Cobra Safety Alert System® actually works!

[Deputy]

I have a BEL RX65 and the SWS warning system is nothing but silence in my area. However, my Father-in-Law has a Cobra with the Safety Alert System on it and it warns him about train crossings, road construction, approaching ambulances and all kinds of other useful stuff. Since a Cobra 9930 is pretty cheap on E-Bay, I may just pick one up for that feature alone. BTW....I am no "speed demon". I use my RDs for situational awareness more than anything else. :wink:

Dep

[jimbonzzz]

Cobra's Safety Alert System only has three possible messages: Emergency Vehicle, Road Hazard, and Train. But the best information is that the use of SAS is much more widespread than SWS.

[Deputy]

Jim: Is there a list of states that use Safety Alert and/or SWS?

Thanks,
Dep

[CMERollin]

Yeah, even the cheapest cobra you can buy for $40 ( i got it for free though ) will have safety alerts. The ESD8200 i have has a icon that says S/V in one whitch means either its a safety alert or a VG2 rdd. Theres only one known spot that ive found that the safety alert goes off where i live and thats just when you pull into the grocery store parking lot, i guess it means drive with caution. Although, its went off a cupple times randomly just going down the road whitch got me a bit confuzed...i dont think LEOs use vg2s anymore do they?

[jdong]

SA runs on K-band so some K-band openers could be in range to trigger a SA alert. Gas stations also love to false VG-2 on detectors that alert to VG-2 leakage.

There's apparently still some departments out there that use VG-2, so it's nice to see a detector alerting to its presence (could alert to an IO trap before reaching it if the cop doesn't think to operate his VG-2 in "IO" mode)

[CMERollin]

There's apparently still some departments out there that use VG-2, so it's nice to see a detector alerting to its presence (could alert to an IO trap before reaching it if the cop doesn't think to operate his VG-2 in "IO" mode)
What do you mean by having the VG-2 in IO mode? I thought all a VG2 did was detect RD's and nothing else?

[jdong]

There's apparently still some departments out there that use VG-2, so it's nice to see a detector alerting to its presence (could alert to an IO trap before reaching it if the cop doesn't think to operate his VG-2 in "IO" mode)
What do you mean by having the VG-2 in IO mode? I thought all a VG2 did was detect RD's and nothing else?

I put "IO" in quotes -- I meant only turning on the VG-2 when he is actively looking to give detector tickets -- which of course is not a designed or effective use of the VG-2 ;-)

My point is, having a VG-2 turned on while trying to use IO is pretty pointless considering that many, even cheap, detectors alert to the presence of the VG-2.

[Jabomb9]

So a radar detector detector detector lmfao.

"Turns out I had a radar detector detector detector that detected their radar detector detector!" I don't see why that wouldn't hold up in court. :P :P

[jdong]

So a radar detector detector detector lmfao.

"Turns out I had a radar detector detector detector that detected their radar detector detector!" I don't see why that wouldn't hold up in court. :P :P

Yeah, Whistler 1793SE/related, and almost all Cobras, effectively detect VG-2 leakage before they can detect your leakage. I'm pretty sure an RDDD leaks a unique frequency from the RDD sweep that the cops can produce an RDDDD though ;-)

[CMERollin]

I put "IO" in quotes -- I meant only turning on the VG-2 when he is actively looking to give detector tickets -- which of course is not a designed or effective use of the VG-2 ;-)

My point is, having a VG-2 turned on while trying to use IO is pretty pointless considering that many, even cheap, detectors alert to the presence of the VG-2.

oh okay, well to the OP I wouldn't recomend getting a cobra just for the safety alert just because of the leakage to other detectors, I'm pretty sure there's other detectors that have the same if not better safety alert detection.[/quote]

[Deputy]

I put "IO" in quotes -- I meant only turning on the VG-2 when he is actively looking to give detector tickets -- which of course is not a designed or effective use of the VG-2 ;-)

My point is, having a VG-2 turned on while trying to use IO is pretty pointless considering that many, even cheap, detectors alert to the presence of the VG-2.

oh okay, well to the OP I wouldn't recomend getting a cobra just for the safety alert just because of the leakage to other detectors, I'm pretty sure there's other detectors that have the same if not better safety alert detection.[/quote]

Actually, there isn't any other detector with Safety Alert. The Cobra uses their own version of a warning system and it's not on other detectors. BEL uses Safety Warning System and that doesn't work at all in my area. As Jimbonzzz said in the second post, "But the best information is that the use of SAS is much more widespread than SWS".

[jdong]

Any detector that detects K-band will alert to both types of transmitters. I don't think either feature is worthy of consideration.

The only "safety alert" feature that's worthwhile IMO is the Strobe Alert on Cobras that picks up MIRT traffic preempters. Unfortunately, the receiver isn't all that sensitive in my experience, so there goes that idea.

[Deputy]

Any detector that detects K-band will alert to both types of transmitters. I don't think either feature is worthy of consideration.


A K-Band alert is rather useless unless it SPECIFICALLY describes what the alert is. Cobra does that in my state. I have yet to pick up ANY K-Band alerts on my RX-65 that were transmitted by a SWS or SAS system. I checked by driving the same day only a few minutes apart from where my Father-in-Law had picked up a construction (Road Hazard) alert. My RX65 was as quiet as a mouse.

Dep