Anti-photo license plate covers, sprays, and speed camera blockers all aim to prevent speed cameras from getting a clear image of your license plate. Anti-photo license plate covers obscure the plate through the use of light-reflecting crystals or angled louvers. Anti-photo sprays are designed to create a high-gloss reflection that may confuse a camera’s image. Speed camera blockers generally use active technology to disrupt the camera’s ability to capture a readable image. However, their effectiveness varies and they are illegal in many jurisdictions.

A Radar Jammer detects an RF signal from an X-band, K-band or Ka band radar gun, which is used in a radar speed trap. The radar jammer immediately begins to lock onto the incoming radar frequency, and then transmits back an overpowering noise signal to the radar gun. When the radar gun receives this noise signal, the radar gun’s microprocessor begins to track the wildly fluctuating, false Doppler signals from the radar jammer. As long as the radar gun microprocessor is kept busy tracking a false and ever-changing Doppler signal, it can not display a speed reading. Therefore the gun display remains blank. During this period of time, the radar jammer has alerted you to either X, K or Ka radar, allowing you to safely adjust your speed to the posted speed limit, at which time you shut the radar jammer off, allowing your adjusted speed to be detected by the radar gun. Since your speed is now at the posted speed limit, the radar gun operator pays no more attention to you, and starts searching for the next victim. The last radar jammer used in the USA and Canada was the Scorpion radar jammer, which was preceded by the Phantom VRCD, all of which are now banned in the USA.

When a laser gun paints your vehicle, it has already detected your speed when your radar/laser detector alert sounds the alarm. If you were speeding, the officer will make a decision to pull you over for a citation or to let you go. However, if you are operating a Blinder laser jammer, you have an extremely good opportunity to defeat the laser beam, and while your jammer is defeating the beam, you can carefully, wisely adjust your speed accordingly, then turn the laser jammer off; so that the laser gun can then detect your adjusted speed. The officer using the laser gun, may try to get your speed once or twice over a 3 second period of time, during which you are carefully adjusting your speed. Once the desired speed is achieved, let them detect your speed by shutting the jammer off. They will detect your legal speed at that time, and the speed will then be posted on their laser display. If you have a laser jammer, up until that point, the laser gun could not display your speed. Once you have driven through the laser trap, then you can turn your laser jammer back on. Yes, you could leave the jammer on during the entire encounter, but then if the officer can not read your speed at all, then he/she will be curious as to the situation and then may follow you and pull you over for some silly reason. Use a laser jammer wisely.

Most companies provide accurate test results, but fail to address the key concerns of potential buyers. For instance, while many radar detectors claim to offer 360-degree protection by detecting front and rear radar signals, only one detector actually has a rear-facing radar antenna capable of detecting a Ka radar signal at a distance of 3 miles. In comparison, standard detectors detect rear radar at around 2 miles when placed high on the windshield. To test radar detectors, you can drive past roadside speed displays or stores that use radar-based automatic door openers, causing detectors to alert to the store front. These false radar alerts are common. Similarly, most laser jammers claim to jam all laser guns but do not specify their performance at various distances. Companies often market low-cost products with exaggerated claims, hoping to attract customers. However, passive scrambler products that supposedly jam radar and laser have never passed tests conducted by Speed Measurement Labs or 1st Radar Detectors since 1993. To determine the best product for your needs, considering that most manufacturers claim superior performance, we conduct annual tests on radar detectors and laser jammers with Speed Measurement Labs. These tests evaluate factors like performance in 9-mile tests, over-the-hill tests, false alert tests, and more, allowing us to provide accurate information on the top-performing radar laser products.

If you’re wondering about the availability of affordable radar detectors that actually perform well, it’s important to reframe the question. Instead, ask which radar detector, at a reasonable price, provides reliable alerts over hills and around blind curves. The Passport 8500X50 is the least expensive option in this category, priced at $339.95. However, for better performance, consider the STi Magnum or Redline radar detectors.

Investing in a low-cost radar detector or laser scrambler with subpar performance can be futile, as it may fail to alert you in time or produce excessive false alerts. At 1stRadarDetectors.com, we prioritize assisting our customers rather than selling inferior products. Annually, we participate in tests conducted by Speed Measurement Labs in El Paso, Texas, evaluating all the products we offer on our website. We exclusively sell the finest radar detectors and laser jammers worldwide, refusing to sell underperforming items.

It’s crucial to understand that average radar detectors struggle to detect police radar signals from traps located over hills or around blind curves. However, our top-rated radar detectors excel in this aspect, ensuring timely alerts before reaching the top of the hill or navigating blind curves. Moreover, premium radar detectors won’t trigger false alerts every time a neighbor opens their garage door.

