Review SML 2008 – Radar Detector Shoot Out
Yesterday morning SML crew headed eighty miles east from their testing site to do the long range radar detector test. A couple of the radar detector representatives lined up their detectors and received alerts on all three bands from radar guns being fired toward their direction over ten miles away. The remaining participants had to endure the hot Texas sun and blowing sand until they completed the testing several hours later.
Hats off to Carl Fors and crew for all their hard work and dedication and having another successful “Radar Detector Shoot-Out”.
I also complement Mem-Tek, a dedicated member of the RadarDetector.net forum, for volunteering his time and talents in assisting me and a few other participants in setting up and assisting in the testing.
The full results of this year’s SML tests will be posted on our website(s) once Carl publishes them for public viewing.
Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be publishing various videos of the event.
SML Day Two – Radar and Laser Testing
This morning I started out the day with Carl’s photo crew, Aaron from Legal Speeding and the crew from Adaptiv with a BMW, Bussa, and two Harley’s to do a photo shoot. We left the SML test site and headed out to the Trans Mountain Highway and put our motorcycle radar detectors through the twisties.
We returned to the testing site five hours later as the El Paso officers were finishing up the POP radar testing.
After a short nap, I was able to test Blinder’s new M25 J15 version against the Stalker, Laser Atlanta, the LTI 20/20, the LTI LR and the Ultra Lite from Kustom Radar.
Its after 10:30 PM now and we have not had a chance to eat dinner or empty the desert sand from our boots. Tomorrow night after I return to my office, I’ll publish the results of my testing of the M25, along with closing comments on this year’s SML event…….
Fireball Day One – Keeping it Real
Day one of the Fireball Transcontinental Rally.
Last night we received our driver packet with instructions that our first leg was to start at the Amway Center in Orlando. It also stressed that this rally was not for speed or best time, but to obtain points during our coast to coast journey while arriving at the various legs during a predetermined timed window. If we arrived too early it would indicate that you were speeding and you were disqualified. Arrive too late; you’re disqualified for that day’s leg of the race. For leg one, organizers estimated that it would take eight to nine hours to drive from Orlando to the Mississippi/Louisiana state line, a distance of just over 600 miles.
I was then notified that my sponsored car, the TransCon Ambulance had blown its driveshaft while driving down from Indiana and that they were in the process of trying to locate another. It was doubtful that they would make it to the first leg of the race.
Assignments for the day:
Assignment one was photographing at least three State troopers with patrol car while it was parked next to your car with driver.
Assignment two was to photograph each states welcome sign while holding a newspaper dated 9/29/2007 with the car in the background.
Assignment three was a riddle to solve that we were given upon departure of the Amway Center. The riddle, “chill out with the Queen of Bagdad”.
Prior to arriving at the starting point, I fired up my Garmin Zumo GPS and located a FHP barracks that was on our way. As we were pulling in, a Lieutenant FHP officer was checking into work. I identified myself as a retired deputy and began telling him about the rally. He stopped me mid sentence while chuckling and related that all the troopers in Florida were aware of the race and he would allow us to photograph him and his car because he understood that our race was a charity event aimed at raising money for the “Missing Children’s Network.” However he requested that we drive smart and safe.
The Veil Guy posed for the photograph, thanked the Lieutenant and we were off for the staging of the event.
At 8:00 am we arrived at the Amway Center, checked in and made final adjustments to our car. At 9:00 am the Orlando Police Department provided a motorcycle escort for the seventy plus cars entered into the rally, onto Interstate 75.
Once on the Highway I did a Google on my laptop and found that there was a Dairy Queen just off of I-10 in Bagdad Florida, riddle solved.
As we were aware that the Florida Highway Patrol use mostly Ka radar, we decided that we would pair up the Beltronics Sti radar detector along side the Valentine One and do a side by side comparison of the two.
Alert One – 35.5
It didn’t take long for our first alert as just ten miles north, the V1 radar detector gave a short alert for Ka and a second later the Bel STi went into full tilt alerting at 35.5 (Ka Band). As we crested an overpass a half mile away we saw a FHP vehicle parked in the median running instant on radar.
