In Part II of the Radar Detector Laws FAQ video I discuss the federal and state laws regarding radar and laser jammers.

I also discuss the the Phantom RCD active radar jammer and the Veil Stealth coating.

Many of you perhaps already know that radar detectors are legal for use in passenger cars in all fifty states with the exception of Virginia and Washington D.C.

But did you know that radar detectors are illegal on all military bases and in commercial vehicles and that some states have cited drivers for having a radar detector attached to their windshield because of visual obstruction laws?

I’ve just completed part two of my radar detector and jammer FAQ video and in this video I discuss the laws regarding the various laws in the USA regarding radar detectors.

Many of you that have been following my radar detector videos over the past eight years have contacted me asking about the new dual camera system that we’ve been using.

As I do several video reviews each month I needed a dual camera system that I could use that would be able to focus on the product that I’m testing and another camera focusing on the operator of the vehicle for commentary.

Another major consideration I had was having a system that I could easily interchange between our different vehicles and my plane.

As a pilot, I found that having a video useful in my ongoing training so I could critic my landings and take offs, but also a great tool to capturing the scenery during my flights.

After doing some exhaustive research and speaking with professionals in the industry, we chose the dual DVR camera system developed by DataToys, a company that specializes in the motorsport video industry and who have developed aviation and automotive video systems for the military, government agencies and aviation.

For the application in our Cessna 182 we mounted one camera under the wing and the other inside the cabin, mounting the DVR system under the rear seat.

Then in only a few minutes we are able to move the entire system to any of our test vehicles unplugging the cameras and the DVR from the plane and reinstalling it in our test cars for our radar detector tests.

If you’re in the market for a high quality and simple to use video recording system for your car, truck, motorcycle or plane, I encourage you to check out the DataToys.com website

Do you want the look of a professional install of your radar detector by clearing your dash and cigarette lighter?

In this eight minute video I demonstrate on how you can hard wire your radar detector to your fuse panel in just under ten minutes.

continue reading "How to Hard Wire Your Radar Detector"

Yesterday Automobile Magazine published a review of the Escort 9500i (really a Escort 9500ix) and the Cobra XRS 9955 radar detectors. While reading it I was SHOCKED on several of the things that the author said about the units, his review and his findings. First off here is the link to the review:

http://budurl.com/9epv

The review opens up with a photo of the an Escort 9500ix and the Cobra XRS 9955 side by side on the windshield and then in his opening copy writes, “After living with each unit successively for several weeks”

Therefore this photo and his opening suggests to me that he did this test with both radar detectors this three week period with them side by side. There is no way that you can perform a radar detector test like this, especially one being a Cobra, one of the “leakiest” radar detectors ever made!

Radar detectors emit RFI (radio interference). The radar detectors would react to this RFI in either of two ways; reduce the sensitivity of the radar detector as attempts to filter out the source of the RFI, or the detector would see the RFI and report it as a false alert.

Then if you click on the photo you will see that the detector he tested was infact an Escort 9500ix and not an Escort 9500i.

Then if you read further in the article you will see that he obtained the unit on Amazon for “just over $400.00”

Well number one, the 9500ix has a blue display and not a red display and secondly the MSP from ALL AUTHORIZED ESCORT DEALERS is $499.95

Therefore the detector that was tested was NOT NEW or purchased from an authorized Escort dealer.

On my blog and on RadarDetector.net I have published several articles documenting unauthorized dealers selling used and/or refurbished units as new. Based upon the writer of this review, I can only assume that he fell victim to a “Slezebay” dealer.

Then the review says “No one, short of a government agency, has the resources to thoroughly evaluate all the detectors on the market.. “I guess he didn’t learn in journalism school to never paint yourself in a corner by never saying never”

If he took the time and did his research before he published his review he would has found our forum www.RadarDetector.net and/or my blog www.RadarRoy.com.

Today we have over 531,298 members which over 11,000 are active radar detector enthusiasts! Together we have published over 44,577 posts reviewing virtually every radar detector ever made starting from the “Fuzzbuster” to the “Cheap Ass Radar Detectors” to the newer GPS enabled units.

This review is so poorly thought-out that I’m troubled that such a prestigious magazine as Automobile allows it to be published on their forum.

