Radar Detectors.

I have a cheap cobra, it works fine. I can pickup the beeps half a mile before I see anyone. Also I picked up a laser signal once , way before he was aiming it at me, the beam must of sweeped my vehicle while he was targeting another car. I know 3 officers that live in my area personally , and only one can work the laser equipment correctly. The young guy is good, but the two older guys couldn't hit a building with it.

with an older, or entry level detector, falses can be a real PITA. Escort has several options that include automatic lockouts of false alerts. If you drive by the same false 3 times, it is automatically locked out. Or you can manually lock it out. And, if the false signal disappears at some point, the spot is "unlearned".

I have the Escort MAX along with Escort Live running on my iPhone. After a couple of weeks with the setup, my commute is 100% silent, unless I encounter an actual LEO hit.

Bionic Man wrote:
For those of you that have detectors, are you noticing more false alerts with laser than in the past?

The only time they won't work is when a Trooper is running Doppler behind you.

wa8yxm wrote:
The interesting thing is that though courts have ruled state laws against Radar Detectors unconstitional there is a Federal law that could be applied.

This law says that it is 100% legal to LISTEN to a radio transmission (Radar is radio) but... You can not use what you hear for anything other than personal amusement in most cases.. You can not record it, take any action (other than laughing) based on it, you can not tell others about it and so on.

This applies to "point to point" transmissions such as between a Police Officer and his dispatcher, two cell phone users or a radar gun and itself after bouncing off your car.

I was taught the same, many years ago. But with the introduction of RF for sale, such as satelite TV, I believe the FCC added some AND ORs and BUTs.
But the FCC is still the ruling body and no state or local government has governing power over RF emissions. That was proven many years ago when Arkansas tried to outlaw CB radios in cars and trucks.

Richard

For those of you that have detectors, are you noticing more false alerts with laser than in the past?

In the Valentine 1, there are settings to remove most if not all "false" signals like door openers and those radar units in the cities to sample speeds.
Mine is set to monitor only Ku and laser frequencies. Valentine has the info on the web site.
I don't speed anymore- but I like to know where they are at just for my personal info.
I see a lot of police running 2 cars that have radar, the first one trips your detector and after he goes by, one comes along to catch the car when it speeds back up.
The only way to advoid being caught by instant on is to follow a "bird dog" some one who flushes out the radar and your radar detector beeps. If you don't have a good radar detector, it can miss it.
I like the Valentine 1 because of the arrows that light up and show the direction the signal is coming from. Probably the other makes do it now too.

One of the problems with them is the tremendous amount of false signals that are picked up. Very annoying. Now many new cars have the radar distance sensing in them and will drive you crazy. I have a Valentine and not in the RV. :)
I am not a driver that tries to get away with 30 MPH over. But what really disgusts me is the revenue generators (formerly police) in many of the small villages that are more than willing to give you a $200 ticket for 3 MPH over. I want a chance in those situations.

People seem to assume that a Radar Detector only use is to help someone break the Law. That is simply not true.

I've had "Fuzzbuster", Radio Shack, 2 Escorts, Passport and now a Valentine 1. You'll have to pry the V-1 from my...you get the picture.

WOW! that was a waste of time reading. 19 of 23 posts had nothing to do with what the OP asked. Oh by the way I have a Cobra R D & it works great. Have not gotten caught yet & has warned me 3 or 4 times of radar.