Radar Detector
 

I am looking to buy one due to the traveling I do for work, I don't drive slow and don't want any tickets

I am looking for a few opinions or options on different models

Slow down. Save a life. Maybe your own Bob. :smash:

My suggestion... if you're going to be doing a lot of highway driving, don't waste your money.

My company provided some equipment for a police conference and there was a session about technologies related to speed enforcement.

Not going to do you a single bit of good on highways because if a State Trooper is measuring speed, he's using laser to do. While just about all the newer model detectors advertise that they "also detect laser", if it does detect laser, you're already dead in the water.

The benefit about the older style radars is that they threw off a lot of stray signals and radar detectors would pick those strays up nicely. Not the case with the laser guns. Lidar (laser guns) has a beam that's something like 3'x3' up to 1000 yards away and they can pick you off from a mile away, while providing a measurement on speed and distance in under a second. By the time you react to the detector signaling, the trooper already has your speed and made a decision on if he's going to pull you over or not.

This video is an interesting example of the laser gun in use:
YouTube - Police Laser/Lidar Guns explained

And besides, if they are using the old style guns, they dont activate the beam unless and until they observe a vehicle coming at them at a higher speed than usual. Which means that something, the radar beam, travels at t he speed of sound, which is quicker than your foot.

X2 :smash:

leave an HOUR early
then you'll have time
to get a Cinnamon roll
and flirt with the waitress

I will somewhat disagree with above. Radar detectors, properly employed, do have benefit. Driving flat out helter-skelter won't do much good but a more calculated approach will.

* But as stated above - NOT speeding as much and driving safely should be the goal *

First, on the highway I like to use what I call the the Rabbit approach I've practiced for 20 something years. Much like a dog track, you want the "Rabbit" well out in front, approximately a 1/4 mile or so in advance, where you will match speed. With your radar detector on and you a 1/4 mile back, someone else gets to be the guinea pig. There are a few variations on this but the main idea is to run behind other faster car(s) - safely - and let them test the waters so to speak. Not recommeded that you follow the vehicle doing 90-110, but at more sane speeds. Obviously traffic conditions significantly dictate the safety.

That is probably the best defense you can run. I don't speed like I used to (got my license on the Autobahn - really) and I never drove recklessly (much). For the last 15 years or so I've driven more slowly and more responsibly but still in excess of the speed limits (as does 90% of other people).

This has very limited effect on LIDAR as mentioned above, another reason to have someone else be the Rabbit. But most operations - at least where I drive - are still in Ka and K band radars.

won't leave home without one.escort makes the best long range on the k band.if you get shot with a laser gun just pull over and get out your license.but with laser police have to be able to use laser through open window in their car,so they can't be on road shoulder.

My passport 8500 has saved me many times.
In some towns (RI), it seems like the cops always have their radar guns on (s. king, gansett, n. king, scituate). In these places, I get plenty of notice of their presence. I have never encountered laser in RI (even the staties still use Ka). There is of course the "false sense of security" that can occurr.
I used to be the rabbit, now I only follow the rabbit (like John said).

I agree, my passport has saved me many tickets over the years. Most cops don't shut their fixed mount radar guns off, ever. So you'll get a lot of false alarms. Poorly adjusted burglar alarms will also give you false alarms. I have the one that differentiates between the K and X bands by the sounds it emits. Easy to tell which is which. Most false alarms come on the K band, the only falsies you'll get on the X band are from police cars that have the radar on for no apparent reason. Most local police depts in RI and CT still use x band radar.

Like I mentioned above, my comments were geared towards you doing mostly highway driving. In towns, a radar detector saving you once will pay for itself. But if you're 90% of the time on highways, I wouldn't waste the cash.

I remember it to this day. Driving down hill towards exit 68 heading back to UConn from working in Hartford. Pitch black, barely a car on the road. Came over a hill and as soon as I did, saw headlights turn on aways ahead of me. CT Trooper clocked me at 88MPH from almost half a mile away (they include the distance on the ticket).

Lucky for me, I had my EMT uniform on still and CT Troopers in the area provide a lot of professional courtesy as long as you aren't completely reckless. He ran my info, came back to the car, threw my info onto the passenger's seat and said "Go home and slow the F#&$ down." That was the last time I was pulled over for speeding.

Spent hundreds of hours in an ambulance driving US91, 84 and surrounding areas... CT Troopers are some crafty folks in where they hide and effective in how they position themselves for speed traps. Also remember seeing a CT Trooper on an overpass with the speed gun and a few troopers further down the road pulling people over.

I leave at 4:30 AM, There is no way I am leaving an hour early

I try to use the rabbit, and try to stay under 85 mph and never weave

Leaving that early there arn't many rabbits out

So it seems like the Escort is what a couple of guys are using also the most expensive any other options?

You passed me once going so fast on 495 that it knocked my sunglasses off :rotf2:

Say what?

There are a few radar detector review sites out their that are worth it. I use a $50 whistler. The Escort / Pasports are some of the tops though.

Exhibit A: You were wearing your Sunglasses on your dome, kinda like Barbie

Exhibit B: I was running late, and merely doing 80, slighlty less than half of what I have done on that road.

Up until about '95 I have had almost every vehicle I've owned (and a couple others) to maximum speed. Since then I may have gone 100 once. I rarel drive past 80 these days and usually then I am in the right lane while people are doing 85 in the left :devil2:

Keep it at 65 or under in a 55 zone, and 75 or under in a 65 zone. Almost every statie in Mass will give you 10 over. ;)

On secondary roads, with town cops, YMMV.

Maybe Karl will chime in about his unique detector. :hihi: :buds:

This is my method if there aren't a lot of other cars around to use as interference. 73MPH, hit the cruise control and relax.

this is the one I bought, PASSPORT 8500 X50 - Escort Inc.

If it saves me from getting a ticket then it pays for it's self

Thats the goods.
Mine is about 9 years old.
I don't even mount it to the windshield anymore. It sits in the console between the front seats and is still plenty sensitive.

I got lasered, no help at all.

Today? If so, sorry to hear it.

No in Nov just over the Sakonnet Bridge. 300 little necks

And I had to get chewed out by a major for being late for a meeting after that.

You got a major ass chewing :rotf2: