There are several consumers who own a laser gun and will let you borrow it so you can test your jammer setup. They also have gatherings to test and see if they're able to pick your speed up with radar/laser guns.

With laser jammers, it's all about the correct installation.

How have you determined the tester's connection to the industry? And if someone's going to say that there's no independent testing to say they work, the inverse is true as well. There's no independent testing to say they don't. The only conclusion you could come up with is "inconclusive". So then we have to resort to anecdotal information. While not being ideal, with a large enough sample size, bad data gets diluted enough to make a reasonable estimate of how well they work. And here, the numbers lean solidly towards the devices work.

These guys put together a fairly extensive laser test Radar Detector Tests and Reviews by Guys of LIDAR - LASER

Nothing is going to be a true controlled test. It's an expensive endeavor. The best we have is the radar detector forums. The vast majority of users seem to have good experiences with them.

And with that, I'm out. I think this horse has been beaten enough. If you want a radar detector, buy a good one, mount it correctly and pay attention to it. It's not invincible, you still need to pay attention to your surroundings and traffic conditions.

I know it's only June, but it has received my nomination...

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...RAvBHrpqS8e9s6

So this small group of guys just got together and just happened to have access to 10 of the top police laser guns.

Here is another good read

Anyone run into a radar jammer?

This thread is like using the Bible to prove the existence of God when arguing with an atheist. :tiphat:

Just google "do radar detectors really work" if you are short money and have to scrutinize if they " really really REALLY work" because they are pricey. Don't buy one! Nor if you really don't need one because you typically drive the speed limit everyday and are never in a hurry sometimes. if you travel all over town for work or similar activities and are on the freeway allot get one if you can afford it. Don't even question it... I promise like me and several friends have said " yeah it was expensive but it paid for it's self already" they do typically give you a heads up that you are approaching a radar gun and should slow down... If you don't want to spend the money, don't get one. If you can spend the money, get one for the added sense of security just in case..... You might just save yourself 200 dollars going 10 over the limit. If you have to really really think about it, save your lunch money to buy something more important like a weeks worth of lunch.

Ok guys heres the deal on this hole radar thing. LEO'S have a couple of different options to choose from I.E. Roving radar, stationary radar, LIDAR, pacing, and an Air Unit.

First off the Roving Radar - Its set up on the dash of the police car or police Motor cycle. It uses an antenna in the front and rear of the unit. The cop has a control box in the car when he is driving around it is on stand by, when he observes a vehicle he is supposed to estimate his speed, I.E. 67MPH then he has to hit the button on the radar to clock the vehicle. When the radar is on stand by the detector will not pick up the radar beam making it detector go off and alert you, Only when he hits the button to clock you will it go off and tell you hey theres a cop, and by then its to late hes already got you when he hit the button.

Stationary radar - it uses the same principle as roving but the cop must be stationery. It's typically a hand held gun instead of being mounted in a vehicle.

LIDAR - it's a hand held gun that limits a laser beam to judge speed and distance, the officer can pick out a vehicle from a pack the this vs a regular radar unit that just emits a cone shape beam. As for the hole laser jammer or diffusers, I have yet to see one actually work for the fact lets just say you have it installed on the front bumper of your car where the front fangs are. The LIDAR has gun sight optic that he can aim and pinpoint any part of your Car I.E. your rear view mirror or roof of your car. for the jammer to even remotely work the cop would have to aim it directly at the jammer it self.

Pacing - lets say you're driving down the road at 90MPH and you are so concentrated on the fact you're cursing down the road or paying attention to the chick in the passenger seat that you did not notice that cope that got o the highway as you were passing an entrance ramp. he see you pulling away from him he catches up and PACES you going 90MPH thats all he needs to give you a ticket.

Air Unit - or helicopter. some agency have them and what they do is hover high up and look down to the markers they have already set up most of the time they are white X shapes on the side of the highway as you pass the markers the will start a stop watch and then stop the watch as you pass the next marker about a mile down the road or so. Then they take your time and do a math formula and boom they now have how fast you were going. And then radio your vehicle color and make to the cops that are a couple of miles down the road.

Now all of that being said radar detectors are not a total waist of money, you could get lucky and it might pick up on a beam that a cop shot at another car a little bit up the road. But I would not put your faith in one that it will not let you get a ticket. Just some food for thought For my fellow Z brothers. And incase you were wondering I have been a cop for a number of years now.:tiphat:

That's what makes this fun wonka. :)

I've been caught doing over 100 in a 65 and luckily had it reduced to 90, which still required a defensive driving class. That was back in 98 or 99 and I learned a lot from that experience.

