What Radar Detector And How It Works

Are you tired of getting pulled over for speeding? If yes, you are ready for radar detector but you should know a little bit more about radar detection and how it works.  You have to know the latest technology police are using to catch speeders.

Radar detector is basically a device which allows you to find out when your car is being tracked by a radar gun, which is the device most police forces use to track other vehicles speed. The way a radar gun works is a radio signal is sent from the policeman's radar gun towards your vehicle, and the signals bounce off and back to the radar gun at a certain speed. If your car isn't moving at all, the radio signals come back at essentially with the same speed. If your car is moving they come back at a faster rate, and this can be measured. It is known as a Doppler effect in physics.

So what factors would be important when selecting a radar detector? First of all not all radars are built the same. Some are more accurate, some are more portable, and some are cordless for quick removal. The corded models are a bit bulkier, but also afford a bit more advance warning since they have a longer range than the cordless variety. Either way, when you are encountered by a radar gun that is tracking your car, you will either get an audible "beep" or a visual light signal that lets you know about it so you can take action and slow down. The problem is, often by the time you get the signal it may already be too late. There is another type of radar signal that most basic detectors aren't even able to read, and that is laser signals. These guns can’t be detected by standard radar detectors, so you may need to get what's called a "jammer" to fully protect yourself. These are illegal in most states though, so if you're caught using one it could lead to a hefty fine.

Another thing to consider is that even a standard radar detector won't smell out the police radar if their radar gun is not currently on active status. The newer guns are "instant on" devices, so you can be cruising down the highway and suddenly get a hit from your radar detector, only a few hundred feet from a standing police officer with a gun in his hand. So even if you have a radar detector it's best to keep your speed down and not rely on it too heavily. It may save you from getting ticket or two but if you disregard speeding laws sooner or later you may maybe caught.

If despite of that you still want to buy radar detector be prepared that the number of choices out there is humongous. Luckily, there are only a few worth buying and we will try to help you to decide which one is the best radar detector for you.

The first question is "How much do you want to spend?"  If number lower than $150 doesn’t buy anything. If your answer between $150 and $200, your best option is to buy a refurbished Escort Passport 8500 from Escort Radar's eBay store. If you have $300 to spend, you should get either an Escort Passport 8500 X50 or a Beltronics RX65. All the radar detectors previously mentioned will serve you well, but if you want extreme performance, you need to bump your budget up to $400 to $500.

If you have $400 to $500, your decision just got very difficult as there are bunches of radar detectors available at that price with different feature sets that you need to consider. The top devices on the market today are the Valentine One, the Escort Redline, the Beltronics STi Driver and the Escort Passport 9500ix. While all excellent performers, each of the have their own pros and cons.

The Escort Redline is currently the undisputed king of sensitivity and will alert further than all other devices in most situations. The Valentine One is the top performer in the area of reaction time and will alert faster than most other devices on the market. The Escort Passport 9500ix is the best radar detector for filtering out false alerts as it has a unique GPS feature that will automatically filter out false signals based on frequency and location.

To help you determine which is right for you, we'll take a look at each of these features separately so you can decide which is the most important to you. Sensitivity should be high on everyone's list as the more sensitive radar detectors will alert the furthest from the police officer radar gun. The more warning time you have, the more time you'll have to correct your speed and slow down. The Escort Redline and the Valentine One are very close most of the time with the Redline slightly edging out the Valentine in most situations. The 9500ix lags behind both, but it will provide enough sensitivity for most situations.

Reactivity is a radar detector's ability to alert to radar sources as quickly as possible. This feature is becoming more and more important as police officers are able to engage their radar guns, get a speed, and disengage them faster than ever. A lot of radar detectors won't even alert at all in a situation like this. Out of the top 4 units listed above, only the Valentine One has great reaction time to super fast radar sources. The Valentine One is known to detect short bursts of radar much more often than both the Redline and the 9500ix.

Selectivity is the radar detector's ability to filter out false alerts. Only the Escort Passport 9500ix has the ability to automatically learn and suppress false alarms by location and radar frequency. If you pass by the same false alert three times, the 9500ix will learn the location and you will not be alerted to that radar source in the future. It's important to note that only that radar source is suppressed, if a new radar source appears in the same location that will cause an alert on this unit. Neither the Redline nor the Valentine have this feature.

Bottom line is, if you are looking for raw detection distance, go with the Escort Redline, if you are looking for the best reaction time, go with the Valentine One, but if you are looking for a radar detector that doesn't alert unnecessarily, go with the Escort Passport 9500ix.