Choosing The Right Radar Detector
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Page 9 - Radar Detector FeaturesAs mentioned the chief complaint from customers is poor false alarm filtering. Some radar detectors will alert you to everything from the closest grocery store door opener, to the vehicle with the closest radar detector.
You can avoid this common headache by getting a higher end detector that can eliminate 99% of all false alerts with its GPS capabilities such as the Escort 9500ix, the Bel GX65 or the 9500ci which use "Smart Filtering" and “Truelock” to filter out the false alerts. A good formula to use when determining if the range of your radar detector is adequate is "Capture Area x 6". This formula is allows you to detect the police in enough time to safely slow down and to observe the events taking place around you, to then determine the reason for the alert. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Reginald Stanton's ruling, which stated that an officer should not target vehicles further then 1000', could be used as a baseline. However, very few officers know anything about this ruling and often start obtaining a vehicle tracking history the moment that they observe your vehicle. Under normal circumstances, the longest range an officer can lock on and make any type of target vehicle identification on a flat roadway using radar, is approximately 1/4 of a mile. Therefore using my formula, you would want to have a detector that has at least, 1.5 miles of detection. However, there are also some variables in the where police speed enforcement is used, such as hills and curves. Therefore, if you live or drive in an area that has a lot of curvy, mountainous roads, you would want to increase your capture area to at least a four-mile distance. When you examine these testing reports, note the type of road conditions that the detector was tested on, how were the radar guns mounted, and if all the detectors were tested under the same conditions. It is helpful when viewing these reports, to have an idea what type of enforcement is used in your area, or the area that you will be traveling in. As an example, unless you live and/or travel in NJ, you can just about ignore the X band testing. Today, Ka band is the most popular band and often the most difficult band for a radar detector to detect. Two testing reports that you can refer to compare the range of radar detectors are:
Easy to Understand and Hear Alerts If you do not hear or understand the different tones that your detector will use to alert you to different hazards ahead, you will have to take your eyes off the road to read the display. It is recommended that you have your detector mounted in a location where this distraction is lessened; however it is never a good idea to take your eyes off the road ahead, even for an instant. Some radar detector manufacturers offer voice alerts and some are even bi-lingual, offering both English and Spanish. However, some of the computer-generated voices will make it hard for you to understand exactly what the detector is trying to tell you. Look for the speaker holes or slots. I recommended that you mount your detector on the dash, or as low to the dash as possible, choose a detector that has a front mounted speaker. The effectiveness of a good mounting system for your radar detector and your vehicle is extremely important. Most radar detectors come with windshield mounts that have suction cups, which attach to the windshield. Some of the mounts are made of plastic and some use metal. It is important to adjust the angle of your detector to the windshield so it will point straight ahead. If you are considering mounting your radar detector on a motorcycle, DO NOT use the mounting systems that come with the radar detector! I have had numerous contacts with people that learned too late that a windshield mount for your car is not designed to hold your detector securely on your motorcycle's windshield. Radar detector mounts for most motorcycle applications are offered on this page Mid-range radar detectors normally use LED lights to display the different functions and/or alerts that are activated. Different colored lights make it easy to see at a distance what feature or warning is activated. The higher end detectors use text displays and a visual bar graph to spell out exactly what the detector's alerts mean. As an example, the Escort 9500ix and the Beltronics GX65 will notify you with a letter such as X, K or Ka with a corresponding bar graph to indicate the strength of the signal. This method is much easier to read and understand then a row of LED lights indicating signal strength. Today many of the leading radar detector manufacturers are offering blue displays as the new "hot color". I have had several telephone calls from clients, many of them older, which have had a hard time seeing the red displays on their radar detectors. Research in the field of color blindness indicates that many people in the early stages of color blindness have a hard time in distinguishing the color red or green. Research also shows the color blue is easier to read for people experiencing these symptoms. The colors blue and red are the easiest colors to see in most lighting conditions. However the colors yellow and green have a tendency to vanish in direct sunlight The Escort Solo 2 uses a blue LCD display instead of an LED display. The reason behind this was to provide more information to the user in the display and to conserve battery life. One problem however, happens when you use this detector in bright sunlight, you will not be able to read the LCD display. That makes this detector virtually useless on a motorcycle. Important Features There are three Ka frequencies commonly used by police in their radar guns, 33.8 GHz, 34.7 GHz and 35.5 GHz. Some of the Ka band photo radar guns use the additional 34.6 