Radar/laser detector

[Tej.S]

Hey guys,

So my girlfriend got me a radar detector for Christmas lol. I wanted to ask, are these even remotely useful for daily driving? I was under the impression that cops mostly use laser now, as opposed to radar :dunno:

The model she got is Beltronics Pro 200. I tried googling reviews, but did not come up with many real results. Looking for any sort of input here. I don't want to open it if it's not going to be of any use to me.

[max_boost]

Well if the Police are in motion e.g. driving around they gonna use radar (speed number pops up on their electronic box thing if they have it turned on). If stationary e.g. parked holding the gun thing pointing at you on side of the road it's gonna be laser.

I believe a lot of things can trigger the radar detector like those street signs telling you to slow down, other radar detectors and those new age blind spot systems etc. but it will detect if the Police radar system is on. I usually turn off K band and keep KA on but I am told older vehicles still use K. When I leave K band on I feel like it's going off constantly and therefore annoying.

Anyway it can be handy or not. The Escort systems also tell you when approaching speed + red light cameras.

I haven't used mine much anymore and have had good luck. I keep my speed at about 20%+ posted limit.

Real ballers will have a laser jammer but then we are talking about an additional $1500+.

[jacky4566]

As far as Calgary and my personal experience.

K Band. "In Car" radar system. Used if a cop is tailgating you. Also used by many automatic door openers and traffic counters so if you dont have a GPS enabled unit it can be really annoying.
KA Band. also used by in car systems and some stationary stuff. Certainly useful.
Laser. Due to the narrow width of a laser its very rare to detect a scatter. So its only useful to know that your about to get a ticket.
X. Never really seen it much. Apparently USA has lots of X band equipment?

You really just need to think of it as a way to decrease your odds of a ticket and thats about it. ITS NOT A SHIELD.

As far as that particular unit. I think its rated as a middle of the road unit. Has all the main features except GPS which i really love in my Passport unit. Look on youtube for review and test results.

[Disoblige]

I do a lot of highway driving and I find the peace of mind worthwhile. As mentioned, any in-car speed recording is by radar, and that is pretty much my main concern (ex: nearby police cars, ghost cars, photo radar vans). Mine also tells me where the red light/speed cameras are if I approach them and although I know where they are in Calgary, it's also useful when I'm out of town. What I found interesting is that half the time when I drive past RCMP out of town, they don't even have their radar turned on.

I never seen a cop with K band yet, so it's definitely very, very, uncommon.

In regards to laser detecting, your detector may detect laser (handheld gun), but chances are if that happens, the cop already got you. It's going to be different per vehicle because the laser has to reflect back, and a car with more reflective surfaces (chrome, larger headlights, etc.) is going to have a high chance of being caught than a car without. I don't really buy the laser detecting feature of the device, so mainly the radar detecting is useful.

[max_boost]

Mine has never detected a radar van on side of the road but at least the vehicle is obvious hehe

[BokCh0y]

My radar detector is the most useful for me on the highway or like max says, if it tells you the red light cams, that's a great feature to have too. In terms of useful it is outside of that, I noticed mine doesn't pick up photo radar anymore so I have to pay attention to the vehicles parked on the side of the road. I disabled x and k bands because of the excessive number of false alerts. Mine really doesn't do much for me now unless I'm on the highway to be honest. Used to be more useful years ago, but I haven't seen any real advancements in radar detector technology to be honest.

If you really want to avoid laser radar, you need a jammer.

[gwill]

problem with radar detectors is that most police are upgrading to options that only the best quality detectors will pick up.

For example i got nailed doing 160 by an rcmp on the highway with zero alerts on my escort 9500ix. Even that $700 pos didnt save me.

Many photo radar vans are moving to dragoncams which arent detectable by 98% of the products on the market.

[Mitsu3000gt]

So many threads on this. They are 100% useless against Lidar and Calgary uses virtually zero radar. Photo radar vehicles are instant-on and you can see them from a mile away anyways. Any moving police car behind you is quite obvious as well.

The only two pull-over tickets I've got in my life have been when I was too dumb to do any research and bought a high end radar/laser detector. So many false positives it was annoying even to have powered on.

If you do a lot of rural highway driving, they can be more useful, but still most of the time RCMP is using laser as well. I have numerous friends in CPS and RCMP, they catch people with radar/laser detectors all the time and think they do nothing.

[speedog]

Originally posted by gwill
problem with radar detectors is that most police are upgrading to options that only the best quality detectors will pick up.

For example i got nailed doing 160 by an rcmp on the highway with zero alerts on my escort 9500ix. Even that $700 pos didnt save me.

Many photo radar vans are moving to dragoncams which arent detectable by 98% of the products on the market.

50 over - isn't that 7 demerits and a mandatory court appearance? Ouch.

[Tej.S]

Awesome, thanks for all the great input guys. I really appreciate it. It looks like I won't be using it after all.

[max_boost]

Originally posted by speedog


50 over - isn't that 7 demerits and a mandatory court appearance? Ouch. It's court appearance for sure but most of the time you can get it reduced to 4 demerits and pay $700 fine for the 1st time. 2nd time it'll be a 1800 fine. I don't want to know what happens on the 3rd time haha

[gwill]

yeah i went to court but i had it reduced to $286 or so. Got super lucky with an awesome judge and a good story.

[revelations]

Originally posted by gwill
problem with radar detectors is that most police are upgrading to options that only the best quality detectors will pick up.

For example i got nailed doing 160 by an rcmp on the highway with zero alerts on my escort 9500ix. Even that $700 pos didnt save me.

Many photo radar vans are moving to dragoncams which arent detectable by 98% of the products on the market.


Were you caught by a LIDAR trap or a PC?

If LIDAR the location of your detector can affect the results (eg. too low); LIDAR operators usually aim for the headlights as they offer the best reflectivity - consequently if you are close enough to the operator and the headlights are a fair distance away from the detector and the ambient conditions are conducive to minimal laser scattering (clear, cold air) then the chances are slim the detector will work.

[Team_Mclaren]

Just looking at the detector wont help you much. You need to know how to read it and what to look for. I swear by my V1 on the highway, wont drive without it.

but yes, it is pretty useless in the city.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Tej.S
The model she got is Beltronics Pro 200. I tried googling reviews, but did not come up with many real results. Looking for any sort of input here. I don't want to open it if it's not going to be of any use to me.

http://radartest.com/BEL-Pro-200-review.asp

I find it not as useful in town but great against Sheriffs out of town. And if you don't have a unit that use gps to mark false alerts, it will get annoying as it start to sound like a VLT.

As for red light cameras, Waze will give you the same warnings as high end detectors like Escort iX and Max series if you don't mind it running on the phone.

Side info, I definitely loved my old iX9500 better than the new Max 360. GPS/Camera info came up too slow on the new model.

[Tej.S]

Originally posted by Xtrema


http://radartest.com/BEL-Pro-200-review.asp

I find it not as useful in town but great against Sheriffs out of town. And if you don't have a unit that use gps to mark false alerts, it will get annoying as it start to sound like a VLT.

As for red light cameras, Waze will give you the same warnings as high end detectors like Escort iX and Max series if you don't mind it running on the phone.

Side info, I definitely loved my old iX9500 better than the new Max 360. GPS/Camera info came up too slow on the new model.

Thanks Xtrema. I'm just gonna get it returned. It's ultimately not going to be of much use in the city, where I do 90% of my driving. Plus, I think the beeping would get quite irritating over time lol.