Alert Two – 34.7
About fifteen miles later the STi alerted first to a 34.7 (Ka band) and a few seconds later the Valentine One lit up indicating Ka band. We crested another overpass that was over a mile away from our first alert and saw that a “Fireballer” pulled over with a trooper standing next to the driver’s side door.
Alert Three – 34.7
The coast was clear the next fifty miles till our STi detector lit up again at 34.7. The Valentine radar detector lagged behind a good three seconds before it first alerted Ka. Ahead we saw a trooper parked in a row of trees in the median approximately a mile from our first warning.
At 10:45 am we arrived at the I-10 turn off and headed west. It was here that I began explaining to my co-driver the reason for the painted horizontal lines that crossed the pavement in sections. These I related were used to measure distance at predetermined locations so police could measure speed using VASCAR or another timing device from patrol cars or aircraft. I cautioned him to slow down after crossing the first set of lines and count out at least another set prior to speeding up, to avoid these types of speeding violations. Just as I finished, the “Blinder Dude” from Blinder Xtreme Team called on my cell phone relating that he was forty five miles behind me and that he had just received a citation for doing 91 in a 70 and that he was clocked by aircraft.
Alert Four – 34.7
West through the panhandle of Florida seemed pretty uneventful the first 150 miles. During this leg we had the Astron Martin, another BMW, and the Ferrari Spider all taking turns at the rabbit position (lead car in pack). Just 20 miles east of our Bagdad stop, co-driver The Veil Guy took lead with the Aston Martin a quarter mile behind. As we crossed a clearing of trees in the median, we saw an approaching FHP vehicle east bound approaching us, as the Veil Guy started to decelerate, both detectors lit up simultaneously, giving us a good indication that we were just nailed with deadly instant on.
In the mirror we both noticed the FHP vehicle turn into the median and as he pulled onto the pavement the Aston Martin pulled into the right lane allowing the officer to cross and to give chase.
Pretty much knowing that our goose was cooked; we pulled into the shoulder and awaited our punishment. As the trooper’s car pulled up behind, horns of the Aston, BMW and Ferrari gave short beeps as they passed.
The trooper walked up to the driver’s side and asked the same question that I uttered thousands of times before in my law enforcement career, “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” Bob, being an old pro with several tickets under his belt from prior encounters just sat there with a dumbfounded look and uttered, “No, was I speeding officer?” He replied, yes, ninety in a seventy mile an hour zone. After Bob offered up his driver’s license, I asked the officer if he needed to see my identification too as I removed my license from my retired sheriff’s badge case. He asked where I was an officer and I replied that I was from Arizona and that I was on business (didn’t say police business) and had met with a Lt. (dropping a name) from his agency earlier that day.
He walked back to his car and a few moments later came back telling us that we needed to slow down…..
Realizing we had lucked out at this encounter, we maintained a respectable speed until pulling into the Dairy Queen. Here several of our teammates were waiting to see if we were going to make it into the check in. The clerk of the Dairy Queen then also came out saying that she had heard over the FHP scanner that troopers were lined up waiting for a group of Fireballers twenty miles out, that someone had called in that we were driving over 140 MPH.
The Veil Guy and I both chuckled saying that we were not part of that group, however we had been pulled over for doing ninety.
We picked up a Florida newspaper for the photo shoot at the state line and completed our assignment at the “Queen of Bagdad” and heading back onto the Interstate. At this time the “Blinder Dude” called on his cell phone saying that the white Corvette had been stopped doing 140 mph and that the driver was arrested and taken to jail.
Alert Five – 34.7
A few miles west of Bagdad after going underneath an overpass, we received a 34.7 alert on both detectors simultaneously. Looking over into the entrance ramp, I observed a FHP vehicle clocking west bound traffic from behind.
Alert Six – 34.7
A few miles west of the state line we got another 34.7 alert simultaneously on both detectors as we passed a thick grove of trees in the center median. We never saw an officer, but assumed from the nature of the alert, that one was on the other side of the median shooting east bound traffic.
