Rocky Mountain Radar RMR-C475 obtained to test! This oughta be fun!

[man114]

I had mentioned in a previous thread that I was curious about the radar detector performance of this unit. I asked around at work and as luck would have it I found someone that owned it who was kind enough to let me borrow it for testing, I'll probably have it for a week or two (unless he wants it back sooner). I plan on comparing it with my V1, a late 1990s Uniden, a fairly recent Bel, an early 1990s Cobra, a 1980s era Bel (in K band), another RMR (the one I bought for $5 at a thrift store) and anything else I can hopefully get my hands on (I'm going to see if anyone at work has a more recent Escort but I don't know of anyone who owns one, but then again I didn't know anyone had this one either). Luckily they have three K band radar speed signs up in known locations so I can get some long distance detection. As it is the end of the month there should be some laser traps up on the Thruway (I don't worry about the actual detection not alerting me in time as I'm running a Blinder, and don't intend on speeding). I'll try my best to remain unbiased here.

The unit itself is fairly large and lighter than it would appear from size. The unit has 3 LEDs which are for its "laser jammer" on the right of the unit, when plugged in they leak enough light into the visible spectrum that you can actually see them faintly lit up in the dark. They're pretty darn bright on an infrared of the digital camera, brighter than the Blinder M-06HP's LEDs on an indiviual LED for LED basis, wonder what parts they're using, if they have the right spectrum and good rise times they might actually be decent in a Blinder or something. Unit has two antennas, one probably for the "scrambler" one or the detector. The old RMR I obtained for $5 had a weird antenna split down the middle as opposed to two. There is a thinner one closer to the LEDs a thicker one closer to the Laser detector portion. Unit is made in the USA, apprently it is back to the old custom designed stuff for RMR as opposed to foreign sourced stuff, might be the one redeeming quality of this product. Of course my Valentine is USA made too and at least I know it works.

Oddly this thing has FCC ID on the bottom, I'd imagine if they submit this thing for testing they turn the scrambler off (which can be done), as even if it doesn't jam radar it is surely illegal.

It has a long startup sequence which can be turned off in the menus (thankfully, because I'd be sick of it after three or four uses, let alone a week). It has a blue backlit LCD display. This actually is pretty nice at night not overly bright and pleasant, not the easiest to read during the day a little more contrast would help, but I certainly wouldn't be against another manufacturer using this display.

Though I worked today I was able to do a test against the V1 on K band (the officer was sitting right near my house because this is a speed trap, he uses a low powered K gun). While I had the RMR mounted on the windshield and my V1 mounted on the dash, they alerted at the same time, I'd imagine the RMR would alert after the V1 if mounted on the dash, winner V1.

I also was able to do a false test at a regular X band false spot. RMR did not alert in highway mode. V1 falsed as usual (V1 falses here regardless of mode you run it in, RMR disables X band in the city modes so I had to run it in highway). Worse sensitivity or better false rejection, anyone's guess here I haven't been doing anything to hinder X band detection since I ran into X band near the city last month. There are a couple of spots where the V1 will report 9 bogeys on X band I'll be driving by tomorrow, I'll see what the RMR does there.

Unfortunately that was all I got to do today as I can't run the two at the same time as the RMR causes a Ka false in the V1 and the V1 causes a Ka false in the RMR if they detect anything. I'm going to take my windshield mount for the V1 out of my other car tomorrow and try a long range K band test on the speed sign.

I will say there are a few things I like about the RMR. The color of the display at night and the windshield mount. The windshield mount holds the unit perfectly straight and is easy to mount and unmount the unit from.

I don't care for the alerts, while the voice alerts are clear enough all the beeps sound similar enough that you'd be confused if it weren't for the voice.

More testing will occur tomorrow we'll watch it scramble those speed signs too (not)!

[spartcus]

Let us know what you find but I think some of us already know the answer.

[languy99]

what is the FCC ID?

[man114]

QKK-C03

[languy99]

here you go, everyone can check it out https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/...7;27QKK-C03%27

[man114]

It has a few variances from the photos internally probably because of the voice/text display the extra LEDs for the "laser jammer" but otherwise thats pretty much whats in there. The link to the FCC test shows what RMR submitted was in an RMR-C302 case (but isn't an RMR-C302 internally, that $5 C302 I have has a different horn), according to the test papers is a C430 which is a predecessor to the C450 & C475 (which I'm pretty sure are all the same detector the prior two without the text display and the C430 without voice). Odd that the FCC wouldn't wonder why it has dual horns. Also the manual on there cleverly makes no mention of the "scrambler", they apparently deleted that entire section. I don't know but to me they made enough overall changes I'd think it should be resubmitted. Obviously the scrambler was turned off too because it generates interfernce on CB radios from what I've learned (the "FM Chirp" must leak enough into the horn assembly that it acts like an antenna emitting FM interference or something).

One of their other models, perhaps one of the KAT ones has the FCC certification you can view, I found a page that listed quite a few of the radar manufacturers on there last night (including some of the less common ones), I was reading them through but dozed off, was kind of interesting to see the internals. I'll see if its in my history folder this afternoon.

[upstatedoc]

here you go, everyone can check it out https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/...QKK-C03%27

Facinating!

[kpatz]

Next time try running the two units separately. When you run them at the same time, as you noticed, the V1 and RMR interfere with one another, which likely will affect the performance of both (well, the V1 at least... doubt the performance of the RMR can be made any worse than it already is).

The "scrambler" is passive, meaning it doesn't emit any radar signals, so that is how it is able to pass FCC certification. Of course, this also means the "scrambler" is totally useless against actual radar.

One other thing to try. Power up the RMR so its "laser scrambler" LEDs are lit, and point them at the front of the V1. I'm curious if those LEDs are pulsed or not. If they are, they'll cause a laser alert on the V1. If not, they're just a pathetic attempt to "blind" a laser gun with continuous IR. Which means they'll jam laser about as well as a light bulb.

[Paperlantern]

Yeah I dont see how they can put an FCCID on a product that it is clearly not for. He said it has an LCD backlit screen, this unit is clearly an LED based readout display. Dumbest company on earth... ugh.

[languy99]

The display has nothing to do with it, and actually neither does the case or the software. Look at whistler, the 690, 695, 78, 78se, 695se, 690se ( and I think even the pro 68se) all use the same FCC ID becasue they are the same antenna. If they had changed it, then they would have to get a new number. The only difference between the regular series and SE series is casing, display and software.