Talk to me about laser jammer.

[katwalk]

Also, I'd like to point out that one of the most effective defenses is your eyes and brain. Pick out spots the cops like. Wider shoulders, alcoves, stuff to hide behind, whatever. Remember where you've seen them before. Slow down as you approach suspect sites.

Agreed. If you aren't paying attention in the first place you shouldn't be speeding anyway. I have not been pulled over many times because I spot them before they hit. Also helps to know which cars they will probably use for unmarked ones. I don't think I've seen any not-american brand cop cars before so it's nice to take advantage of those companies sucking and no one buying them :lol:

 

[prizrak]

^there are Priuses and Maxima's as traffic enforcement cars, never seen one unmarked though. I have seen an unmarked Buick Park Ave (supercharged) which is also not something you would look out for. There are a few yellow cab police cars here as well and you won't know till they pull you over.

P.S. If I see a Prius in my rear view trying to pull me over I will laugh

 

[nist7]

Unless the unit is transmitting, there's no way for a detector to pick it up - which is why I prefer the BearTracker as primary warning system. It detects standard police radio retransmission and tells you if there are police in the area. Once you know that, you slow down and use your radar/lidar detector to determine more precisely where the officer might be. Once you have located the officer, then you can figure out what to do from there.

A jammer is an invitation to get arrested and your car dismantled.

Interesting point about the police scanner (beartracker). But is it easy to find out the frequency that the local PD operates on? I'm not too knowledgeable about those things but it would be interesting to see. In addition if you are driving to a diff county or state where the PD or highway patrol or sheriff force utilize diff frequency a radar/laser protection would be the next best reliability.

In terms of laser jamming, it is unfortunate that it is ILLEGAL in California, then do not waste 700 bucks on a laser jammer which is the first and probably best line of defense (because once your radar detector detects laser it is way too late as the light will bounce back to the LIDAR gun overf 100 times and will have read your speed and there is just no time to slow down, unless you get lucky and pick up a bounce from cars in front of you).

You'll never get a guaranteed detection - but keep in mind that being able to detect the cop using laser even on an off chance is going to end up being cheaper than not detecting the cop using laser who can tell you're jamming - you're essentially trading your speeding ticket for a reckless driving ticket AND an illegal equipment ticket.

Jamming is the LAST line of defense. Radio (the BearTracker) is cheap and reliable, and a great first line. Radar detection is inexpensive and reliable, and a great second line. Laser detection is somewhat expensive and reliability gets a bit iffy, but is better than the alternative, jamming, which is potentially flying a flag saying "HI GIVE ME A TICKET" to any officer who can point the appropriate laser gun at your car - even if you're doing 25 MPH.

Yeah, if jammer is illegal in your state then do not use it. Just have to hope for the best with a good detector and use as much passive laser protection as possible.

Actually, it would be "HI GIVE ME A TICKET AND DISMANTLE MY CAR TO LOOK FOR ILLEGAL EQUIPMENT".

Indeed for those that live in states where jammer are illegal that would be a bad idea to install a jamming system.

 

[MadCow809]

Agreed. If you aren't paying attention in the first place you shouldn't be speeding anyway.

obviously you didn't read the entire first 2 pages.

I'd like to see you how to pay attention to a copy that hides in a bush with a laser gun, all the way across the other side of the intersection, where frankly...you shouldn't be looking.

 

[katwalk]

^there are Priuses and Maxima's as traffic enforcement cars, never seen one unmarked though. I have seen an unmarked Buick Park Ave (supercharged) which is also not something you would look out for. There are a few yellow cab police cars here as well and you won't know till they pull you over.

P.S. If I see a Prius in my rear view trying to pull me over I will laugh

The neighbor was dating a cop, her car was a very nice black mustang with a hidden switch to turn the lights on, So I know to look for such things. there is an undercover transit van near my school too

obviously you didn't read the entire first 2 pages.

I'd like to see you how to pay attention to a copy that hides in a bush with a laser gun, all the way across the other side of the intersection, where frankly...you shouldn't be looking.

Luckily that guy let me off with a warning, I think he realized it was a cheap trick :lol:

I have only encountered ONE of those traps ever. They also can only do them in sideroads because they can't chase you on foot. unless the speed limit is unusually low like it was there (25 mph on a double lined 2 lane wide road that is 40 at one end) you shouldn't have to worry about those guys because you shouldn't be going really fast where little idiot children could pop out of bushes in similar ways.