After crossing into Alabama, we pulled into the rest area and scrounged through some trash bins to find a newspaper for the Alabama welcome sign. Finding several, we took them all (as not to leave any for other contestants) and rode over the State welcome signs and got our first set of photographs.
Driving on the bay bridge on I-10 approaching Mobile, the STi went full tilt 34.7 for at lease one mile while the V1 remained silent till it started finally it began chirping. Over on the east bound lane we saw what appeared to be a police light bar pass behind a cement bunker.
Here we fired up the GPS […]
SML 2007 Radar Detector Shoot Out
On June 22nd through 24th, Carl Fors of Speed Measurement Laboratories hosted his 2007 Radar Detector Shoot Out in El Paso Texas.
Representatives from Cobra, BGTech, Atowave, Beltronics, Escort, Cheetah, Whistler and Q3 were some of the manufactures that brought out their new products to be tested by Carl’s posse of Texas law enforcement officers. Various radar and GPS scenarios that included instant on, POP, long range, false alert and audio response tests on the various products. In the coming weeks the final results will be published on the SML and RadarBusters websites.
While at the test, I videoed several of my own reviews and an install of the new Blinder M-47 laser jammer. These will all be available in the coming week here on my blog.
“Shootout” On Vulture Mine Road
Wickenburg Sun
3/28/2007
Art Pulis
Sun Business Advocate
A unique form of shootout was recently staged on Vulture Mine Road just south of the Vulture Mine. This was not a shootout with guns, but rather a shootout between law enforcement officers with radar and laser guns and drivers with radar and laser detectors and shifters.
Wickenburg businessman Roy Reyer, better known as Radar Roy, hosted a well-attended and important testing session for the radar detector industry. Various makes and models of radar detectors and laser shifting devices were matched against two trained and certified law enforcement officers who operated their equipment according to normal procedure. The volunteers in cars were running up and down the road trying either to detect the police or defeat their devices.
Included in the participants were executives form the radar and laser detection manufactures who were anxious to see how their latest technology worked in a real-world field test.
“We are here strictly as observers,” said Beltronics National Sales Manager Evertt Morss. “There are several tests around the country, but Roy runs one of the best and that’s why we come to see how our equipment performs.”
Also included among the testers were “The Guys of Lidar”, participants from around the country and Canada. In the group there were two individuals from Serbia (misprint was Croatia), and one from Scotland. According to Reyer, the interest in radar and laser devices is keen in Europe, and they are interested in testing.
“One reason our company is one of the largest retailers of radar and laser detection devices is that we understand our products and how they serve the consumer,” said Reyer. “I believe that they only way to advise the consumer is to understand how the devices work in the field under real conditions.”
“We have been here for three days running up and down the road testing in all conditions,” continued Reyer. “We use the straight stretches, but in this location we can easily run in the curves or the hills to determine sensitivity and effectiveness.”
Guys of Lidar
On March 9th through March 11th, Radarbusters hosted the Guys of Lidar (GoL) “Radar Detector and Laser Jamming Test” in Wickenburg Arizona.
The GoL team is made up of radar detector and laser jammer enthusiasts from across the US and Canada and we paid for their transportation costs to come out to our testing course to test all the latest speed countermeasure equipment.
We also had representatives from Beltronics, Laser Interceptor whom made the trip from Croatia, and Cheetah that made the trip from Scotland.
The GoL members methodology involves setting up “worst case scenarios” to test the effectiveness of the speed counter measure equipment. We also had two police officers whom were both certified in radar and laser enforcement, whom the GoL consulted with during the setting up of these exercises.
During the first couple days we experienced a “weird” Ka radar signal that basically flooded our original testing area, so at the morning briefing the GoL identified an alternate location that their testing site was moved to.
The highlight of the event for me is when they outfitted my 45’ Renegade RV with a prototype of the Laser Interceptor. Wagers were taken at punch through distances for the first run and no one bet on “Jam to Gun”, which it did!
I commend the GoL for their high level of professionalism and dedication. They endured my cooking, one hungry rattler and the hot Arizona sun to provide a very comprehensive radar detector and laser jamming test.
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