Radar Detector Reviews UK

Detector Reviews - Archives.

  Evo Magazine - May 2001
  AutoExpress - Nov 2003. [NEW]
  AutoExpress October 2000
  Evo Magazine - Late 1999 - (Below)

Geodesy GPS Detector Review - Sunday Times - June 24th - 2001

Evo Magazine Late 1999 - (Prices are as was).

The EVO Magazine Test - Late 1999 - Courtesy of Paul Gander and 'The SpeedTrap Bible' and Roger Green and Evo Magazine.

A contributor to the Speedtrap Bible had the privilege of being invited to the big detector test carried out in late 1999 by EVO magazine. Read on, and enjoy.

Radar detectors have had a bad press: to begin with they were illegal and then when they became legal they were assumed by most people not to really work. Only one way to find out what the truth is - to test them against all of the speed detection gadgets that the Police have. Surprisingly the Police were keen to participate - mainly so that they could see how the public’s "counter measures" worked. We tried out all of the radar detectors available in the UK, two laser jammers and the Backflash anti-Gatso device. We spent two days with the police in different weather conditions and on different sites. Please note that the tests were not conducted on the public road. First we tried the radar detectors. The tests were to drive towards a traditional rear-facing Gatso camera at 60mph and see how much (if any) warning we got. The second test was to drive towards a police officer who was pointing a handheld radar gun at our vehicle. As most of the radar detectors also have a laser detector built in we also drove the car against the UK's two most popular Police laser guns - the LTI20.20 and the Prolaser.

Detecting a GATSO.
Only 2 detectors really gave long enough warning of radar to enable you to easily slow down to under 30mph. They were the Valentine 1 and the Bel980/990. We picked 30mph as a point of reference. If you speed in 30 limits, then you should be nicked. The Bel990 gave twice as much warning as the Valentine 1. Some of the others only beeped after we were past the Gatso (very useful - Not) and the others gave you various amounts of warning - but not enough for us to be able to slow without sharp braking. We also tested against a mini Gatso - which is a portable roadside unit (looks like a blue suitcase on a tripod). The only detector to pick this up at all was the Bel990. This is because of the Ku band radar it uses and the Bel is the only device to detect Ku.

Detecting Hand Held Radar Guns
The next test was driving towards a handheld radar gun. Again only the Valentine and the Bel detectors were able to give us enough warning to be able to knock off enough speed before the radar gun could acquire our speed. (The detectors can pick up the radar gun emissions at a long range - before the gun can get a lock on you.) As radar scatters and bounces in all directions you can even get a warning on a detector from a signal that has bounced around a corner. Neat!

Detecting a Laser Gun
Test three - the detectors vs. a laser gun. Most of them picked up the laser - but all gave warnings too late. A modern laser gun will acquire you as a target and measure your speed in 0.3 seconds, thus you get 0.3 seconds warning - and that’s all you get. Unlike radar, a laser gun sends a much narrower pulse for a much shorter period of time, often just a fraction of a second. As even the world’s top drag racers don’t have reaction times that fast, it’s a bit pointless owning a laser detector that can detect laser as you can't react to the warning.

Radar/Laser Detectors - Summary
In summary the best radar detector in terms of warning is the Bel990. The other important consideration when selecting a detector is the "cry wolf" factor. All of the detectors cover a range of wavebands and many things operate in these in addition to radar guns. For example automatic garage door openers often work in the X-band and some security systems operate in the K-band. If in use on the road its always beeping with false warnings, then when it goes beep for real you might ignore it. The Bell 980/990 is one of the few that has been refined for the UK and Europe and you can select individual wavebands to ignore. Although you can do this customising to the same degree with the Valentine, it's not widely recognised, but it does come with illuminated arrows to show you which direction the signal came from. All of these detectors attached to the windscreen with little plastic suckers that are hooked into a clip and the detector slides or clips into this. How it attaches to your car/windscreen is important, as you will probably want to remove it from view when you park. At up to £500 a pop, you don’t want to leave it where prying eyes can see it. The Valentine has the easiest method and is easily removed with one hand, all of the others are a little fiddly. For motorcycle riders either of these detectors could fit behind the bikes screen, but with a helmet on and the wind/engine roar we couldn’t hear them or really notice the flashing warning. However we are aware that a proper bike specific detector (probably based upon the 990) should be on the market soon. We thought that the police would take a dim view of detectors, but we were surprised by their open attitude - they were of the opinion that anything that made drivers slow was a good thing. They are not cheap - but compare it to an £800+ fine for speeding and it’s a bargain.

