Article: 55230 of rec.autos.driving
From: agough@primenet.com (Andrew Gough)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
Subject: Radar Detector Evaluation: Car & Driver, April 1994
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 04:37:46 MST
Organization: Primenet
Lines: 87
Summary: My foot had a cramp, officer . . .
Keywords: lidar radar detector review evaluation

[Let's try that again--I accidently clicked-on 'send' prior to inserting the 
review]
Hi,
     There's been a lot of "which radar detector should I buy" messages in 
rec.autos.driving recently, with a lot of the replies referencing a Car & 
Driver evaluation (of course, no citation given!).
      It turns out that I was reading rec.autos.driving to find just such a 
recommendation myself.  So I went down to the public library and looked up the 
Car & Driver article.
      I have summarized the key results of the Car & Driver evaluation below.  
Note that saying "which is best" is complicated, since no detector is #1 in 
every category.
      Those of you who read rec.autos.driving on a regular basis may want to 
save this post--so you can repost in the future when the "which one should I 
buy" question comes up again.


Car & Driver, April 1994, vol. 39, no. 10, p. 81(8)

Reviewed four radar+laser detectors:
Valentine One             89 points (max 100)
BEL 645STi                62 points
Escort Passport 4500      51 points
Cobra RDL-512SW           44 points
Uniden LRD 9000W-1        44 points

Most police still use X- and K-band radar guns.  It's estimated that
70% of the guns in service are X-band, and the remaining 30% are
K-band.  Ka photo radar, Ka radar guns, and laser guns are still
relatively rare.

                         Detection Range
                 (in miles, unless otherwise stated)

                                BEE 36          #       Laser beam
Model          X    K   Photo   Ka       VG-2   Falses  width (ft.)
~~~~~         ~~~  ~~~  ~~~~~   ~~~~~~   ~~~~   ~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~~~~~
Valentine One 1.4  1.3  0.16    0.5       0      11       20

BEL 645STi    0.25 0.4  0.23    1.25      0       7       17

Escort        0.4  0.3  0.05    0.6       0.12    6       16

Cobra         0.3  0.2  0.24    0.8       0.1    11        6

Uniden        0.3  0.15 0.06    0.7       0.4    17       19
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Detection ranges are approximate averages, based on a sight-estimate
of the charts, which contained several measurements for each detector
(city mode, highway mode, etc.).
Photo = Photo radar (Ka) @ 34.300 GHz
BEE 36 Ka = Ka radar gun @ 33.800 GHz
VG-2 = range in miles at which a VG-2 radar-detector detector detects
       the model of radar detector
Laser beam width = At 2000 ft. from the laser gun, the beam width in which
                   the laser detector sensed the laser
 

                      Radar Falsing Chart
   	      	       (distance in feet)

                        ---- Transmitter ----
Receiver        BEL    Cobra     Escort   Uniden   Valentine
~~~~~~~~        ~~~    ~~~~~     ~~~~~~   ~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~
BEL             605     140        140      325       120
Cobra             0       0          0     1350         0
Escort          925       0          0     1010         0
Uniden          235       0        104       40         0
Valentine       100       0          0      673         0
-------------------------------------------------------------
This chart lists the distance, in feet, at which a particular brand
of radar detector (the "receiver") will generate a false radar alert
due to the "transmitter" brand.  
   To identify those radar detectors that are good at avoiding false
alerts due to other radar detectors, read across the chart horizontally.
   If you want to know which radar detectors that are the biggest
pollutors, read down the chart vertically.



-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Andy Gough                      |      "Knowledge is power."
Internet: agough@primenet.com   |                -- Francis Bacon
ICBM: 33^18'29" N  111^48'39" W |
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