What do you think? If you agree or disagree with me I’d love to hear from you and would ask that you do the following:

Comment to this posting

Go to the article on Automobile Magazine website and make your comments

Those of you that have been following me for any length of time are aware of the $50,000.00 reward that offer to ANYONE that can show me one of Rocky Mountain Radar’s products that actually are effective at jamming police radar.

A few weeks ago RMR released their new radar and laser scrambler, the RMR C-475 so I ordered one unit online from their distributor.

Over the past several days I have been testing the unit against several of my own radar and laser guns and this unit had no affect what so ever in scrambling and/or jamming.

In one of my prior testing videos of the RMR C-450 where I pitted this unit against one of Kustom HR-8 radar guns, I shot the video during the daytime and the detector/jammers LED display was so weak it was washed out in the video.

RMR then fired back at me on their home page of their website saying that I had fabricated my testing video because you couldn’t see the display.

So this test of the new RMR C-475 I decided to shoot the testing video at night, so you could clearly see that the display was on and the unit was powered up.

As I am certified to instruct police radar training and I’m familiar with all of the equipment that is owned and operated by my local police agency, I chose to test RMR’s C-475 against a speed trailer that has a Kustom HR-8 radar gun.

This radar gun is one of the most popular stationary hand held radar guns used by police in use today.

You can see and hear in this video that the RMR C-450 is operational and that it had no effect in jamming this K-band radar gun at all.

Therefore I will continue to offer my $50,000.00 reward to ANYONE that can show me a RMR scrambler/jammer that works as advertised!

Have you ever been falsely accused of something, something you know that you didn’t do yet other people are accusing you? Let’s even make matters worse, let’s say it’s a police officer that has pulled you over for speeding and you know for fact that you were not speeding because your radar detector went off miles before you came to his location and you’ve been carefully watching the speedometer. He listens to your story but he writes you a ticket anyway for going twenty miles an hour over the speed limit.

Now what are you going to do, fight it or pay it?

It is estimated that over 25% of all traffic tickets written are in error, the most common mistakes police officers make is shadowing, RFI interference, cosine error and mechanical interference.

If you find yourself in a similar position how will you plan out your defense to explain all these technical terms as a layman to the judge, will you be prepared?

A user on our radar detector message forum that goes by the nickname “Da Mail Man” found himself in a similar position as this last year. He was travelling on a Florida Highway doing the speed limit when his radar detector went off and noticed a larger SUV within 100 ahead of him going the opposite direction, gaining speed. During this same time “Da Mail Man” verified that his speed and his cruise control setting were at the legal limit.

However a few moments later he was pulled over and issued a citation as the speeder that set off the police officer’s radar gun.

“Da Mail Man” did his homework, fought back and won!

Subscribers to my “RadarRoysBuyersGuide” can download Da Mail Man’s legal brief he used to beat his case for free on the “Police Officers Mistakes” page

As you will see in this legal document, Da Mail Man did allot of work preparing for his case and I wish to thank him for making this available for free to my readers.

This week I’ve been teaching my SEO training workshop in the Phoenix metro area and I’ve been using the Cobra XRS 9960G as my primary radar detector for this review. So driving back and forth from my home and driving over 1000 miles the past five days I really had a great opportunity to test it out against the automated photo enforcement cameras that the Arizona Highway Patrol have set up on our Arizona freeways along with the red light cameras in Peoria and Phoenix.

Overall the performance of the radar detector was equal to the XRS 9955 unit that I tested a week earlier. Most of my driving during this review was all highway miles and logging 100 or a so blatant false alerts was a significant improvement over Cobra’s other models I have tested.

The range and sensitivity of the detector was equivalent to other radar detectors in the $200.00 to $250.00 class, giving me advanced warning to slow down to speed traps that were ahead.

However, there was one instance that was a close call. While driving south on I-17 I did get a Ka alert just seconds before I spotted the officer. I did have my Escort 9500ix at this same time and it alerted in expert mode that the officer was using 33.5 Ka a couple hundred feet before the Cobra unit.

I experienced the same problem with the windshield mount of the 9960g as I did with the 9955 in that every few hours the suction cups would come lose and the detector would fall from the windshield onto the dash.