Laser Jammers
The next test was of laser jammers. These work by detecting the pulse of laser light and responding to it with another pulse back at the gun that is designed to trigger an error message on the laser gun and thus cause it not to record the speed. These devices are legal in the USA but may not be in the UK or elsewhere due to DTI laws. As none of our laser tests were on the public road it did not cause us an issue. We had two types of laser jammer fitted to two identical cars. We drove them at the laser guns - starting about 1 mile away. Initially we forgot to tell the police that we had jammers fitted and they were confused as to why they could not get a reading - initially thinking that their laser guns were all faulty. This seemed to indicate that however the jammmers disabled the guns, it did not result in a warning to them that they were being jammed. Once they were aware of the jammers we carried on with the tests. As the laser guns can be used up to 999m we started at long range. Both of the jammers essentially do the same thing - they send out a pulse that disables the gun and warns you at the same time. The Defensor K40 jammer was able to easily jam the LTI20.20 but was not as successful against the Prolaser gun. The LTI gun sends out a very short pulse (about 4/100th second) where as the Prolaser gun emits a much longer pulse. The Target LE850 jammer was successful against both types of gun and effectively disabled them for around 5 seconds. When the LE850 detects the laser gun it emits a series of beeps and then jams. In tests, if you were traveling at 90mph when targeted with a laser gun you could start braking and be doing under 20mph before the laser gun is able to register your speed. The LE850 jammed successfully every time we tried it, but in other tests we’ve seen, it had about a 90% success rate - so it is not total protection. In tests the device was not hidden on the car but even then the police could not see it until it was pointed out to them. It is small and black and could easily be fitted to cars or motor cycles. We understand that at least one UK police force has a device for detecting laser jammers. The police tell us that it would be a case of "perverting the course of justice" if caught with one operating on the road. As far as we know no one has yet been to court for having one - to have this proved. We have taken legal advice on the legality of laser jammers and our Barrister was unable to find any laws that made jammers illegal. That's not to say that you could not be prosecuted as the police could always try and use an unrelated law to try a prosecution - as they used to do with radar detectors. In the USA they are legal and it was only recently that radar detectors became legal in the UK after a test case. Both jammers were fitted to the front of the test cars as 90% of laser gun usage is at the front of vehicles. With the LE850 you could fit a second unit on the rear for all round protection.

Jammers - Summary
The LE850 is the best jammer tested as it works against the two main types of police laser gun. It will give you around 5 seconds to correct your speed; legal in the USA, but may not be legal in the UK.  Radar jammers exist but we did not get around to trying them as handheld radar is in decline and a good detector should be enough warning against GATSOs or handheld units.

Backflash anti Gatso gadget
This works by fitting 2 units, one either side of your numberplate. Each unit has a flash detector and a flash head - they both connect to a control box. The idea is when you get flashed the units flashes back to "white out" your numberplate. First we tried just taking pictures with a basic digital camera in various light conditions. The Backflash flash obscured the outer letters, but enough of the numberplate was readable to identify it. Next we tried it speeding past a proper Gatso camera. Again the plate was slightly obscured, but still readable. As the flash heads are very visible a policeman is very likely to spot them and again the police tell us that their use is likely to end up with a "perverting the course of justice" charge. The other problem is where to fit it. It is meant to go either side of the numberplate, but as most numberplates are a snug fit into the recess in the bumper - the required space does not exist. The only way we could get it all to fit on was to fit a smaller (illegal) size numberplate.

Miscellaneous Info.
Other useful info gleaned during testing: If you pass through a GATSO at over 154mph it seems to confuse it and also if you are braking very hard. Numbers of GATSO units are on the increase whilst the use of handheld radar is on the decrease, instead being replaced by the more accurate laser guns. When the Police use a laser gun they should only use it on a road where they have line of sight and sufficient space to stop you safely, so generally they operate on straight of a minimum of 500m. They are meant to calibrate the gun for speed reading accuracy and aiming scope alignment at each site they use them, their own manuals describe these tests as critical, so ask if they have been done.