur operators have beaten those tickets so often it isn't even funny...

Why? because we tend to be more than passingly familiar with the Federal Communications act of 1927 and understand it's various Federal Pre-emption
clauses...

Years ago I was about ready to choke the crap out of a cop in NJ
who seemed more than a little interested in the frequency coverage
of my dual-band mobile rig...

Would it have received his frequency? Yep.
Would it have TRANSMITTED on his frequency? Oh yeah...

Did it scan? yeah, if It wouldn't I wouldn't have bought it...
HE thought he was going to "Bust" someone NOT employed in
public safety for having a scanner in a vehicle.... HE got disapointed


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[heptofite]

Amateur operators have beaten those tickets so often it isn't even funny...

Why? because we tend to be more than passingly familiar with the Federal Communications act of 1927 and understand it's various Federal Pre-emption
clauses...

Years ago I was about ready to choke the crap out of a cop in NJ
who seemed more than a little interested in the frequency coverage
of my dual-band mobile rig...

Would it have received his frequency? Yep.
Would it have TRANSMITTED on his frequency? Oh yeah...

Did it scan? yeah, if It wouldn't I wouldn't have bought it...
HE thought he was going to "Bust" someone NOT employed in
public safety for having a scanner in a vehicle.... HE got disapointed


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it seems there is more to this story, and i do so enjoy stories.

 

[Scotty J.]

my old boss and bestfriend has a V1 in his truck and oon our way up to norht carolina it was awesome it worked everytime the arrows were very helpful when it went off and the arrows showed us exactly where the police were sittin if i could afford one id get one

Exactly, I was coming home from the Tail of the Dragon a couple of years ago. Driving I-40 through Tennessee. I was approaching the crest of a hill and My V-1 went off. It said 2 bogies ahead. I dropped down to the exact speed limit and topped the hill. Sure enough there was a State Trooper sitting in the median. As I passed him, the V-1 still showed two bogies, but now one ahead and one behind. As I topped the next hill there was another State trooper in the median.

If it had not had the bogey counter and the directional arrows, I would have assumed that I was only picking up that one trooper. If I were a speeder, I would have sped up once I passed him only to have been nabbed by the second trooper.

 

[Scotty J.]

Effectiveness varies between units and user. Escort, Beltronics and Valentine units are perched at the top of the heap and have been so since their inception.

IIRC, the guy who founded Valentine was a Co-founder of Escort. I should do my homework but I'm too tired on Christmas Eve to do it LOL. He was involved with ONE of the big dogs back in the day.

It does go off a decent amount around doors, But I just turn the knob down.

You do know that they have have two volume knobs right? The outer ring of the volume knob is the muted volume. I leave the outer rim at around 11:00 and the main knob at 100%, if it's a door or an annoying cop in front or behind me, push the main knob, that puts it in mute mode.

I have my V1 mounted just under the rear view so it gets a clear shot out the windshield and also the back glass.

Yep, that's how I run mine, works great!

 

[idriveafordranger94]

I know a kid who bought a $400 radar detector for his Mazda 3. Seems like a waste of money when you can just use your head and not speed which is free.

When I meet a girl's parents, a 100% clean driving record is definately a plus. I've learned they also like when your truck is all shined up when you go to meet them!

 

[n9emz]

I know a kid who bought a $400 radar detector for his Mazda 3. Seems like a waste of money when you can just use your head and not speed which is free.

When I meet a girl's parents, a 100% clean driving record is definately a plus. I've learned they also like when your truck is all shined up when you go to meet them!

I attribute 80% of being citation-free for past 28 years to countermeasures. The remaining 20% goes to the LEOs who kindly cut me a break. It's not about wasting money or even breaking the law....it's about not wasting time, the most valuable thing I have.

lol....My truck's 3 years old and I've washed it the same number of times in that period. I spend my time on the inside; the outside protects me from the elements. Last time I met a girl's parents was when their son took my grand-daughter to the movies.

Happiest Holidays to all.

 

[racsan]

i havent had one in years, if i had the money, i wouldnt mind having one, if for nothing more than a little heads-up that i may be being watched. id love to have a cell-phone jammer, then i could interupt calls and maybe the asshats would pay attention to their driving (or lack of driving in some cases) if they were illegal in my state id probly get one just because they were illegal, its a receiver, not a sender, no real way for anyone to know you have one, my little way of giving the system the finger. im defiant like that

 

[Legend]

Since the thread was pulled back up.... I usually run cruise control on the highway and speed isn't an issue. But for times when CC isn't reasonable, just in case my attention would wander and allow speed to creep up over the limit - sure as the world, that is where there would be a speed trap. So a Radar Detector works great for me in some conditions.

I had a Cobra for years that worked very well for me. It finally failed and after lots of shopping I decided on another Cobra from Wally-World. Went to lots of work to install it correctly. Pulled the dash, window pillar trim, headliner, etc. so I could attach the power and ground to the fuse block and run the wires up the pillar and across to the center of the windshield and have a couple of inches of power cord reach down to the RD. Epoxied the bracket to the windshield, turned it on and discovered it worked fine, but all the display lights were on 1/2 bright all the time. CWAP!!! I have to disassemble EVERYTHING to get all the parts to return it to Wally-World and the power cord is cut off anyhow. Arrrrgggghhhhh! So I sent Cobra an e-mail asking if there was an alternative. They immediately sent me back an e-mail telling me to remove the protective decal from the front of the RD. Problem solved. I seem to have officially joined the old farts club? I am certain any 3rd grader would have done that without even thinking about it.