I just had to try a Cobra...
I guess that got your attention!
Just for fun, and mainly to test if running a Cobra at the same time as my other RDs would greatly affect the range of my other RDs, I decided to buy the cheapest Cobra sold at my local Walmart. I happily parted with $39 in order to walk out the door with a Cobra ESD 737 which is the Walmart branded equivalent of the ESD 7000 shown below. I do so love to buy radar detectors -- even cheap ones!
So, for $39, what did I expect? Well, I did expect that the ESD would at least have a ramp-up for its audio alerts! It doesn't. In fact, its single glowing LED for either X band or for K/Ka band combined with its non-ramping audio alert reminded me of this POS Road Patrol which was the first RD I bought back in 1983:
Well, I have to admit that the old Road Patrol on clearance sale set me back by $59 back then in 1983 and that the Cobra was $20 cheaper! I was excited since Cobra claims that this RD is Spectre undetectable. Later I checked their web site and noted the "*" and then read the note that this Cobra RD is only undetectable by the original Spectre I model. Hmm...this seems to me to be more than just a little bit of misleading and false advertising. But I am sure that Cobra's plethora of attorneys approved it.
Before leaving the Walmart I had the cashier cut open the near bullet proof blister pack so that I would be able to extract the Cobra and its accessories once I got to my car. The best thing about this cheap Cobra ESD 737 is its suction cup mount which stuck to the windshield like glue.
My tests of the Cobra against the Walmart K band door openers...
I moved my car and parked approximately 800 feet from the Walmart's K band door openers and then turned on my STi. My STi was happily detecting the door openers with a signal strength of 1 and sometimes 2. I turned off my STi and then turned on my brand new Cobra. What, no alert? I drove towards the door openers. Finally, at roughly 100 feet from the door openers, my brand new Cobra began to alert. I was thoroughly impressed at how well the Cobra ignored these false K band door openers by not detecting them at all until I got pretty close to them, due to the Cobra's poor K band sensitivity. I would say that the Cobra doesn't even need the City button to reduce false alerts. Maybe the City button is there just for looks and perhaps to imply that the Cobra is so sensitive that it needs a City filter?
My tests of how badly the Cobra interfered with my STi...
Well, after the fun and happy horse $h!t of testing the Cobra against the Walmart K band door openers, I decided to see if the Cobra would affect my STi's ability to detect known X and K band falses around town while I headed home. The results were not good!
-- My STi completely failed to alert to the Right Aid K band door openers located very close to the roadway. Normally my STi would detect those door openers at a distance of at least 1000 feet.
-- My STi didn't alert to the multiple K band door openers located at the Food Lion grocery store until I was within 800 feet of them, at which point my STi suddenly alerted and correctly displayed the signal strength as 6 out of 10.
I haven't performed any other additional tests. Yet it is obvious that Cobra RDs, due to Cobra's choice of the primary LO frequency, presents very serious problems for all other RD manufacturers. What do I suggest you do if you are driving along and you see a Cobra in another nearby vehicle? Back off by at least 500 feet in order to allow your RD to have a decent chance of actually detecting police radar while your RD is within or near the "interference cone" of a Cobra.
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Originally Posted by djrams80
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