Mark Wheeler

Anyone know whether police and state troopers can really detect cars using radar detectors?

Thanks,
Mark

MJones

Not until they see it in your windshield

Carrera GT

A radar detector can be "detected" itself.
Some very few police cars carry the equipment. I spoke recently (in the last year) with a Ham radio friend that runs his own shop and is very interesting in all such things. His research concluded that very few units had been sold to the police. The original idea was to enforce new laws making radar detectors illegal in some states. There's not a lot of revenue in "detecting detectors" and so as a business, it didn't warrant the investment to buy more hardware, train more officers and prosecute more cases.

The equipment (and there is more than one type) is primarily used to scan a vehicle already stopped for alleged speeding.

If you're concerned about being "found" using a detector in a US State where detectors are illegal, I would counsel against breaking the law, but if you choose not to comply, I suggest you buy a new model.
Valentine 1 www.valentineone.com is meant to be shielded to prevent at least one type of "detector detector" used by police.
I've driven past numerous cars and trucks with older model detectors that "leak" so much they set of my detector.

Here's a quick explanation of why a "receiver" (which sounds passive and shouldn't be making any "noise" so it shouldn't be possible to "hear" it) can be found.

By the way, all radar detectors (civilian and military) are just microwave receivers tuned to the frequencies used by equipment operated by police. The receiver measures a standing radar field at the head of a cone-shaped receiver dish (often squared off to reduce space, such as in consumer products) and "detects" other radar sources by measuring the changes in the standing field effected by external sources. The cone increases the exposure area of the receiver and it's tuned to the range of EM frequencies relevant to the detector.
So if the head of the cone is properly shielded and baffled, no EM gets out (at least so little it's below ambient noise levels) so how could you "detect the detector (man, I'm using a lot of double quotes...)
It's a bit like walking through the security scanners at the airport or at a retail store with "inventory control" tags or little metal strips on their merchandise. The metal tags, like the metal in a gun barrel or a belt buckle, will upset a standing radio field. Since the cone of the radar detector is designed to catch and concentrate radar, then passing radar across the road and measuring fields on the other side could (under ideal conditions) detect the presence of devices that effect radar emissions. This second method explains why having the detector turned off doesn't change the likelihood of being caught.
Again, from speaking with others and the little research I've done myself over the years, neither approach to "detector detectors" has worked. At least it hasn't worked well enough to become more common and I can't remember anyone coming onto a forum like Rennlist and saying "gee, I just got busted for using my detector" ... but maybe I missed that thread ...

That's a rather concise explanation of radar, but a little Googling research and you'll learn more.

20C4S

that'll bring up my question...
can police detect a redar or laser jammer?
i saw the thing on back of some car mags. it says it's not legal in CA. have u guys tried the thing?

Itzkirb

Is the Valentine 1 legal to use in California?

Itzkirb

Nevermind, found the answer

Radar jammers. Radar detectors are legal, but jammers, or any device which interferes with radar signals, are illegal (28150 VC).

http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/streetlegal.html

Jim Michaels

Yes, VA State Police have (or had) at least one radar detector detector. Several years ago, my radar detector was detected from over 100' away, and my unit was not in the windshield. I had been driving in the right lane in a line of other cars driving at the limit, while cars in the left lane were passing us. I saw the SP pull out from the median after I passed him. I knew he was after someone, but had no idea it was me. The others in my line probably wondered why he pulled me out as well. He was polite, said I wasn't speeding (I don't think he even had a radar unit on because my detector didn't go off), and indicated that his detector unit had detected my detector. He took down the serial number of the unit and gave it back, along with a non-moving violation (no points) ticket for $25. The next time I got a detector ticket (just a few months ago), the fine was $40. I bit my tonge before I could complain "Hey, last time it was only $25." So I'm the radar detector detector poster boy. The irony is that I'm one of the pokes in the right lane; maybe a little over the limit sometimes, but certainly a small fish.

VIP MOTORWORKS1

I talked to my friend who is a traffic officer about radar detection. I asked him if they were illegal in California and he told me they were not but he did say jammers were, if they can find it. He also told me that they can not detect radar detectors or jammers. I asked him what happens to a radar gun when someone has a jammer and he told me that the gun doesn't register anything it just kind of glitches with no reading. This is a common thing according to him, every now and then the gun will glitch even if someone isn't using a jammer. This doesn't mean that you will get away though because a lot of traffic cops are sent through training to determine how fast someone is going by eye. He was sent to a training course where they made him guess the speed of a vehicle by eye while someone clocked it with a radar gun. They were tested thouroughly until they could guess the speed of cars within 5 mph. He also said that an officers testimony will hold up in court as well as a radar reading because of this training, he explained that a radar reading is just a way for an officer to justify what speed he thinks you are going by giving them a definite reading. The officer may already think your speeding but might not be sure and a radar reading just makes them sure your speeding. I believe if your going to use a radar detector so you can speed you should make sure it is one that can detect cops at least a couple blocks ahead of you even if they are not using a radar gun, so that you can slow down ahead of time. The k40 is supposed to detect a cop up to a mile ahead or behind you by picking up police radio signals and through my experience it works very well.

Rodney

20C4S

thanks for the info Rodney. i was gonna try the jammer

Mark Wheeler

Thanks for the info gents.

Mark

MJM

Forget about jammers. They're junk. You should read this article. It's from Escort's website.

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=6000

LanceK

If you got pulled over and an officer was looking for a radar detector with some sort of "scanner", couldn't you just turn the unit off so it wouldn't give off any sort of "signal" therefor rendering the officers device useless?

Gretch

LanceK, that is what I thought too. I have a Bell that detects a "detector" and shuts itself off for some period of time after it notifies you what it saw. I bought it 3 years ago so it is prolly obsolete technology now, but on the occasion that I have it turned on, sometimes I get this event.......

Carlos from Spain

Those are passive jammers which are a complete fraud, not active laser jammers like Lidateck's, Blinder's, K40's diffuser & Bel's Laser Pro 904, which do work quite well

Carlos from Spain

I remember reading an article a year back about radar detector detectors in the US and result was that currect good radar detectors (like V1, Bel, Escort) are failry invisible to cop radar detector detectors, but now the cops have a new one that will detect all radar detectors, I can't remember the article with the tests of detection or the name of the new device