Adam M

Hi all,

I have an origin B2 and am more than happy with it but most of the people I know caught recently have been done my camera vans.

These invariably seem to be Ku band radar guns which the B2 doesn't detect,

Origin are bringing out an add on detector but I am not convinced it will do what i want it to do.

I am looking at radar detector options but what I want is one which performs well but allows me to switch of K band alerts as these are only emitted by fixed location cameras which the origin already alerts me for perfectly well.

Does anyone know of a detector which has this facility?

ie. individually selectable requency detection supression.

thanks in advance.

Phil

Road Pilot

Adam M

didn't know road pilot had radar, thought it was GPS only.

what would scooby do

I went by a camera van last weekend on the A5 at Milton keynes - not a peep from the origin so must also have been a radar.

I looped round several times just to make sure nope nothing

Phil

Road Pilot has a Radar Option

Adam M

thanks phil,

wwsd, I presume you mean it can't be laser?

In my experience the "safety" vans all tend to be Ku band, which is why I want to invest in something like a euro 550, the thing is, I don't want all those annoying false alarms that K-band gives you.

All I am really concerned about is Ku band, and X-Band.

carl

Pretty sure you can turn off individual bands on the Euro 550

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Yep, you can disable individual bands on the Euro 550. I'm changing to a GPS based detector (I do a heap load of m'way miles & want to recognise SPECS), mines for sale if you're interested.

D

kob999

If you already have the origin system and all you want is a radar detector then the speed cheetah is cheaper than the euro 550 and sites like ukspeedtraps.co.uk rate it very highly for radar detection. As far as I am aware you can select bands as with the 550.

Adam M

dunk, yhpm.

Adam M

the road pilot looks great, it seems to have an intelligent communication between radar and gps which is what i was after.

Especially if it allows me to switch off K band.

Trouble is it is too big. Can't see any online confirmatin that the micropilot can be bought with the radar add on. Laser yes, but radar no!

Phil

I beleive it can now

try Tim at the www.mobilecentre.co.uk he will know

misty

I thought these were being banned???
dave

Adam M

misty,

the radar funtion probably is.

Target LRC100 laser jammers are also banned, but sales of those are thriving.

what would scooby do

Yeah Adam, that's what I meant.. and I agree, after owning a Bel "radar" detector for quite a few years, got fed up with false alarms from petrol stations and tescos LOL

Adam M

Just spoke to some guy at morpheus, and he tried to tell me that 99% of all mobile cameras and guns are laser.

Not entirely convinced by that. I know that gatsos are K band, but am fairly certain the mobile tripod cameras are usually Ku band. He said unless I drive to wiltshire and dorset where they still us radar it isn't an issue.

I don't believe this.

Apparently the micro pilot with radar option may have a clever cross talk where it doesn't alert you if you aren't speeding and this would suit me down to the ground.

The thing I hate most about the detectors is the beeping whilst sitting stationary by a detector or even a petrol station.

Well, whilst writing this I got a call back.

it would appear that morpheus wanted to come up with a clever system which disables the radar warning below the speed limit, but they didn't bother. All they have is a sensitivity adjustment which allows you to restrict it to those you want to pick up.

Apparently there is no facility to disarm the frequencies you don't want to pick up either!

WREXY

The Bel 550 does turn frequencies off. You have to choose a country, then modify the bands for it and make sure you leave it on that country setting. The bad thing is that Ku band, needed for the mobile tripod cameras, starts going off when it picks up some models of Nokia mobile phones.

Adam, I thought you already had a Bel 550. I seem to recall you buying one from a Scoobynet group buy, which I did too, a few years back.

Cheers,

George.

lozzaloz

The vast majority of mobiles are laser.

The mini-Gatso tripods (Dorset, Essex & reports from Lincolnshire) can be either K or Ku band.

If you switch off K band you won't get your warnings from the Gatsos telling you if they're live or not.

X band causes the most false alerts but there will still be quite a few on K band but these can't all be avoided, only weak signals suppressed by the false alert reduction on the better detectors.

wacky.banana

Adam,

If you are looking for major protection you need 3 things:

- Something like an Origin B2 which has radar detection as well as GPS capability or
- A bell 550 or similar that will do the radar detection for you and
- A well peeled and sharp pair of eyes and attention to detail while driving.

The problem you have with camera vans is that they are expensive to run. The operators will generally have the laser/detection device off while tracking cars via the sighting mechanism. They will only turn the detection device on when they have a positive victim in their sites, ie a car that is obviously travelling very quickly with a faulty nut at the wheel.

It is for this reason that if you drive past a camera van at the speed limit or below your radar detector won't go off, no matter how many times you return to test it out.

My comment re the peeled eyes is simply to say that no kit is 100% fail safe. Over-reliance on equipment of this type might still see you getting done. The new generation of speed detectors can allegedly pick you off from 2 miles away, using narrow-beam technology (whatever that means). You would have been done, spit roasted, and nip'd before you knew anything about it!

I am protected in the way I describe above , ie origin blue1 plus bell 550 plus my eyes (there's no substitute for full on attention at the wheel at all times, I'm afraid). However I observe the limits because driving is less stressful that way.

Radar detectors going off at petrol stations is the price you pay for protection of this type. Too many devices use the same bandwith as detection equipment. If you turn slected bands off then you can never be sure how well protected you are.

Hope this helps.

WB