I'm gonna go on a 400+ mile trip tomorrow and I'm borrowing a fellow maxima.org member's Bel Vantage STI Radar Detector. It used to be the singer Seal's detector, but somehow my friend got it from him. Anyways, it was top of the line two years ago and it has Laser, X, K, and KA, along with that safety thing. I'm not too familiar with how it works other than it beeps a lot. I read up that most commonly radars use K-Band, and KA-Band is the hardest one too detect accurately. If anyone has any guidance on how I should react to beeps, etc, please fill me in. The road is I-5 mainly which is a 2 lane highway that's straight and desolate for the majority of the trip.

Going from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Also I will be travelling there in the middle of the night (midnight - 7am) and returning during the day (9am - 3pm).

Thanks!

 

Oh just so you know, I'm staying a day, not just turning around after 2 hours.

 

I usually drive at night when I go home to Minneapolis from Madison, WI (major interstate). I'd be very careful not to speed when there are no cars around you. At night, at least around here (open areas and farmland), cops will hide in the median and use instant-on, meaning that if there are no cars around you, you won't get the chance to pick it up. If the radar beeps K or Ka once and stops, slow down for the next mile or two.

 

My friend yold me that CHP on the highway I'm going to be on uses only K and they don't have instant on, but I will obviously drive cautiously when no one is around.

 

I actually thought that instant-on was a technique rather than the equipment. I might be wrong.

 

No only certain radars can do it. It has to be able to hold a charge and then be able to release it. Radars normally have a power-on like event when the power is first turned on.

 

hey brian watch for airplanes as well.... the last time i went from burbank to berkeley... i got a ticket and the cop said the plane caught me doing 90... so watch out for thsoe stupid suckers too.

 

BrianV,

The CHP uses vascar on the interstates as well
as Ka band radar. In the cities they use Ka, K,
and very little X unless you're in a sh#thole
town. Don't react to X-band unless your in a small
town. Most of the automatic doors will set off the
X-band detection. On the highway Vascar will be
used quite often and no radar detector can detect
it since it doesn't produce emissions. Good luck
on your trip..

Mike

 

Since we are on this topic,
is cobra 9550 detector any good? I know escort is the best one on the market right now, but how bout cobra? any close to escort?

 

i dont know about cali, but with my exp. here in GA the HP uses K and KA. also i have been hit by laser. my detector can decet Vascar but im not sure if the cpos even use that around here. if you see KA light up defitnetly hit the brakes. dont worry about Xband. mcdonalds microwave sets that off.

 

Yeah I don't bother with X. Ka was big on this trip, and it weeded out cops three times for me. The was way too foggy for VASCAR to be effective so I wasn't too concerned, but I'm pretty good at spotting the planes &/or trailing cars.

 

Im talkin some long trips this winter wit my passport 8500 and was wondering with the instant on, even if there are other cars around, will the Gestapo always clock cars in front of you? Or can they tell which cars are speeding and which arn't?

 

Isn't Vascar the airplane and paint stripe timing? And if so, does your detector have little eyeballs that look up into the sky for airplanes???

 

Burton, I would say that some cops will wait till they see a fast car, but at night its hard for someone to tell without other cars to compare with.

Also, please read my final review of the Passport 8500 and new v1, I know for a fact that the Passport will not pick up instant on as well as the V1.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=79881

 

If your radar is like my Whistler, it should make a more harsh and more erratic sound to alert you of a "real" radar. A lot of times you'll pick up microwaves and alarm system on buildings or stores.
You'll know what sounds are the ones you should look out for. I am so tuned into my alarm, I don't really even notice when its going off for false alarms anymore.

 

Me too =) i got a whistler, works great. Ive had many close calls, although i did get busted with laser but nothing is gonna help you in that department....

 

True! But I feel you can see the cop before he can use the Laser so you should always be scanning the road. I also notice that police use lasers in known places where people are known to speed. I got pulled over last weekend and I got caught be laser too. I thought I was going well over the limit when in fact, I was driving 42 in 40 zone. The cop faked like he wrote me a ticket and let me go. He wrote the other people tickets instead. He was MADD cool.

