They are good, but portables need to be line of sight.
Best advice for a RD in a province where they are illegal is to have 2. Get a good one, and buy a used cheapy one of Ebay. That way, if you're ever pulled over because you were spotted or detected having one, you had over the cheapy one and suck up the $170 fine (minimum) and 3 demerits.
Get caught a second time and your fine will be a lot more!
I know a few people that use them and so far, they haven't been nabbed. If you spend enough, you can get the undetectable detectors that you can get out of sight in plenty of time for a typical radar trap. Then, you only have to worry about the extreme possibility of a cop pulling up behind you and pulsing his detector which immediately causes you to reach for yours mounted on a window.
These days, having them visible isn't as much of a worry because of the amount of other devices it could be (GPS, Satalite radio reciever, hands free etc).
__________________
|