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Radar/Lidar detectors
I am interested in upgrading my radar detectors
with laser capability. Any opinions? Seen recent
magazine articles on comparisons?
with laser capability. Any opinions? Seen recent
magazine articles on comparisons?
0
Comments
The review by Automobile mag can be found at
http://automobilemag.com/features/pages.cfm?page_id=165.
Valentine 1 #1, Uniden #2. Also, Valentine has a website. They have a response there for some of the "negatives" in the article even though they were the highest rated.
With all due respect, I beg to differ on the relevance of Automobile mag review or whether their testing is inferior to Speedlabs. The Auto mag review, while somewhat puzzling at times, is far more thorough than one instant-on test. And while instant-on is the most feared and dangerous radar (short of laser which is not as common as yet), the others are still out there. Other factors such as false alerts, response to other bands, etc. are still very important.
I own a Bel 745 which was top of the line Bel several years ago. I have not been pleased with the significant number of false alerts on K and Ka band to the point that I almost ignore it. That along with the fact that the 855 placed 4th in the Auto mag review makes me want to look elsewhere. Regarding the V1, it's high on my list as I can see the benefit for knowing which direction the signal is coming from, the benefit of a rear facing antenna, and I have several friends that swear by them. BTW, take the price of a Bel or Whistler and add a rear facing remote antenna and the price gets closer.
I also believe the V1 can be upgraded as upgrades become necessary or available. My purchase of a 745 was an "upgrade" from a previous detector I had purchased two years earler...add the price of the two together and thats a few $$$. Now I'm in the market again.
I don't like the idea of dropping $400 on a detector but unless I see or read something that convinces me otherwise I plan on going with a V1.
I understood the same thing regarding Peterson's bias....which if true, makes the results of the Automobile review more credible.
As mentioned previously, I actually found the review and tests somewhat puzzling. For example, why would one unit test longer on Ka than another on a straightaway but shorter when the Ka is hiding in a curve due "to higher sensitivity"?
To me, false alerts are my biggest problem to overcome. Get enough of them and then you start ignoring real problems. It's not so much highway as it is metropolitan areas. You can drive all over the city of Atlanta and deal with 70+MPH speeds through areas loaded with radar emitting devices....most of which are not speed detection.
At least if you have directional arrows like the V1 you may get some help discerning the difference between false and real problems.
Still studying the situation.....before I buy.
Just my .02 :-)
If memory serves, on one of their old radar detector tests, the expert (Peterson?) was later accused of being in the employ of one of the manufacturers (whose products did very well on the test). It turns out that the allegation was true. The magazine published an admission of this, "but we stand by our test results".
I don't ask anybody to take my word for it, since I can't make specific allegations, but for my money, the magazine and the editor have lost all credibility.
They're also one of the sillier, more juvenile car magazines.
Car & Driver, which I generally think tries to do a respectable job of reporting, found the 'jammers' that they tested to be worthless.
C&D also has year-in/out put the V1 at the top of the list as well....to the point that I might wonder if they work so closely together that it hurts their credibility. I certainly am not making any allegations either but if you go to the Valentine website in Mike's labs you find a report where C&D asked Valentine to do a laser/windshield test for them in the August 98 issue. It would make me feel better if there was no other relationship other than objective 3rd party. Again...just my .02. Still want a V1!!:-)
I have heard nothing but praise about the Valentine unit from people who have them.
C13: when you said that C&D rated the jammers as useless, were these radar jammers or laser jammers?
Can't help on the K40 question...however, since you are in VA where detectors are illegal aren't you concerned about police use of radar detector detectors. Some web research I did today did state that there is such a thing and they are being used. I guess if it's mounted in your dash they can't confiscate it and drive over it with the squad car. :-)
Regarding jammers, check out this website.
http://www.radar.co.nz/usa/usarticle4.html
They basically conclude that passive radar jammers don't work and active radar and laser jammers have limited range. Also, legality questions for use in US. Very easy to detect.
I recall the C&D article to be less positive than the info at this site.
MongoaPawn: Thanks for the link. If the detector detectors is in use, I'm sure it's in VA.
Some of the magazine tests rate the units for their stealthiness in the face of VG-2. The best units are pretty good at being invisible to radar detector detectors.
You don't necessarily have to have your detector on the dash, but you do have to have it somewhere where it can receive the signal, and that usually means it's gonna be visible. I've been thinking a lot about where to stash it stealthily but still allow it to receive well. A lot depends on whether you need to turn it on and off at the head unit. I think it's weird that nobody makes a modular unit with separate antennas, display and head, and an on/off switch at the display.
I have no faith in jammers, but I think a good police-frequency scanner could be very useful for locating the gendarmes when their radar is not on. They also know about these and try to stay off the radio as much as possible when they're out takin pictures.
Uniden BCT-7. Nice toy, and has already paid for itself.
Hey, maybe I'll go and buy a nightvision camera, and wire it into a portable LCD, and figure a way to integrate it with my HUD...
