Review: Extreme Range Radar Detectors

Extreme Range Radar Detectors Tested and Reviewed by Retired Cop!

The most important benefit of having a radar detector with extreme range, is having the ability to detect instant on police radar guns, miles ahead of you. When an officer is using the instant on mode, he is only using short bursts of radar to obtain tracking history of suspected speeders. If your radar detector does not have the ability to detect radar from long distances, you will miss the opportunity to detect him while he is using this mode on these vehicles in front of you.

Radar Roy, who is a retired police officer and a certified traffic radar instructor, has performed numerous product tests of various radar detectors at extreme ranges. During the Speed Measurement Laboratories Radar Detector Shoot Out, in El Paso Texas in June 2004, a twelve mile stretch of flat highway located in the New Mexico desert was chosen for an Extreme Range Radar Detector Test.

The top model radar detectors from Cobra Electronics, Whistler, Beltronics, Escort and Valentine were chosen for this test. Police officers from the El Paso Police Department operated the X band, K band and Ka band radar guns.

The clear winners in this test were both the Escort 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX65 radar detectors. Both of these units were displaying two bars on Ka band at twelve miles away. The only reason that Radar Roy could not extend the test was because he ran out of roadway!

The Valentine 1 placed third with an acceptable eight mile distance. The detectors from Cobra, Whistler and PNI averaged four miles of distance, or a third of the range of the Escort and Beltronics units.

So if extreme range is important to you, consider either the Escort 8500 X50 or the Beltronics RX65 radar detectors.

For more information you can also read Radar Roy's radar detector review.