frequency at 5 milliwatts. To scan the entire Ka band for these three or four radar frequencies dramatically slows down the unit and makes the detector prone to more false alarms. AccuSweep scans only these known frequencies and ignores the other frequencies. There are several radar detector companies that offer GPS capabilities to their detectors, however these detectors are NOT equal in radar detection performance. The advantage of having a detector that has the GPS is the additional feature of alerting to fixed traffic enforcement cameras and in some cases, the ability to sense false alert locations on its own and to program those out. The Trinity Database is currently the most accurate GPS database and is available on the Bel GX65, the Escort 9500ix and the Escort 9500ci detectors. It is recommended that you download the latest updates for these units on a regular basis. A feature currently available on only the Escort 9500ci remote and the Escort 9500 ix radar detectors. This feature allows the radar detector to automatically add false alert locations into its database thereby eliminating all false alerts in the areas you normally drive. There is nothing more annoying then listening to a radar detector constantly going off. Auto Mute is designed to automatically mute the audio of your radar detector to avoid this problem. As an added feature, the Beltronics GX65, the Escort 9500ix, the Bel STi and the Escort 9500i include the Smart Cords that have a mute button right on the power cords to enable you to mute the audio without reaching to the detector. Most radar detectors have at least one city mode and highway mode. The idea is when you are driving in the city, switch the detector over to city mode to reduce the radar detectors sensitivity and reduce the chances of all the false alerts. Then when you are on the highway, switch the detector over to Highway mode to increase the sensitivity detecting Smokey at a greater distance away and allowing you ample time to slow down. As you can imagine, many people forget to switch from mode to mode as their driving environment changes. Auto Mode to the rescue! This feature adds a third sensitivity range to your radar detector which allows it to sample your driving conditions and adjust the radar detector accordingly. If you live and/or drive in areas where radar detectors are illegal (Washington DC and Virginia), or drive a commercial vehicle that weighs over 10,000 pounds. An important feature of your radar detector should include the ability to defeat the Spectre II/III radar detector detectors. Currently there are only three detectors made today that can defeat the Spectre RDD and they are the Beltronics STi Driver, Beltronics STI-r and the Escort 9500ci. When you power on many radar detectors, the unit goes into self test mode. It will go through each radar and laser band and then the audio and lamp test to make sure that the unit is working properly. If there is a problem with the unit, it should stop in this phase and display a calibration error or that a function is not working. Some customers find that this test is annoying, especially with units that take a long time to "boot up". Therefore, some radar detector companies like Escort and Beltronics, offer an abbreviated self test that you can program in the advanced programming area of the detector. Only available only on Cobra detectors, mutes false alarms when stopped in traffic or driving slowly. To engage this feature, you first must perform a software adjustment. Occasionally multiple law enforcement devices will emit signals simultaneously, or traffic enforcement can be taking place in a location that you have previously identified as having a high false alerts. Some radar detectors will display the number and the strength of these "multiple threats". The Escort and Beltronics call this feature their "Expert Meter" and both can detect up to nine law enforcement devices at one time. MPH Industries developed their BEE III with POP mode radar gun (also known as the Super Bee) to be undetectable to radar detectors. MPH admits that the use of POP is unreliable and that officers should only use this mode to obtain an "estimate of speed", but this recommendation is not always followed. POP mode works by sending out a quick "burst" of pulse radar at approximately 67 milliseconds. This burst of signal will not be detected by over 85% of the radar detectors in use today. This radar gun is becoming very popular with police agencies. As an example, Nevada and New York State have recently contracted with MPH Industries for their POP Mode radar guns. Many of the higher end detectors come with the POP radar feature de-activated. The reason why the POP feature is once activated, you will receive many more false alarms. This is because the detector has to react so fast to obtain a POP alert, that the detector does not have an opportunity to properly filter the alert as a false alert. To active the POP feature, you simply press the two buttons on top of the detector and go into the advanced programming mode to active POP. Since MPH Industries has added the POP feature to their radar guns as a way to "promote catching speeders with radar detectors" to police departments, they have begun "specking out" other radar gun manufacturers that do not have this feature. This is why today, when you are shopping for a new radar detector you’ll be bombarded with claims of POP radar detection. A popular saying on the RadarDetector.net forum is “POP is POOP” and your chance of ever getting hit with a POP radar signal is the same as getting hit by a bolt of lightning on a clear sunny day. New Jersey has the sole remaining state contract for X band radar guns. However, there recently has been a shift in Ohio, with their State Police now purchasing light bar mounted X band radar guns. During a recent motorcycle trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I found the United States Park Police were still using an antiquated X band radar gun. Unless you live in these areas, or are planning a trip there, you can feel comfortable disabling X band from your radar detector. There are several overseas dealers that sell Escort or Bel radar detectors. They claim that their radar detectors are modified for use in their country and charge higher prices. The fact is that they disable X band and enable the European K band, which takes seconds to do. To enable this feature on your Escort and/or Beltronics radar detector press the mute and mode buttons on top of your detector at the same time, then use the mode button to navigate. If you have a new radar detector and you didn't read the manual, tutorial mode to the rescue! Although you will have to read the enclosed "quick start" guide provided with some radar detectors to learn how to activate this feature, the detector will cycle through each of its audio and visual alerts, allowing you to see how the unit operates and what each light does. True 360 degree protection advertised by many radar detector companies in itself is just a worthless marketing ploy. As an example, when I would certify new officers in the operation of traffic radar, I would have them stand on the side of the road pointing a radar gun in the direction of an approaching vehicle that was traveling at a known speed. As this vehicle approached the officer, the speed on the radar gun would decrease. This effect is known as the cosine angle effect and what this basically means is that the greater the angle, the less accurate the radar gun becomes. This always works in the favor of the target vehicle and never in the officer's favor. When an officer is at a 90' degree angle from the target vehicle, the radar gun no longer sees the target vehicle as a moving vehicle, but as a stationary object. What is important with a radar detector is the ability to detect radar in front and to the rear. Most, if not all radar detectors have a bi-directional antenna that allows this to happen. However, some detectors detect better in the rear than others. As an example, rear detection comes into play when officers park on an entrance ramp to a highway shooting cars moving away or there is an officer approaching from the rear. All of your higher end detectors will have satisfactory rear detection to see this officer. However, some cheaper models may not alert at all. Helpful Features Many of the manufacturers of lower end detectors add extra features such as compasses to their units to make their units more desirable to the consumer. If it is good radar detection that you require and do you need a compass, consider purchasing a standalone compass. As discussed in AccuSweep, there are known frequencies that police officers use with their radar guns. Beltronics "Tech Mode" and Escort's "Tech Display" can display the exact frequency of the incoming radar signal so the driver can distinguish between a false alert, and a true alert. OK Features 9-10-11-12 Band Radar Detectors Another marketing ploy that seems to be a favorite of Cobra Electronics and now followed by Uniden, is to advertise their units as having the ability to detect additional bands that in reality don't exist. They have taken the three commonly used radar bands, the laser band, the SWS (Safety Warning System band) and now the Strobe Alert (ability to allow the detector to detect emergency vehicles with optical pre-emption transmitters used to trip the traffic lights from red to green) and sliced them all up to make these 9-10 and 11 band receivers. Truth is that there are still only three radar bands and one laser band used in the USA. Don't fall for this ploy and buy a cheap radar detector! Strobe Alert Another feature found on Cobra radar detectors is Strobe Alert. This feature allows the detector to detect emergency vehicles with optical pre-emption transmitters used to trip the traffic lights from red to green VG2 - VG3 - Spectre Alert In Virginia, Washington D.C. and in countries where radar detector use is outlawed, police use Radar Detector Detectors (RDD) to detect radar detectors. The VG2 was the first RDD used by police to detect radar detectors. Radar detector manufacturers responded by moving the frequency of their oscillators, thus defeating the VG2. Today VG2 RDD's are used by very few, if any police departments. Several radar detector manufacturers claim that their radar detectors are immune to VG3. One problem, there is no such thing as VG3. Several radar detector companies, including Cobra, advertise that their radar detectors are immune to the Spectre 1. One problem, all the Spectre 1 models have now been upgraded to the Spectre 2, and recently the Spectre 3 model has emerged. Currently there are only three radar detector that can defeat the Spectre and they are the Bel STi, the Bel STI-r and the Escort 9500ci. For more information on the Spectre or VG2, click here. Worthless Feature I call it the SMS for show me a system!
I know of no police department or highway department that has ever purchased one of these transmitters. If you go to the company's web site, the last update was made in October 2001. Someday this technology may be available, but for now don't let it influence your buying decision. |
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As an example, AutoWeek Magazine reviewed the 
Several impartial testing companies, such as Speed Measurement Laboratories and I, perform range tests of many of the more popular radar detectors made today. 
Innovative Technology Systems developed the Safety Warning Systems that was supposed to form part of the National Highway System. The idea was to have transmitters located on the highways that would transmit warning messages to approaching vehicles. The idea was brilliant, the follow through poor. 
