Radar Detector Tests

Radar Roy’s Radar Detector Rumble: Review and test of the newest radar detectors and laser jammers for 2011

Passport IQ:
New for 2010, the Passport IQ combo radar detector and fully functionable GPS dash mounted unit is a “game changer!”

Escort 9500ci:
My personal radar detector of choice! Find out why I chose this radar detector as my daily driver in my own personal vehicle.

Beltronics STiR Driver:
Built on the same M3 platform as the Escort 9500ci, the Bel STiR Driver radar detector is identical in performance in radar detection but does not come packaged with the ZR4 laser jammer.

Escort 9500ix:
Discover why the Escort 9500ix is my #1 pick for dash mounted radar detectors!

Escort Redline:
High performance dash mounted radar detector that is stealth to all RDDs.

Escort Solo S3:
Do you want to go Cordless? Discover why the new Solo S3 is my top pick for cordless radar detectors.

Escort QI45:
Why I pick the QI45 as my top pick for the most affordable and easy to install remote mounted radar detector.

Escort 8500 and Beltronics RX65:
Discover why I rate both the Escort 8500 X50 and the Bel RX65 as being the best affordable radar detector in their class

Radar Detector Band Testing

X Band Testing
(10.475 to 10.575 ghz) is the oldest radar band in use today. It is estimated that only 15% of the law enforcement radar guns still utilize this band.

The New Jersey State Police, several police departments in Ohio and Indiana and the US Park Police are the only agencies Radar Roy knows of that use this band as their preferred radar band of choice.

K-Band Testing
(24.0 to 24.25 ghz). K-band was introduced in 1976 and currently this is 60% of the traffic enforcement radar used by police in the USA today.

KA-Band Testing
(33.4 to 36.0 ghz). Ka-band is the newest band and it is rare to have false alerts on this band. It is also harder for radar detectors to detect police radar devices on this band. Currently this band is 25% of the traffic enforcement radar used by police in the USA today.

Filtering

I feel that the most important features of a radar detector is its ability to filter out stray harmonic frequencies that would also set off your radar detector as a “false alert”.

Many of the cheaper radar detectors have no filtering and they will be set off as you pass every supermarket, bank and gas station and it will come to the point that you will either turn the radar detector off or ignore its warnings.

Laser Testing

There is a big difference between police radar and laser enforcement!

Laser Enforcement

A growing trend today are police departments moving to laser (lidar) enforcement and it is estimated that there are over 50,000 police laser guns in use today in the USA.

These guns transmit a beam of infrared light at a frequency of 330 terahertz. This light beam is only 18 inches wide at 500 feet and gets smaller as you approach the officer.

This narrow light beam is aimed by the officer to a reflective area on your vehicle, such as your headlamps or front license plate. The officer can only use the laser gun while he is stationary.

Unless your radar detector is within this 18″ circle, or it picks up “scatter” from the beam, your radar detector will never alert. And by chance it does, it is too late as the officer has already obtained your speed.

Therefore “NO RADAR/LASER detector is effective against this type of traffic enforcement.”

The use of lidar varies from state to state. As an example police in Hawaii use laser exclusively. Florida is split 50/50, with most local police departments using laser and highway patrol officers using radar. In Pennsylvania, police laser guns are not used at all.

The only speed counter measurement devices that are effective against laser enforcement are laser jammers. Click here to see my reviews of the most popular laser jamming devices made today.

Radar Detector Detectors

Radar detectors are legal to use in passenger vehicles in all states with the exception of Virginia and Washington D.C. or while on an US military base. In Canada, only three provinces allow the use of radar detectors in passenger cars: British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

In all commercial trucks (18 wheelers) the possession of a radar detector is illegal.

The first Radar Detector Detector (RDD) was the VG-2. You will find that most radar detector manufacturers advertise that their detectors are all VG-2 proof. The problem with this is that VG-2 is seldom used anymore. Most, if not all police departments now use the Spectre to sniff out radar detectors.

That is why I, through my contacts in the law enforcement community, purchased my own Spectre III to test radar detectors immunity to this new threat.

In testing, I have only found four radar detectors that can defeat the Spectre. They are:

• Beltronics STiR Driver.
• Escort 9500ci
• Escort Redline
• Bel STi

POP Radar Test

MPH Industries first introduced POP radar technology (also known as the Super Bee) in its radar guns in 1999 as a way to defeat radar detectors.

POP mode works by sending out a quick burst of pulse radar at approximately 67 milliseconds. MPH Industries admits that while in this mode, that the displayed speed of a vehicle may not be accurate. They recommend that the officer only use this mode to obtain an estimate of speed from the target vehicle, establish a vehicle tracking history, and then switch to normal mode to obtain the exact speed.

Therefore POP mode is seldom, if ever used by law enforcement and should not be a major concern as an “important feature” in considering your radar detector.

In fact, most radar detectors that have the POP mode have it disabled by default, as activating POP on detectors, opens it up to receive a false alerts.

Radar Roy used a MPH hand held K band radar gun to perform the following tests.

POP MODE K – 1/4 mile test