Beltronics and Escort Radar released several radar detector models in October 2013. Speed Measurement Laboratories has tested all these detectors. The STi Magnum and Passport 9500ix are windshield-mounted options, while the STi-R Plus and Passport 9500ci are remote detectors installed discreetly on the vehicle. The STi-R Plus offers a superior Ka frequency program compared to the Passport 9500ci. The Passport 9500ci includes the ShifterPro Dual, with an optional ShifterPro available. Beltronics STi-R Plus and Passport Max feature an informative and visually appealing cockpit alert display with programming capabilities.
Both Beltronics and Escort Radar products excel in providing minimal false radar alerts and rapid response times. They have high sensitivity to Ka and K bands and can detect new sub K band photo radar. Selected radar detectors also offer voice alerts and web updates. The STi Magnum and Escort Redline stand out as the top windshield radar detectors, offering total electronic invisibility to police radar detector detectors. For GPS Photo radar detection, the Passport Max and Passport 9500ix are the leading choices, offering speed camera alerts, false alert learning capabilities, web downloads, and more.

Speed Measurement Laboratories (SML) tests and certifies speed-measuring devices such as radar and laser detectors. They conduct rigorous testing to ensure that these devices meet the manufacturer’s performance claims and comply with various technical standards.

Certain radar detectors, such as the STiR Plus, Passport 9500ci, Passport Max, Passport 9500ix, and Smart Radar, are equipped with a GPS antenna. In the case of the STiR Plus and Passport 9500ci, the GPS antenna is a separate receiving antenna that receives GPS location information from satellites in space. This separate GPS antenna allows these installed radar detectors to have a special feature called total electronic invisibility to radar detector detectors. This feature hides the radar detector’s local oscillator frequency from detection by external devices, making it impossible for police to detect the presence of the radar detector.
It’s important to note that a windshield radar detector with a built-in GPS antenna, such as the Passport Max, Passport 9500ix, and Passport SmartRadar Detector, cannot have total electronic RDD invisibility. Similarly, a windshield radar detector with total electronic RDD invisibility, such as the Beltronics STi Magnum and Escort Redline, cannot have a GPS antenna inside the radar detector.
When a vehicle equipped with a GPS radar detector travels on the highway, the GPS antenna receives location data (XY coordinates) from satellites. The radar detector then compares the actual vehicle location to a speed camera data map stored in its memory. When the vehicle gets within 500 yards of a known speed camera location stored in the radar detector’s data files, it alerts the driver in advance. The stored speed camera locations may or may not be up to date, depending on when the radar detector’s web download was last completed. Web download refers to connecting the radar detector to a computer and updating the speed camera locations from the Escort Radar or Beltronics website.
The GPS memory of the radar detector serves another advantage. When the radar detector with GPS detects a false radar alert, it can store the false radar location temporarily. If the same location and frequency are detected three times, the false radar location is confirmed and stored in the regular memory of the radar detector with GPS. Radar detectors without GPS cannot provide this feature. Only Beltronics and Passport radar detectors offer this specific capability in four different models: Beltronics STiR Plus, Passport 9500ci, Passport Max, and Passport 9500ix.

Police laser operates differently than radar, which sends out a pulse of electromagnetic (EM) energy, also referred to as RF energy. The radar beam starts out as a small diameter pulse, but grows quite rapidly as distance increases from the gun; such that at 1000 feet, the EM pulse is 300 feet tall and 600 feet wide. If 6 vehicles were hit by the RF radar gun energy (six vehicles driving down a 3 lane interstate), 6 pulses would come back to the radar gun, and the radar gun would detect the largest signal of the 6 signals present. Because a radar signal is so large traveling down the road, a radar detector could be located nearly anyplace around the vehicle, and it will detect the radar signal.  However, laser can only be detected at the point where a laser gun is aimed. This is because a laser beam is about 9″-12” wide at 600 feet distance. If a laser gun is aimed at the license plate, the beam is so small, none of the laser signal would be detected up in the windshield by a radar detector. Thus, a radar detector with laser detection installed in the windshield would not even detect the laser beam on the license plate (or headlights or bumper for that matter). This means the beam of a laser gun can actually target a single vehicle out of, let’s say, six vehicles driving down the interstate. The laser gun can target and detect that single vehicle in less than ½ second after the trigger is pulled, while the surrounding vehicles would not detect the laser beam as it passed right beside their vehicle. With radar, you will know it is present because the signal is so large, it is detected by many people at one instant in time. Laser, due to its targeting features, will target you and nobody else for that period of time. Once the trigger is pulled, the only defense to the laser gun is to instantly jam the laser gun as it attempts to target your vehicle speed. If your radar detector did detect the laser beam, the beam is pointing at you, therefore your radar detector just alerted you that the laser bam already has your speed! It’s too late. The only way to protect your self from a laser speed trap is to use a laser blocker to block the laser speed reading while you slow down, then turn the laser jammer off, allowing the laser gun to read your ADJUSTED speed after you turned the laser jammer off.