 

[jebjeb]

Once saw a set that has a sensor that goes on the front grill and the detector gets installed in your dash by the dials with a simple switch under the dash to turn off the lights.

Just looks like another warning light for low oil or something that glows when detects radar.

 

[Spectre]

Once saw a set that has a sensor that goes on the front grill and the detector gets installed in your dash by the dials with a simple switch under the dash to turn off the lights.

Just looks like another warning light for low oil or something that glows when detects radar.

That's the K40 product line.

Interesting point about the police scanner (beartracker). But is it easy to find out the frequency that the local PD operates on? I'm not too knowledgeable about those things but it would be interesting to see. In addition if you are driving to a diff county or state where the PD or highway patrol or sheriff force utilize diff frequency a radar/laser protection would be the next best reliability.

The BCT-15X has a GPS locator and it will automatically change the frequencies it looks for based on the GPS.

And for many of the others, you can just input a state or tell it what frequencies to look for - they're a matter of public record and there's scanner forums that list the appropriate information.

 

[Spice_Rack]

So those of you that know about this BearTracker, how does work for this purpose? Your not actually listening to any transmissions right? I don't want to hear their chatter... which they dont do much anyway now that they all have laptops connected to cellular or whatever. A buddy of mine at work has a scanner but he says they hardly use it, all they do now is say "yeah I sent it to your screen"... very little actual talk that we would find useful.

Also does the police cruiser have to be sending or receiving a transmission for this to work? Or will it just pick up the presence of their transceiver unit? If it just picks up every single one that is near by that sounds like a pretty solid and reliable way to watch for cops.

Can you specify only to monitor certain frequencies? I checked online and found this site that seems to have the frequencies all city and county civil services... They list frequencies that the local PD's would use so if I could just select those and pick up their presence all over town, that would be awesome.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=547


But back on the topic of radar/laser detectors and jammers and cops in general. I don't think i've ever got a ticket from one that was driving around. It's always been one hiding in a little hole, and I just happened to not spot them, not paying attention, or was driving like an asshat and too busy to watch for cops. We all do the perfect little angle driver routine when we see them so that's what it really comes down to. Learn to identify them early on... and just use instinct, common sense, and don't drive like a prick all the time.

What really erks me though is the pussies that will not pass a cop car going in the same direction, even if the cop is going 5-10 MPH under the limit. Unless the conditions imply slower speed, it is not illegal to pass a cop! I do it all the time and have never been pulled over for it. Half the time they are working on their laptop or talking on their mobile anyway! Which actually makes me support technology for cops anyway, the more things that distract them from the driving and monitoring of traffic task, the less chances they will see me powersliding through an intersection or speeding. Both of which, it should be said... I never do. Never...

 

[Spectre]

So those of you that know about this BearTracker, how does work for this purpose? Your not actually listening to any transmissions right? I don't want to hear their chatter... which they dont do much anyway now that they all have laptops connected to cellular or whatever. A buddy of mine at work has a scanner but he says they hardly use it, all they do now is say "yeah I sent it to your screen"... very little actual talk that we would find useful.

You can listen to the actual transmissions if you want, or you can squelch them out and just watch the signal display.

Also does the police cruiser have to be sending or receiving a transmission for this to work? Or will it just pick up the presence of their transceiver unit? If it just picks up every single one that is near by that sounds like a pretty solid and reliable way to watch for cops.

They have to be transmitting or receiving (hence the 'repeater' name), but come on - anyone who's watched COPS (let alone observed the police) knows that their radio net doesn't stay silent for more than 30 seconds or so at a time so effectively it'll pick up most if not all of them.

Can you specify only to monitor certain frequencies? I checked online and found this site that seems to have the frequencies all city and county civil services... They list frequencies that the local PD's would use so if I could just select those and pick up their presence all over town, that would be awesome.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=547

Yes, you can.

 

[Spice_Rack]

Cool thanks for that info... I think I will look into getting one of these some day.

So i'm hoping this thing could just be setup to make a little beep when it picks up a near-by signal, and nothing more, at least in terms of sound. Does it give good indication of the location or not really? I'm starting to think this could be way more effective than a radar/laser detector if setup properly. But as you said they have to be sending/receiving a transmission so it wont be 100%.

I'm not sure about their radio traffic being no more than ~30 sec apart on average. I'll have to ask my friend at work... in fact i've ridden with him a few times to get lunch and we had it on, I heard a comm maybe every couple minutes. But i'm not sure what he had it tuned to...

