Laser Detectors Can Work

[observin]

My V1 saved my butt on the way home tonight. I was well into ticket range, got the siren and I got my speed down quick. It must be hard to lock onto a car at night because the V1 kept screaming until I was down close to legal..

Question for Roy, is it harder to lock on with laser at night?

Thanks in advance, and thanks for these forums, great information!

[Radar Roy]

Depends on the lighting conditions at night. I perfered to run radar at night, it was allot easier on the eyes then trying to target a moving vehicle with all the headlight glare. Also easier (at least for me) to get a speed tracking history before I would lock on with the radar.

But then again, many officers just point - aim - and lock and screw the tracking history...

[observin]

ahhh, the tracking history, seems that's been thrown out the window by a lot of your brothers. Here in Georgia there are also a couple of laws still on the books regarding non State Police, like no speeding tickets for less than 10 mph over the limit unless residential, school, or historical area. Also, the non State Police have to be visible for at least 500 feet when operating stationary radar/laser, pretty hard to do when they hide down in the median next to a guard rail and can't see you (or you them) until you're on top of them.

I'll be looking forward to the Spectre/Stalcar (hopefully) solution this year, I would think the detector manufacturer who solves this problem has a huge potential market across the world, not to mention all the truckers here in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if the the insurance companies started handing out our premium dollars to more and more police departments for Spectre's; just like they do now for laser and radar..

[Radar Roy]

Well I am heading off to CES tomorrow night and have meetings scheduled with several of the major radar detector companies and the spectre issue is at the top of my list to be asking...

If I hear anything interesting I will be posting..

[RadarWarrior]

I had a 940 Vector BEL save me from a Laser ticket a couple years ago. I was east of Santa Rosa on I-40 topping a hill. the Laser alert went berserk. About 1/2 mile ahead on the far side of a bridge was a patrol car. He had his little LaserTag gun out as he was parked there. I guess he shot the car in front of me and I was lucky enough to detect some of the "over spray".

That's was probably a one in a million save by the BEL. I doubt I'll ever get that lucky again.

[jimbonzzz]

The detector tests on the Speed Channel showed a BEL detecting laser in a trailing vehicle. This wasn't on a highway though, this was on a city street.

The SML tests tested a vehicle trailing at 1/4 mile, when a vehicle at 1000 feet was targeted, for a difference of 320 feet. In some situations (city etc), you would be following much closer though. At 70MPH, thats about 100 feet per second. If you follow the safe "two second rule" for following a vehicle, you should be 200 feet behing the vehicle ahead. In the city at slower speeds, you would be even closer. Maybe being closer would make it more likely that you could get early warning from a vehicle ahead being targeted?

In any case, you would need to react pretty darn fast...

Jim