Radar Detectors

[fr0st]

As far as I know there still legal in our great state. There was talk at the start of the year of banning them but I'm fairly sure it was only a proposal.

Anyway..

Last night I got flashed on wanneroo road (90 zone), doing 105 going down a hill in an overtaking lane on a public holiday. As far as I'm concerned this is revenue raising at its finest, so I'm mighty pissed off about it

Yes, I broke the law and got caught. But doing 15km/h over the limit down a hill doesn't cause you to magically find a pole and spontaniously combust. I'll still pay the fine... but I still retain my right to bitch about it

Who runs a radar detector on here?

Do they work for you?

I've been looking into importing one from the states al la ebay because the prices here are ridiculous. Has anyone had any experience with this? Only thing I'm concerned about is getting stung by import tax.

[Tofu]

I have one and it works brilliant.

Each year they bring up the discussion on banning and yet i see nothing. I will continue to use mine and throw it in the glove box if i get pulled over.

I paid $600 for mine installed. Saved me that much in fines easy.

[fr0st]

I have one and it works brilliant.

Each year they bring up the discussion on banning and yet i see nothing. I will continue to use mine and throw it in the glove box if i get pulled over.

I paid $600 for mine installed. Saved me that much in fines easy.

For reference, what make and model is it?

[HypeR33]

I have (well had since it got stolen out of my car) a BEL 745STi Plus...works brilliantly on multinova's, hand held, in car, and Laser (as long as the laser is pointed at someone elses car and you pick up the signal), and also has a rear sensor on it to detect if a cop car has come up behind you. I think I paid about $600 for it, but that was quite a few years ago now. BEL now have ones that talk to you

Cheers

JB

[michael87]

JB, i guess u didnt have it on at the last sauwa cruise, or it didnt detect that cop car just after the first meet point?

[mitchy_]

ive got a bel XR950 (aus. version of the RX650, same shit, different bucket.)

cost me $649, saved me many a time.

mum has one too, out on country roads, she picked up a multi from 3km away... (straight road, but still damn good)

i always get enough room to brake with mine (assuming you arent going stupidly fast)

[JUNR34]

I thought they were classified as illegal in Perth. I remenber my friend had one in his car it was hell annoying it just kept beeping because it was picking up all kinds of signal even when there was no cameras around.

[Mr. Keets]

I've got one and i believe they are still legal...hey dont quote me though. 600 bux and its saved me almost that

Multinovas are stricly for raising revenue. There is one on Leach hwy at Rossmoyne occasionally...dead straight road, 3 lanes, its not a black spot! If they want to save lives put the cameras in the country (not that i'm convinced they actually do anything except make more $ for the government) and put more police in marked patrol cars...thats a real deterent to speeding.

If you ever get you pix taken and review the image, make sure you see the full frame

[ST34LTH]

I had a Bel.. something.. in my old 32 but it went west when the car was broken into. Before I bought the detector I called the cops to check they were legal. The reply was "As far as I'm aware, they are not illegal". He went on to say that he thought they were a waste of money because by the time they go off, you're busted. :-\

I had mixed experiences with it. For the most part, it would work well with multanovas and highway patrol on long straight stretches. But if they're pointing the laser right at you, or if the radar is just over the next hill or around the bend, you'd be pinged before it had a chance to go off.

It was also pretty fond of giving false alerts - auto-opening shop doors are frequently the cause. The signals from these are usually pretty weak however, so it's fairly easy to suss them out. Plus theyre always in the same place - you get to know them after a while.

If anything, having the detector made me more cautious on the road cuz it showed up just how much radar is out there.

[mitchy_]

ditto stealth, im alot more cautious withmine too.

they are really based on car radars/multinova's though.

once a laser one gets you (assuming it picks it up at all, its normally aimed at the numberplate), you are f**ked anyway.

alot of people turn off "k" band too.. its tghe one that picks up in car radars, and garage doors, etc etc

i ususally have it off around the city, and turn it on when im on more open roads

[noise]

they are legal in wa and they work very well.

they wont save you if you are an idiot and speed heaps and by a large amount.

they save you when you are maybe going a little over with the flow of traffic or similar.

[Sneeza]

JunR34 - as everyone else has said - they are still legal in WA. Other states have made them illegal though. The reason your friend's one went off all the time is they sometimes pick up automatic doors and petrol stations etc because of the frequency band. With most of them you can change the settings so it wont pick up K band - the radars mounted on the dash of cop cars which share the same frequency band as the automatic doors and security systems.

[JUNR34]

I see Sneeza, since then hes ripped it out dont know which one he got but yeah probaly not a very expensive one. I guess getting a good one is a good investment in the long run with the amount of mutinova's around now days. But yeah spending 600 plus is alittle too much thats just my opinion anyways.

[fr0st]

I did a bit of research and found

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Cobra-6-Band-Radar-...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/COBRA-ESD-9210-RADA...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Cobra-Laser-Radar-D...1QQcmdZViewItem

I sent a message to the seller of the first item asking about import tax and he bacically replied "There is tax for radar detectors coming into australia, so we mark them as headphones"

So for roughtly $70 aus you can have a radar detector delivered to your door. Obvously its not going to be great quality but for 70 bucks I would be willing to give it a go. The last link looks quite good aswell, but I'm not sure on the import tax situation so I'll look into it.

Cheers for your suggestions guys

[noise]

yeah as sneeza pointed out, if you cant turn k band off then your radar detector is useless in residential areas.

[PHATR32]

it doesnt matter cause as soon as the detector beeps, youve been caught and its too late.

I think a detector would go great on the freeway, against the multinova's, esecially the times when you dont notice yo are doing 10ks over etc.

steve

[fr0st]

Thats true but they do display what band they've detected when they beep (even the cheap ones). You still might not have time to look over at the detector and then brake when it goes off. It's just be a matter of changing the LED to a brighter one for Ka or something along those lines to alert you better.

I'm still yet to head back from the sellers of the two higher end cobra detectors. If they send them unmarked I'll be getting one for sure. Otherwise I'll give the cheapy a go.

[PHATR32]

let us know how it goes, as both my wife and my self are interested in get one.

I do a lot of freeway driviing, and am always on the look out for cameras. the couple of times ive been caugh have been while im talking or am over taking and paying attention to the other cars.

steve

[HypeR33]

JB, i guess u didnt have it on at the last sauwa cruise, or it didnt detect that cop car just after the first meet point?

Hey Mike,

Yeah...someone smashed my drivers side window and took it. Didn't take anything else other than my radar detector I was really pissed off about it too

[HypeR33]

Thats true but they do display what band they've detected when they beep (even the cheap ones). You still might not have time to look over at the detector and then brake when it goes off. It's just be a matter of changing the LED to a brighter one for Ka or something along those lines to alert you better.

I'm still yet to head back from the sellers of the two higher end cobra detectors. If they send them unmarked I'll be getting one for sure. Otherwise I'll give the cheapy a go.

The Bel 745 that I had made a different noise depending on the signal detected too, so you didn't have to look at it. By the sound you would know what band has been detected, and the speed of the beeps was determined by how strong the is.

Most of them also have a city/highway switch, which on mine stopped the beeping for the X band, which is no longer used except for automatic doors etc.

Cheers

JB