Page 8 - Detector features
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Needed Features
Good False Alarm Control
Good Range
Good Audio Alerts
Good Mounting Features
Good Visual Alerting
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Important Features
AccuSweep
Auto Mute
Auto Mode
Spectre Immune
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Good Features
Abbreviated Self Tests
IntelliMute
Multiple Threat Encounter
POP Radar Detection
Selectable Band Defeat
Tutorial Mode
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Helpful Features
360 Degree Protection
Compass
Frequency Display
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Ok Features
9-10-11 Band Radar Detectors
Strobe Alert
VG2 - VG3 - Spectre Alert
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Worthless Features
SWS - Safety Warning System
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Good False Alarm Control
As mentioned on the previous page, "Performance is King" 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.
As an example, in the November 22nd 2004 Autoweek magazine, they reviewed the new 1.8 version of the Valentine 1 radar detector and referred to it as the "Chicken Little" of radar detectors because of all its false alarms and commented that the average user would end up tuning out all alerts.
You can avoid this common headache by getting a higher end detector such as the Escort 8500 X50 or the Bel RX65 which both use their "Smart Filtering" capabilities to filter out most of the false alerts.
Good Range
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 Radar Roy's 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 allot of curvy, mountainous roads, you would want to increase your capture area to at least a four mile distance.
Radar Roy along with several other impartial testing companies such as Speed Measurement Laboratories, perform range tests of many of the more popular radar detectors made today. 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 were 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:
- Radar Roy's range testing report
- Speed Labs Radar Detector Shoot Out
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 say to you.
Look for the speaker holes or slots. As Radar Roy recommends to mount your detector on the dash, or as low to the dash as possible, choose a detector that has a front mounted speaker.
Mounting
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! Radar Roy has 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 detectors for most motorcycle applications are offered on this page
Visual Alerts
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 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX65 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". Radar Roy has had several telephone calls from customers, many of them older, that 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.
AccuSweep 
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 proned to more false alarms. AccuSweep scans only these known frequencies and ignores the other frequencies.
Auto Mute
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 RX65 and the Escort 8500 X50 include the Smart Cords that have a mute button right on the power cord to enable you to mute the audio without reaching to the detector.
Auto Mode
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. Available only with the Escort 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX65.
Spectre Immune
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 is only one detector made today that can defeat the Spectre RDD and it is the Beltronics STi Driver.
Abbreviated Self Tests 
When power on many radar detectors, the unit goes into self test mode, going 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 the function that 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.
IntelliMute
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.
Multiple Threat Encounter
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 8500 X50 and Beltronics RX65 call this feature their "Expert Meter" and both can detect up to nine law enforcement devices at one time.
POP Radar Detection
MPH Industries developed their BEE IIIT 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 such as the Escort 8500 X50 and the Bel RX65 come with the POP radar feature de-activated. The reason why is that once the POP feature is 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.
Valentine 1 has recently added POP radar detection to their radar detectors, but our review and testing of their new units show several flaws with their addition. In our testing, the Valentine 1 failed to alert 25% of the time to a Ka POP signal. Secondly, POP is activated with no way to deactivate it! This tells us that Valentine customers are not allowed to think for themselves and allowed to deactivate POP to eliminate the extra falsing with the faster scan.
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, consider one that has the ability to detect POP radar! The radar detectors that do very well in POP detection are the Escort 8500 and the Beltronics RX65. To view Radar Roy's POP testing results, click here.
Selectable Band Defeat
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, Radar Roy found that 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.
The PNI Silver Bullet is one detector that you can easily do this with by just switching the unit to City Mode 1. You can also activate this same feature with any of the higher end Escort or Beltronics units by going into the advanced programming mode. With both the Escort's and Bel's you have a greater choice of what band(s) you would like to disable.
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.
Tutorial Mode
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.
360 Degree Protection
True 360 degree protection advertised by many radar detector companies in itself is just a worthless marketing ploy.
As an example, when Radar Roy would certify new officers in the operation of traffic radar, he 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. All of your higher end detectors will have satisfactory rear detection to see this officer. However, some cheaper models may not alert at all.
The Valentine 1 has built into their unit a second antenna that faces the rear. However, for this detector to work properly with this rearward antenna, you must mount it in the worst possible location, in the center of the windshield. This mounting location would totally defeat the ability for this detector to ever detect the narrow beam of a laser gun when it is targeted on your front license plate. If you mount the Valentine 1 in the preferred location, low on the windshield or on the dash, the rearward range is equal to any of the other higher end detectors that have a bi-directional antenna. Bottom line, don't buy the more expensive unit to achieve the same results.
Compass
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 stand alone compass.
Frequency Display
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.
9-10-11 Band Radar Detectors
Another marketing ploy that seems to be a favorite of Cobra Electronics, 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.
A company called Stealth Micro Systems has developed a new RDD that is now in use by police departments called the Spectre.
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 is only one radar detector that can defeat the Spectre and that is the Bel STi. For more information on the Spectre or VG2, click here.
SWS - Safety Warning System
Radar Roy calls it the SMS for show me a system! Innovative Technology Systems ( www.innovative-tech.com) was formed to develop the Safety Warning Systems that were 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. Radar Roy knows of no police department or Highway Department that has ever purchased one of these transmitters. If you go to the company's website, 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. Radar Jammers Don't Work>> |
