Radar Detectors <merged Topic>

[BA_Turbs]

The police, last time I checked, can only search your car is they have reasonable grounds to suspect you are carrying drugs or weapons (someone correct me if that has changed).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Its time to check again. There are numerous pieces of legislation that give police, and in some instances other authorities, power to search a vehicle or a person. The Control of Weapons Act (The CoW Act) and the Drugs, Prohibited and Controlled Substances Act are two common ones, but there's the Fisheries Act for instance. Nothing to do with radar detectors, just answering your question. There are several more but have just finished 14 hours at work and a bit brain scrambled.

The last result I saw for a radar detector in Vic was $2,500 fine. That was about 2.5 - 3 years ago.

[johng001]

[

A few years ago, a good friend of mine got pulled over by police because they detected he had a radar detector. It was hard wired and installed in his dash, couldnt be seen, and beeped when detecting radar. the Police had a gizmo that knew exactly where it was and threatened to pull his car apart if he didnt produce it.

Cant recall exactly but the fine was over $1000

That's Vic for you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Same thing happrned to me $1200.00 And had to go to court

[fordboy1981]

Victorian Police DON'T have radar detector detectors, I know Vic Cops and they don't have them, NSW Cops do though.

Dave.

[sixfan]

I have a Bel 855STi, cost ~$1200 when new and was touted as being undetectable.

If you want it, you can have it for the cost of a carton of coopers ale $50. I don't need it anymore and they're illegal to use here anyway....

I don't think they're that much use to tell you the truth as most cops only "zap" you when they see you comming, the detector goes ape and you brake...too late.

Having said that, it did save me once out behind Coolgardie when I was doing some highspeed driving in my Skyline....

[harvyk]

A mate of mine was caught with one. The way the cop proved it was that the copper took his cop car out and left hidden a little further down the road, the cop then walked back to the road and hid behind a tree.

My mate was then driving along a straight piece of road (One of those roads that you could easily do 230Km/h on for quite some time) and when he detected the radar he slammed on the brakes. The copper knew he couldn't be seen and thus knew that there was a radar detector in the car... (Why else would my mate have slammed on the brakes???)

The rest of the story writes itself, but basically you don't need high tech gadgets to detect these things, it can be as simple as a sudden change in your driving style (and a cop who is awake enough to notice it...)

Edited 02/06/05 01:04 AM by harvyk

[ZAP]

I have been pulled over twice and accused of having a detector. They have never found one and I never will admit to having one.

I have never been booked. Know your rights, if you are going to use one then the info below is handy.

And the advice about not lieing about not having one, I think may not be a good idea. Deny everything, if they ask to search say no. If they insist then make it clear that you want to know why they are searching and that they MUST return the vehicle back to its origional condition.

Remember, do not get chatty with police, answer their questions politly, but do not embelish any info. The less you say the better

Here is the rules straight from the NSW Office of the Ombudsman

Radar Detectors and Jammers - 1993 (highlights)

Radar detector detectors are to be operated strictly in accordance with the manufacturers specifications and the Police service guidelines which are available from the Traffic Operations Group, State Command.

Regulation 93 of the Motor Traffic Regulations authorises police to inspect a motor vehicle to, interalia, determine whether it complies with the Act or regulations and includes the power to inspect for a radar detector or jammer.

If you inspect a motor vehicle for a radar detector/jammer: inform the driver/owner/person-in-charge of the vehicle prior to the inspection for the reasons for the action proposed:

only inspect the vehicle

do not search handbags or luggage

do not search people

do not dismantle the vehicle

[Benny]

I use to have a BEL 615sti mounted in my old AU which was capable of getting laser as well as normal radar. It came in handy quite a few times and yes paid for itself in no time at all. This unit was undetectable when first released but it doesn't take long for the police to upgrade their technology and render the unit detectable. I used mine in NSW around the central coast for about 18 months and was never caught, but I would put that down to mainly city driving and luck. I know very few people that have detectors these days (other than truck drivers) and I don't think the police use their RDD's around built up area's often.

[jordak]

Yeh I've had one for the last 5 yrs and absolutely swear by it.

One thing to note however and that is if you think it's going to allow you to do 110 in a6 0 zone all day forget about it. Quite often the positions that radars are located (around corners / behind trees) normally only gives you up to 50mtrs warning.

The point is that even 50 mtrs gived you enough time to reduce your speed from say 75 to 60 without any drama.

I guess its just allows you to drive around without being concerned that you are going to get caught out by a sudden change in speed limits. In my case used in conjunction with common sense and awareness I havn't been done for speeding in five years.

Once again if your intention is to blatently drive around at excessive speeds this device wont save you but then again neither should it.

[Blown BA]

I don't need it anymore and they're illegal to use here anyway....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you joking or what illegal in NT with speeds unlimited

[Ford_Power]

XRT Ute,

To answer your question. There are only a few models of radar detector that can be reliably used to detect the slant radar (Multanova) that we have here in WA.

Multanova IN AUSTRALIA transmits in the 34.2 to 35.2 GHz range inside the super wideband Ka frequency spectrum (33.4 to 36.0 GHz) typically at around 2.5 - 5mW depending on which particular Multanova you encounter. In The lower power variant is normally used in 70-80km/h zones where there are only two lanes. The higher power variant you will normally find on the freeway as it needs to be higher powered to monitor 3-5lanes wide traffic.

The lower power variant is very difficult to detect, and unless you have a very good detector, you will be wasting your money.

I have done literally 100s of hours of research on radar detectors and done some of my own trials, and I can assure you that there only very few that will give you any advance warning to slant radar.

They are:

Bel RX65

Bel Vector 995

Bel 980

Escort Passport 8500 X50.

I personally use a Bel V995 and still own a Bel 980 (do not use it now) and I found the V995 to be a magnitude better than the 980.

In a worst case scenario with Multanova, you will get a minimum of 100m to slow down. In a best case scenario, you may get up to 500m.

The WA police also have vehicle mounted radar. This is the Decatur Genesis II Unit. This operates in the (approx) 24GHz K Band. These vehicle mounted radar units typically transmit at MUCH higher power and are easily picked up by detectors from quite far away (maybe 500m-1km). A cheaper unit may not have a problem detecting this vehicle mounted radar, but it will be useless against Multanova.

Ross