K-Band signals

[Coldkiwi]

Ok, I know the X-Band radar units are only very very rarely pulled out for use (like Labour weekend!! Turn it back on in your detector boys and girls)

But what about K-Band? I routinely get K-band signals from all sorts of devices that are not police signals and its quite annoying (I run an Escort 8500, I hate to think how many the Unidens etc. get)

Do the cops still use the K-band units on a regular basis or are they only pulled out by the highway boys on odd weekends to help boost their quota on unsuspecting road users like myself?

 

[130wide]

There must be a cop amongst us in this group that can tell us? Come out we won't give you to much shit...........fingers crossed behind my back..

[k14]

Yeah, i have a bel 985 and K-Band is the only band that i get falses on.

The other day i think i got a cop signal on radar cause it went up to 6 for about 2-3 seconds then turned off, but i couldnt find any cops in the area. So i wasnt sure if it was a cop or something else.

But all the confirmed cops i have found so far have all been Ka or laser.

Anyone here ever picked up a K band radar?

[Marmoot]

Yep, me neither. Always on Ka or Laser (never even on X......?)
I'm running 8500 too

[Lou Girardin]

There are Hawk (K band) units in use around Thames and Te Kuiti, that I know of. There are no X band units anymore. Some people turn K band off in the city and on for rural riding.
Lou

[Coldkiwi]

cheers Lou.

Anyone know of any others?

[fritter]

Lou is bang on from everything I have heard.

I think it was supposed to be something like 40%K band, 40% Ka band, and 20% laser in use. Might be the radardirect site I read this... can't remember.

Some article in a car mag also said something about NZ using mobile cameras that operate in the 3rd harmonic of x band (so that clever detectors read them as a false alert, and therefore don't warn the owner), although one of the guys at work who is quite in the know with this stuff tells me that the 3rd harmonic of x band IS ka... something like that.

Can anyone verify the above? I can't be arsed actually looking it up :)

[Marmoot]

It's Ka.
And, yep, mobile cameras are Ka operated.

And, yep, the detection range of these are significantly lower than normal car-mounted radars since they operate on a beam aimed at an angle to traffic-flow (instead of radar broadcast method as used in patrolcars)....yaddayaddayadda.....
Practically speaking, cheap detectors are almost useless versus mobile camera (although they are quite easy to spot in the motorways. How many vans are normally parked beside the motorway anyway?) :)

[k14]

My Bel 985 seems to give ample warning of mobile speed cameras. Atleast 500m if not more.

What radars do you guys use?? Do any of u use headphones for them??? My radar doesnt have a headphone but i might make one for it. Not too sure. What do you guys think?

[wkid_one]

Use a headphone - works a treat.

[Marmoot]

Glen from Boyd Honda (Hamilton) had his Bel985 fixed with earphone plug done by Bel (the importer?) when he bought it.

I used Escort 8500 and have normally 500-700 m warning for mobile camera.

But, Bel985 does not actually belong to "cheap" detector class :o

[fritter]

I use an escort passport 8500, and one of those radar screamer things rather than headphones.

The screamer is like an external amp for the speaker out of your detector. Has three settings, high, low, and mute - it has a handlebar mounted switch. The high setting is LOUD... you can hear it at ANY speed. Everyone around you can hear it too :D

The passport 8500 detector works well with this, coz the detector has an auto mute - that means that the screamer only goes off once, and then shuts up until the next warning comes up.

[k14]

So where did u get that screamer unit from? Does it need any wiring into the radar or does it just use a microphone off the speaker.

If i have my 985 turned up to full volume i can hear up to around 80kph as long as there isnt a strong wind. If i have earplugs in it seems to let me hear it a bit clearer at higher speeds aswell.

Might just wire in an external headphone jack. Isnt too hard.

[fritter]

I got the screamer from motorcycleradar.com

Same place I got the detector (awesome deals there).

It just plugs in to the microphone jack from the detector, although the speaker is physically powered off a 12v source from the bike. I've wired it to the same 12v switched power source as the detector's hard wired cord (it's got a fuse built in to the wire too if that makes anyone feel better:) ).

You'd still hear this thing (on loud) at 200K+

Here is a link to a review on it... http://www.motorcycleradar.com/MCNp29A.jpg
http://www.motorcycleradar.com/radar_screamer.htm is the actual page with all the product info.