Re: VA police.... a friend of mine (out of state tag) had a detector confiscated about 13 years ago. About a year later I was driving through VA in mountains on interstate....stopped by a radar unit for doing 63 in a 55 while going downhill. Seemed somewhat anal to me! Cops walked around my car looking in the windows. I had taken my detector down at the state line (based on friends experience) and it was in the glove box.
Really meandering, with lots of flashy, needlessly animated graphics that take forever to load and a trail of links that doesn't make much sense if your goal is to educate people about your product. I fear that their goal is rather to dazzle people with footwork. That doesn't necessarily mean that their product isn't good. It might be.
They do have a modular detector with a very stealthy display. I'm interested in some info now on how well it works.
They have a lot of other products. One is a laser "diffuser", I think they call it. Hm. I'll keep an open mind, but I'm not convinced yet. Hard to find any rational (non-sales, non-hype) talk on that site. How would a diffuser work? Seems to me you'd have to have actual physical lenses, like a fog. Maybe it's a fog machine.
One of the coolest products I've seen yet (not a K40 product) is for photo-radar. It's a simple photographic lamp; a slave unit that is triggered by a bright light aimed at it. It senses the flash from the photo-radar and goes off, aimed at the license plate. The plate is then over-exposed. When the cops get the photo back from the drugstore, the license plate is a big white blob.
Pretty clever, I think.
This is a family site. Keep it clean and keep it civil or I will be obliged to use my delete key.
Front Porch Philosopher
SUV, Pickup, & Aftermarket and Accessories Host
Speedlabs (www.speedlabs.com) has a report floating about regarding laser jammers. They certainly liked K40's system.
I did a search months ago on K40 installations. Some guy had one installed in his Z28 with the warning lights mounted into the rearview mirror. I'll look for the sight and post it hear after I get this proposal done. Speaking of which...
Now. Actives. There are (in the black world) some real jammers. These suckers really do work. You see, radar works by emitting a signal at a known frequency and via the doppler effect, they receive the return signal at another frequency. The higher the return frequency, the faster you were just nailed. This signal once returned to the sending unit is at a much lower power level than it was when sent out. An active jammer will examine the received radar signal and calculate its frequency. You can actually adjust them to have the radar gun read whatever you want it to read. You can have it do say 80% of what you were really doing, or 55 at all times, whatever. The jammer then sends the appropriately higher or lower frequency to the radar gun, and voila the cop sees you were doing whatever you told him you were doing. This is done by the jammer sending out a higher powered signal than the gun would normally receive, thus over-riding the original signal, which is never seen by the gun.
And one more thing. If you get caught with this thing. You are in DEEP Kimshee. You have just broken serious FCC laws. How do you get caught? Blow by the stationary cop at 110, and have his gun say 55. You in a heep o trouble.
Oh, that was before the 10% discount from their web site.
The above link will take you to the main menu, skipping the little slide show that they have set up as the intro.
Here's the place that I got the quote from:
Auto Sound Electronics
They're the only one in Northern VA that I could find.
K40 stealth install (Impalla SS)
Now, I did hear and interesting rumor that I was just dying to try out one day. Someone I know theorized that if you hook up a fish finder to the metal fenders on the front of your car, the vibrations from the sonar sending unit would make your fender vibrate at 200 mph or some such. I always did want to find out...
The FDA has jurisdiction over laser light, and yes, you do need to conform to their regulations.
As far as the fish finder, I believe that the radar gun takes an average doppler shift over the length of its pulse and uses that to compute the speed differential. Because the sonar vibrations would be a repeating wave (sinusoidally varying), their average amplitude would be zero. Your car is vibrating as you drive it...obviously, the gun must take this into account.
Cheers,
Ryan
-"V1 rocks if it has the visual warning English character like BEL instead of LEDs with label."
Cheers,
Ryan
It was reported that over 100 speeding tickets were recently thrown out in several counties in the Atlanta area over questioning the accuracy of the laser measurements. Although they are highly accurate (we sell the LTI laser rangers...same hardware but different firmware), apparently there was some legal argument made that allowed this to happen. The bottom line is if you need to beat a ticket given by laser, some legal research may provide a basis for beating the ticket.
And Poman, slow down in the city...if you mean city streets, 65 is way too fast - people pull out without even looking. I am what is called a "professional speeder." I've gone with 2 radar detectors before, in front & in back (no V1 back then). I averaged 82 mph over 9h:30m from Tennessee to DC, and 85 mph over 4:05 between Century Park, Los Angeles and Stockton both *without* a detector. If you do the math on speed averages (total miles divided by total hours), you'll see that regularly driving 85 gets you an average of around at most 75, because all those times you slow down for the morons in the left lane just chews up your actual average. For the 85, I was cruise controlled at 95 mph (I stopwatch timed it with the mileage markers) for over 3 hours. All bragging aside, 65 is *too fast* for the city, man...I'm all for speed on the open road, but 65 downtown is reckless. Be smart.
http://www.bondurant.com/