This was my first chance to compare Cobra’s Aura GPS database to the Trinity and during my week’s test found that Cobra’s unit alerted to each fixed automated traffic enforcement camera I encountered.

Overall I would rate the radar detector performance as three badges and give high marks to their proprietary GPS database!

Radar Roy’s Rating - Three Stars

Those of you that have following me for any length of time know that in the past I have not been a big fan of Cobra radar detectors and one of my most critical reviews was during the Fireball Cross Country race in 2007.

During this event, as I was “Fireballing” down I-10 just outside of Baton Rouge, I powered up Cobra’s first GPS based unit. But only fifteen minutes later, after listening to continual false alerts, I pealed it off the windshield and tossed it to the rear of our car.

This year, while I was at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) checking out their new line up (their gorgeous assistants and radar detectors) something inside of me told me that perhaps I should give the Cobra brand another shot and do a full review of their products for 2009. So last week a case of various Cobra radar detectors arrived at my office.

The first thing that caught my eye as I pulled each unit out of the box was Cobra’s claim of their new units having “fifteen band detection.”

I’m sure that you’ve had a difficult time believing someone after you caught them in a “little white lie” as I feel the same way too. But giving them a chance to explain I read the fine print on the back.

Two Safety Systems:
Safety Alert and Strobe Alert, ok, I’ll agree to these two. The Strobe Alert is a great feature that alerts to the flashing strobe emitters of emergency vehicles. And then Safety Alert, although not in widespread use is a great feature that warns of approaching hazards.

Six laser signals?
Listed are six models of laser guns that the XRS995 detects, all of which are within the same spectrum (band).

Seven radar signals?
Ok I can see listing X, K, Ka and even Ku, even though it’s not used in the USA. But listing VG2, the Spectre 1 and the Spectre IV?

But I maintained an open mind as I stuck the XRS9955 onto my windshield for six days of driving around the Phoenix area.

During my radar detector tests I always try to keep the unit programmed in the highway mode. This mode offers the best sensitivity to pick up police radar at longer distances. However in this mode you often are bombarded with false alerts which are the chief complaints of radar detector owners.

However, I was pleasantly surprised of the low quantity of false alerts I did receive with this unit. Sure when I was in close proximity of a grocery store or other establishment that had the automatic door openers the unit did alert. But I do not consider these alerts as false, as they transmit on the same frequencies of police radar.

Also when operated in this mode the Cobra XRS 9955 performed well at sniffing out police radar traps encountered on K and Ka that were a respectable distance away.

I found that the “DataGrafix” display was very easy to see even in Arizona’s blinding sun.  The graphic alerts and notification was also a cool feature showing an image of a radar gun and band as it was alerting along with a signal strength meter that has multi colored balls.

One persistent problem I did have with the XRS9955 that I would attribute to Cobra’s small suction cups and the stiff suspensions of my truck, that the detector would frequenty fall off the windshield.

Overall I would rate my driving experience over the past six days with the XRS9955 from fair to good in radar performance.

So today I decided it was time to see how the XRS9955 would fair against my arsenal of laser guns on the airstrip in front of my home. The detector did a fair job in identifying the laser alert when vehicle was over 800 feet away. But as I would expect with any dash mounted radar detector, as the vehicle came in closer proximity to the laser source and the beam width narrowed, the detector had difficulties in alerting.

Next the Spectre testing, I have both the Spectre II and the Spectre III. The only reason I even considered doing this test was to validate Cobra’s claim of complete undetectablilty to the Spectre I and its ability to alert to the Spectre I through IV.

Well I’m disappointed to report that both my Spectre I and III sniffed out the XRS9955 and that the Cobra never chirped an alert.

But overall, I can honestly say that the XRS9955’s overall performance is compatible other radar detectors in its price category and that the added features of its compass and display are an added bonus.

Radar Roy’s Rating - Three Stars

Photo speed measurement was invented in the Netherlands in the 1950’s to measure speeds of race cars. It didn’t take long for the Dutch police to see the value of these devices as a traffic enforcement tool and in the 1960s Gatsos photo radar was introduced.