There are a few pics of how it can be mounted on the motorcycleradar web site.

It has 3 basic parts - the speaker, control switch, and power connector all plug into a commander unit, which you can mount wherever you like... the commander unit is smaller than a matchbox.

If you want any more info, let me know and when i get a chance I'll take some pics of how I have it set up...

[GPz]

Motorcycleradar.com has some good radar stands. Does anyone know if the stands are available in NZ?

My other option was to remove the daylight light and mount the radar in there. It could be permanently wired in, just have to waterproof it. Only problem being rear detection. Any thoughts?

[fritter]

I ordered my (stem) stand from motorcycleradar. I got it as part of a package, but their shipping costs are pretty reasonable. You can process the order without entering any card details to find out the shipping costs first anyway.

Only took about a week for it to arrive in NZ, but I had to wait a freakin' MONTH while customs fucked me round adding their costs to it.

I personally don't worry about rear detection. If you get caught by that then you are extremely unlucky :shit:

Besides, if he's close enough behind you he can ticket you by using his own speedo. A radar detector won't help with that :) .

I'm more worried about being snapped by a laser... in which case I might one day buy a laser jammer from http://www.blinder.dk

Guy at work is a beta tester for them. They work 100% from any range apparently.

Just been looking at some vids of guys playin' on the autobahns... *sigh* we need those here...

[Marmoot]

Wkid, where's your stem?

[GPz]

thanks for that info, I have ordered the stand from motorcycleradar.com. Meanwhile i am going to fit the detector in place of the daylight light and see how that goes.

[k14]

Yeah, i have heard mixed reports about those laser jammers.

There is a really low chance of being done by a laser gun anyway, the front of a bike has virtually no flat surfaces to reflect it properly and also if you have your headlight on that causes disturbance to it. Lou might know a bit more, but apparantly bikes are virtually impossible to ping with them.

Anyone know how credible this info is??

[fritter]

Only reports on the jammers I've seen show some do stuff all, the escort ones work 94%, and the blinder ones work 100% from any range....

I've heard that cops target your helmet - this is where having a jammer wouldn't help too much. The jammers work because they are surrounding the target area, in a car that is normally around the grill - the same general area that the jammers are mounted.

Having a curved surface on the bike doesn't make too much difference, because that still means that at some point in the curve, light will be reflected back to the gun.

You'd have to be shaped like a stealth (or maybe that new KTM superbike hehe), with lots of flat surfaces joined at angles (and a bit of luck) to fool a laser.

In saying all that, bikes are apparently harder to target - takes them a few shots to get a fix on you. In any case, I'd rather not find out the hard way.

Would be nice to hear from someone who has sat at the other end of a laser though. Where do they really aim on a bike and how much luck do they actually have? 2nd attempt, 3rd? How many secs between shots?

[Car Dodger]

Originally posted by fritter
Only reports on the jammers I've seen show some do stuff all, the escort ones work 94%, and the blinder ones work 100% from any range....

I've heard that cops target your helmet - this is where having a jammer wouldn't help too much. The jammers work because they are surrounding the target area, in a car that is normally around the grill - the same general area that the jammers are mounted.

Having a curved surface on the bike doesn't make too much difference, because that still means that at some point in the curve, light will be reflected back to the gun.

You'd have to be shaped like a stealth (or maybe that new KTM superbike hehe), with lots of flat surfaces joined at angles (and a bit of luck) to fool a laser.

In saying all that, bikes are apparently harder to target - takes them a few shots to get a fix on you. In any case, I'd rather not find out the hard way.

Would be nice to hear from someone who has sat at the other end of a laser though. Where do they really aim on a bike and how much luck do they actually have? 2nd attempt, 3rd? How many secs between shots?

I've been zapped from the front doing 120k, I figured he was aiming for my helmet or headlight?? :confused:

[Lou Girardin]

They aim at your headlight, being the biggest reflective area. On cars, they aim for the plate or a headlight. The headlight on high beam has a fair bit of IR radiation which does affect the laser pulse, but I wouldn't rely on it to save your arse. I saw a cop at the Paeroa races checking speeds on the straight, he had real problems trying to hold the beam on the bikes rounding the kink at 220+ km/h. So the moral is, 200km/h plus in the twisties and you're safe.
Lou