He'll before I do what I do now, when I was 17 I had an R6 and got boxed in at a gas station they clocked me at 136 in a 45. I about went to jail if it weren't my dad being a cop. Lets just say home was worse then court,

Laser jammers do work. Once you get your "parking sensors" installed look on the internet for a meetup and you can find guys to get your setup tested by the best lidar guns available to LE.

I'd have to agree with just about everything have said above, from my experience with police and radar in different situations and how I observed radar and laser detectors to respond.

That's why I gave up on using them early in the 90's when I found they just didn't work effectively anymore.

When you say that police don't activate the radar until you have the target in sight and then its to late, is exactly what I have been trying to tell ppl .

Even with the reflected microwave energy its really risking a lot that this will save them from getting a ticket.

technology has advanced in the last 20 years (on both sides of the equation).

if your conclusions are based off of 20 year old data, and a day with a crappy cobra detector, there is really no point in discussing this topic with you further. :tiphat:

Thanks for making this a stupid thread with 20 year old useless facts brought to us by you, propagandist police research and the most worthless radar company in existence. Cobra:ugh2:

What hasn't changed is the size of radar beam or signature of the X ,K, Ka bands.

Frequencies have been changed on the KA bands.

Only the way they are deployed and switched on have changed and then you have newer laser systems.

When you have almost 40 yrs of driving thru out the USA and experiencing the various speed control set ups you really gain an understanding of what you are up against.

The way WONKA2581 summed it up is totally correct, believe it or not.

I understand younger drivers belief that when they buy their $500 plus radar detectors or even more expensive jammers and think they are immune to police speed setups.

But the realization comes in when they get their first big tickets and are in denial that their radar detectors and jammers failed to protect them.

So maybe the topic should really be "Radar/Laser Scammers Do They Really Work".

What you may not know is the new internet marketing strategies, there are a lot of instances where forums are set up to promote items that are for sale. Then you also have ppl that are paid to post on these various forums, endorsing and raving about the products.

Its all part of the marketing game.

I always wondered how they used the air unit to see if you're speeding. Very interesting!

you seem to be arguing against a point that no one is making. you'd have to be a complete idiot to believe that any detector/jammer set up will make you immune. :icon14:

most people advocating for detectors in this thread are not basing their conclusions on potentially biased tests or reviews posted online. they are based on their own experiences; owning and using detectors over long periods of time.

im starting to believe you are some leo troll trying to make your job easier to give out tickets. :ugh2:

Its as simple as this , if your detector warns you before you or the police spot each other visually , then you may get away and slow down in time.

But if the cops spots you visually and then hits you with the instant on or laser ,then 99% of the time you are nailed.

Most of the detectors will boast of their long range detection, which may be true under ideally (setup in their favor) conditions.

But when do you see police setting up on a elevation shooting their radar or laser down on to traffic.

Most of the time the speed detection is set up in an ambush mode.

Not sure what to advice but how effective are these detectors against on off radar?

btw, V1 is great... detectors are imho worthless without arrows. even if it looks like it came from a game in the 1970's lol

Guys my info was for pure info on how things work from my side, and it had my opinion on the subject. Opinions are like *** holes everyone has one. I was not intending on an argument.

This is why professional speeders use rabbits to go over hills, around curves, and in known hiding areas. You give yourself about 1/4 miles gap between yourself and someone who appears to be slightly speeding. Even if the detector doesn't pick him up, you're able to see their brake lights. What's funny is that even people doing 5 under will hit the brakes when they see a LEO on the side of the road. It's not 100% fool proof, but works for some when done properly.

This thread is an interesting read, but I am surprised to see the polarization of radar detectors working vs not being worth it.

I'm going to pick up the passport max as soon as it is released. I'm not getting it as a way to drive recklessly, my focus is to make sure I don't make a bad situation worse. For example, I hate driving the Z next to large semi's and it is usually safe to quickly move out of their blind spots.

I almost agree if I was driving a prius I wouldn't need a detector. You probably won't need one in your sentra either...

I actually just saw that the passport max is coming out within a matter of days and is supposed to work pretty well with the extream range. i think its like 550 bucks.

