Radar Detectors

Whistler DE-1660 Radar Detector Technical Details:de 1660 Key FeaturesDetection Mode:City / Highway modesDetection ...

Utter Disappointment Cobra ESD 6050 Radar Detector Pardon me if I borrow a lot of text herein from the Whistler DE1655 review that I just wrote... In the quest for...

In the quest for a new radar detector to replace my fiance’s aging Escort Passport 6800, I have developed a sort of fetish for test-driving these devices. I have been in law enforcement and thus not in need of a radar detector for several years, and now being someone who has “seen things from both sides of the radar gun” so to speak, I am intrigued by what I have learned about radar detection and the behavior of the average small town department’s radar units.

I will keep this short but sweet. I borrowed a friend’s Whistler DE1655 for a couple days a week the last few weeks to see how it performs. It is a modern unit purchased about six months ago at a local discount store. It is compact and easy to mount using a suction-cup affair. The display consists of LEDs with nonilluminated labels for each LED printed on the detector body itself.

All bells and whistles aside, I was mainly interested in the distance at which this detector could detect signals. From an un-scientific point of view, this device generally gave adequate warning to get the vehicle slowed down before the officer operating the radar could have obtained a sure reading. However, I warn the potential buyer that I can easily see this machine not providing enough warning time if traveling on an open highway at a high rate of speed. At 40MPH in a town this is a good detector for the average Joe who travels a few MPH above the speed limit; at 90MPH on a freeway it’s a different story– you had better hope the Doppler effect is in your favor and you receive warnings as the officer “zaps” the cars in front of you. On X band, which is rarely used here in suburban Massachusetts, the detector provided roughly half a mile of detection range at about 40MPH, certainly enough time for a cautious driver to slow down if the speed limit was 30 or 35MPH. On K and Ka bands, the detector only really lit up with more than one signal strength light when the radar was in sight– too late to do much except prepare to talk one’s way out of a citation. Let me review that comment again– the device did provide some warning in what was probably enough time to slow for a K or Ka signal, however even the slightest reaction of one signal strength light must be regarded as the vehicle fast approaching the radar source. I was unable to test this against lidar as its use is still in infancy here.

I found that this detector was activated by X and K band alarm sensors on local businesses, but to a much lesser extent than cheaper modern detectors that I have seen recently.

The major “con” of this is the fact that the little printed labels for the LEDs are not well-illuminated in darkness and without the audio announcement one can not be sure of the band being received (though I suppose in time one would memorize which band corresponds to which LED). Is it an X band door sensor, or a K band radar signal? You will have to either un-mute the detector (let me tell you, if you happen to be on a phone or two way radio while a signal is received, the person you are talking to will be asking what he or she is hearing in the background, and may even get a bit of a laugh out of it) or memorize each LED to be certain.

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Tags: cheap, Escort, Whistler

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