 

[prizrak]

RE: repeaters.

Wouldn't they still be transmitting some sort of a carrier wave even in the absence of chatter?

 

[camelfarmer]

http://www.road-angel.co.uk/?source=RA&gclid=CPr0oZXrg54CFaBb4wod_A9wqg

Not US, but I'm sure you've got these over there.

Saw them in a service station toilet.

 

[Spectre]

RE: repeaters.

Wouldn't they still be transmitting some sort of a carrier wave even in the absence of chatter?

Depends on the design and setup.

 

[nist7]

Cool thanks for that info... I think I will look into getting one of these some day.

So i'm hoping this thing could just be setup to make a little beep when it picks up a near-by signal, and nothing more, at least in terms of sound. Does it give good indication of the location or not really? I'm starting to think this could be way more effective than a radar/laser detector if setup properly. But as you said they have to be sending/receiving a transmission so it wont be 100%.

I'm not sure about their radio traffic being no more than ~30 sec apart on average. I'll have to ask my friend at work... in fact i've ridden with him a few times to get lunch and we had it on, I heard a comm maybe every couple minutes. But i'm not sure what he had it tuned to...

I think a police scanner would be a great addition to radar/laster detector and laser jammer (in states where these two are legal, of course). And as you mentioned, its entirely possible that you are being targeted by a speed trap in those few seconds of driving and it just happens that the cop is not doing any transmissions at that small window of time.

But this would be a great reason to do a police ride along....but of course I doubt they will be on speeder catching duty.

 

[Blind_Io]

Before people start chiming in with "oh, you shouldn't have been speeding in the first place," laser jammers aren't as effective as you might think, in terms of how often you'll get a chance to use them. Most cops use Ka, K or X band radar guns, for cost reasons compared to LIDAR (correct me if I'm wrong). Laser jammers are usually over 300 bucks; for that price you could pick up an Passport 9500i or a Valentine One, both of which can detect multiple bands of radar and lasers.

And radar jammers, on the other hand, are completely illegal in all 50 states unless your vehicle of choice is an SR-71 Blackbird.

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleID=8502
http://www.copradar.com/preview/chapt7/ch7d1.html#jammir


If all of that seems too complicated, you could always go with one of those nifty license plate covers.


Good luck with that, CA cops are trained for that sort of thing.

Actually they have been deploying LIDAR all over California. Of course the fact this is happening when the government is insolvent is a complete coincidence.

Speeding = ticket
Jamming LIDAR = Jail and impounding the car. Cops don't like that. Get a good Radar Detector (I like the Escort) and drive smart. I sped for years in the Bay Area, which is saturated with cops, and I only got one speeding ticket.

Also, those plate covers don't work worth shit. A cop only needs a target the size of a tennis ball to get a good LIDAR return, even a wing mirror will do the trick. There just is no effective countermeasure for it that is commercially viable.

Get a radar detector with laser detection and a smart phone like the G1 or the *shudder* iPhone. Download the Trapster app. If you get a ticket with that setup it's because you're an idiot.

 

[MadCow809]

Of course the fact this is happening when the government is insolvent is a complete coincidence.

That, +1

Speeding = ticket
Jamming LIDAR = Jail and impounding the car. Cops don't like that. Get a good Radar Detector (I like the Escort) and drive smart. I sped for years in the Bay Area, which is saturated with cops, and I only got one speeding ticket.

Can they jail an foreigner? I think the worst case scenario is me getting de-ported back to SA.

Get a radar detector with laser detection and a smart phone like the G1 or the *shudder* iPhone. Download the Trapster app. If you get a ticket with that setup it's because you're an idiot.

Like I said, I'm not so worried about the fixed cameras and permanent speed traps. I'm more worried about the spontaneous attacks of the deadly LIDAR gun.

I'll look into the Trapster application, hopefully it's available in S60 v5.

my current record is :
2 speeding tickets, been in the States since June 2007, with a couple of small holiday breaks in between the semesters

 

[Spectre]

Can they jail an foreigner? I think the worst case scenario is me getting de-ported back to SA

Nope. You can be jailed as a foreigner in the US (as you didn't mention having diplomatic immunity). You will be sent to jail and at the end of your sentence you will be deported and declared Persona Non Grata.

 

[prizrak]

I know this is a necro post. But since we were talking about UM police cars. I saw a minivan with flashers and a siren followed by an Acura TSX (I think coulda been TL)