I have had my Whistler for about 6 years and it has saved me tons of money in tickets. I live by it.

 

VASCAR is "Visual Actual Speed Computer And Recorder". They compute your speed by measuring the time it takes you to travel a marked distance.

Here are some more tips on avoiding a speeding ticket:
http://www.bmcno.org/fearless_flying.htm

 

He can pick up VASCAR!!!

Seriously, why is it important to point out that this was 'Seal's' radar detector?

 

For all,

I've been reading some of the comments and had to chuckle at some of
the response about VASCAR. Sinewave is absolutely correct about the
definition on VASCAR. But for all of you who thinks/believe you can
detect a VASCAR, I have a beachfront land to sell you from colorado.
Here's a detailed description of what a VASCAR means:
VASCAR is an acronym for Visual Average Speed Computer & Recorder.
This is simply a small computer that will compute the vehicles speed
based on the time it takes to travel a specific distance. Basically
it's distance divided by time equals speed. It's usually hooked into
the patrol car's speedometer. One of the more devious applications of
VASCAR is when an officer passes you on the highway at a
significantly higher rate than you are traveling, it gives you a
false sense of security. A few miles down the road, you will find the
police officer waiting for you, since he knows the exact distance he
has traveled, and the exact distance that you have traveled, he can
compute your speed and issue you a speeding ticket. This is
considered a speed trap in Washington and California and as such is illegal in those states.

Plane speed detection - This is very similar to VASCAR as the officer
in the airplane measures the amount of time it takes a vehicle to
cover a certain distance. The officer then computes the speed of the
vehicle and radios it to a patrol officer on the ground who stops the car and writes a ticket. Having marks on the ground or highway are
considered illegal in California as they are considered a speed trap.

If you ever get busted with a VASCAR used by an airplane I have
several methods of beating a ticket successfully. My charge for all
this information is free.

Mike

 

Ok, I have story with my 8500. Yesterday I was in the city, like 1st ave and 45 st and going through this little tunnel withing the city. Well anyway the tunnel is empty, so I deceide to push it a little to about 70. So, about 3/4 through tunnel, the 8500 goes crazy, says LASER, so I slam on the breaks. Looking around I don't see anything. As I leave the tunnel, I see a cop outside of his car holding a gun, but not aiming it. Is is possible he left the Laser on and thats why I picked it up? Or did it just reflect off something else, because from his angle he couldn't see me in the tunnel.

 

It could have reflected off of something. Laser is "line of sight". All of the other bands are waves (I know you know this) which can be picked up all around.

 

Burton069,

Deezo is correct that the laser/lidar gun is used as a line of sight
and the cop has to be stationary and not moving. I don't care what
radar detector you use (V1, bel980, or passport 8500) if your laser
part detect a laser/lidar, expect a ticket. They aim the laser/lidar
at your license plate and but time your radar detector goes off you're
toast. To answer your question, most likely the cop just left it on.
Chuck it up as a luck. In ohio 90% of police uses laser/lidar and it's
very difficult win in court. I can because I'm a radar/laser expert.
Ohio is the only state that uses laser heavily. All other states use
mainly Ka and K because it's cost affective. These can be defeated in
court quite easily.

Mike

 

Despite what you might have heard it's pretty hard to get a ticket in Ohio. I went to college in that lousy state for 4 years and drove over the speed limit all the time. I rarely ever even saw police. Everyone I know who got tickets in Ohio were doing at least 20 over. I rarely ever went that fast though. I just don't see it as the speeders nightmare that it's supposed to be.

I graduated in June 02, so my experiences are fairly current.

Stereodude

 

Not so much problem in Dayton as there are in Cleveland or Akron. It's
not a speeders nightmare unlike Texas or Oklahoma where they use
undercover cars. I was just stating the fact that Ohio is the only
state that uses Laser/Lidar as their premier speed detection device.
While the other 49 states uses mainly Ka/K for their main speed
detector.

mike