Gatso fever spread throughout Europe as governments and police agencies found an easy way to have motorists pour money into their treasury under the guise of traffic enforcement.

In the mid 80’s the first case Photo Radar Fever hit the US! Paradise Valley, a small affluent town wedged between Phoenix and Scottsdale, began using photo radar. Not long after the Photo Radar Bug infected the neighboring cities of Scottsdale, Mesa and Peoria.

Today the photo enforcement epidemic has spread worldwide and several devices have emerged to fight back.

Photo radar covers first, a thin piece of plastic film placed over the license plate that distorts the view of your plate. An effective way to beat the cameras; however these “ticket magnets” soon became outlawed.

Then photo blocking sprays advertised as a way to make your plate invisible to the cameras. In my testing and review, all these sprays are TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE and their advertising claims bogus.

Then the VF2 flash back device came out. Also ineffective and to make matters worse reported damage to electrical systems and even fire!

Finally an effective counter measure device utilizing GPS technology emerged in 2004.

These stand alone GPS devices have been retailing for around $245.00. But at this year’s CES show GPS Angel introduced their money saving alternative, retailing for less than $100.00 the V4e.

Is it worth it, I took it the V4e for a 200 mile spin around the Phoenix Metro area to find out.

My first impression was positive. A circular device measuring 2.5 inches round sits on your dash and plugs into your lighter. It looks nothing like a radar detector and has a series of LED’s that flash red when the device alerts.

A business card was attached to the package with a note indicating that the unit was recently updated with their latest database, so I plugged the unit in and headed out.

The red flashing LED lights of the V4e captured my attention as I approached my first fixed camera on I-10. However the faint V4e chirps was barley audible over the anchormans news report on my CNN XM radio.

This first group of cameras was installed earlier this year by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and I was pleased that the unit was alerting. However, unlike the Cheetah device which is programmed to ignore cameras opposite your direction of driving, the GPS Angel was alerting, along with other red light cameras on the surface streets in my general location.

I then headed north on I-17. In the vicinity of I-17 and Bethany Home Road there are two speed cameras that were also installed around the same period of the I-10 cameras, the GPS Angel was silent.

I then headed east on the 101 into Scottsdale. The city of Scottsdale agreed to remove their cameras set up along this route last fall. However the GPS Angel still had these six locations programmed into its database and alerted.

I then headed off to Peoria to check the red light cameras that would be along my route home. As I drove through the red light camera intersections of 83rd Avenue and Union Hills and 99th Avenue and Bell the GPS Angel was again dead silent.

During my 200 mile drive with the GPS Angel I logged the following:

• Proper alerts to fixed camera locations: 10
• Alerts to fixed camera locations no longer active: 6
• No alerts at active fixed camera locations: 4
• False alerts, no cameras within one mile: 3

The brain of any GPS photo enforcement device is their database and it is my opinion that the GPS Angel needs a brain transplant!

GPS Angel’s website does offers the ability for users to notify the company of new locations, however it’s been my experience that users often enter erroneous locations because they see something they think is a photo radar device, or competitors enter bad information to corrupt the data. So I assume that GPS Angel has a method in place to keep this “garbage” out of their database.

I have not inquired to as where GPS Angel obtains its database, but their device is labeled as being manufactured in China and is similar in appearance to the other devices that Tommy Chen of Rayee Technologies was hawking on the floor of CES.

During my interview with Tommy I asked where he was obtaining his photo enforcement database and he related that they program their own. I later learned from contacts that I have the industry that many of these overseas manufactures obtain their information from the Driving University’s website where users enter locations of speed traps. “Garbage in Garbage Out”, in reviewing their fixed camera data it contained massive amounts of inaccurate and dated information.

So you may ask, do I recommend the GPS Angel?

Well yes and no.

Currently it is the cheapest device out there retailing for around $100.00. However Cheetah is currently developing a new device that will also retail for around $100.00 and it is expected to retail later this spring.

So if you have a $100.00 bill burning in your pocket that you need to spend now, go for the GPS Angel and hope they fix their database. Or wait three more months for the début of Cheetah’s new unit which will utilize the Trinity database, the same database licensed to Beltronics and Escort who use it in their GPS equipped radar detectors.

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