Well I'm glad to see there were plenty of intelligent individuals to carry on the troll bashing in my absence. :tup:


Sadly, I do not see his opinion, however wrong it may be, changing... Perhaps it's best to just leave him to his own (non-radar detecting) devices. :rolleyes:

Driving this thread off topic but...
This roving radar, can they always be set to ON? Since I starting reading this thread and hooking the 'ol STI up. I noticed just how much activity is going on in my normal drive :rofl2:. I usually drive 5-10 over which means a lot of right lane driving, so no need to really care about getting hit with either laser or radar. Anyways, today I went to the gas station down the road and when I came over the hill the STI screamed KA hit and I saw a state trooper SUV parked at Subway about 150 yards away, I swung in the parking lot and I noticed that the trooper was inside enjoying his lunch and the detector was screaming at me still. I remembered reading your post and thought I'd ask.
tl;dr Can roving radar be set to always on? :driving:

Hmmm I don't have a detector....


But I have master badge does that count? Lol JK JK...

Yes just leave it on, or I can switch it to stationary if I want to sit on the side of the road. I will post pics tomorrow night so you guys can see what I'm talking about.

A lot of times, cops will leave their radars or cars on, constantly emitting just to scare those that Do have detectors because they go off and slow down... So it's a passive way to slow down speeders.

Mine has gone off a few times from parked cars with no one in them. Doesn't need to be anything super schnazzy or new fangled radar system... just a cop who wants to mess with us commonfolk. :icon17:


Did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express?? :icon08:

^^ yes why yes I did lmao, also the automatic doors at let's just say a grocery store will or can set off the detectors BC it uses a form or band of radar

I think those are K band aren't they? I've mostly picked up actual police officers with KA band. Are the different bands of radar just versions of older tech and new tech or can all of them be used in current "guns"?

Mine do as well, it will pick up X and K band's for those. Also newer cars with their "collision avoidance radars" will make it go off as well. Still trying to peg down which brands use which bands, but as far as I can remember right now, Domestics use K band while Euro Imports use X band I think...

My way of mitigating this is by using the GPS to block out signals I know are false, and if there are new ones, after about 10 seconds of driving, if the signal isn't getting stronger, then it's a false reading. No biggie, that's why it has a nice big mute button. :tup:

Yes, most of them are K band. Ka is specific to police, so anytime you get a Ka, it is a cop.

Originally, it was X band, then they started using K band, and now Ka band for LEO. Typically, the smaller the agency, the less money they have, so the less high end detectors they will have. Your big city cops will have the newer stuff, Laser/POP/Instant On/etc, but most Rural/county agencies will just use Ka/K radar.

So once AGAIN, it is on you the driver to know who/what you're up against. The detector is a tool, but it's not a magic wand.

Thanks! I appreciate the information. It makes sense with from the data that I was "collecting" (that's a real loose term ha-ha).

According to Gsxr though we can't use your review as you are giving it a positive one. :ugh2:

Speaking of the Collision Avoidance Systems I seem to remember Audi caused a lot of people to freak out and think they were getting hit when it was the person chugging along with cruise control/collision voidance system active while driving lol

Happens all the time...

I'll be driving along, coming up on some minivan in the right lane, and my detector will go off with one of the lesser bands (K/X). It will be a light signal, maybe 1 bar, up until I get next to the car, then it goes to 2. After I pass them it goes away, so I just mute it while I'm passing them.

The 2 good things about the 9500ci I have, (and I believe the 9500ix has the same features), is that it has 3 modes, AUTO, AUTO NO X, HIGHWAY. The AUTO NO X mode turns off the X band part of detection so you won't get these "false" signals.

The other good thing is that even if one of these is going off, and it detects a Ka band, it will show the more police oriented Ka band. Not the "first detected, first shown" idea of some detectors I've seen.

This thread has made me start getting back into this stuff lol. I think I need to send in my old STI unit to be "brought up to date". When I had my Laser Interceptor's installed on my 350, I remember seeing an LEO in Wisconsin shaking his laser gun...It was so hard not to laugh when I switched it off and passed him and let him seeing I was doing the speed limit.
I was hit so many times traveling from WI to MI. I would always slow down to the limit or 5 over and then switch it off and let em see I was doing the limit +5 lol.
* I never used the system while driving through Illinois where these things are frowned upon and illegal :hello:

I have my "Shifters" to perma off for this reason... 1 error, they may shake their head and try again, multiple errors and they know something isn't right, and will pull you over anyways. And I don't feel like keeping a note card in the car with where it is/is not legal to have them. :bowrofl: So I just keep them off...

Still know whenever I'm being lased though. :tup:


Of course the other down side is the damn false laser detection you sometimes get when the Sun is at just the right inclination and angle to the sensor. :shakes head: Or some headlights nowadays when it's raining will refract just enough light to set them off... So annoying hahaha