what are in these vans? i could see the guy like looking into something at each and every car, i almost pulled up to ask him, he probably wondered what i was doing at my 5th time past him at the speed limit, luckily i wasnt speeding!! but scarey in case i was, anyway the road angel didnt make a sound, i have been looking for a laser sight but just neever had, anyone had their road angel go off with this scenario??

thanks

Was it a yellow/black galaxy???

May just be a camera for tax discs. There is one doing the rounds in South London at the minute.

Although they have a tax disc checking sign up ahead of it which I find a little odd to say the least. It may aswell read 'Turn around now if you are a mincab driver'.

it was a galaxy yes, and they had the speed camera signs out, lucky me didnt really get what was going on i was half in a daze, lucky i was goin slow!!

Jason,

The Road Angel is a GPS unit, ie it will only give out an alarm for speed camera's at fixed sites, where those sites have map co-ordinates. Speed camera vans, by their very nature, are mobile, therefore the RA won't pick them up.

Another point to consider is that when a speed camera van is tracking you it uses the Ka radar band (IIRC). For this you need a radar tracking devce, eg Bell 550 or Snooper.

I use both the Bell and the Origin Bluei as my "weapons of choice" against this lot. Naturally there is no substitute for using your eyes and being very, very aware of what's going on around you, listening to your local radio station to find out where the mobile vans will be stationed on any given day, reading websites like ukspeed_traps.co.uk, and sticking to the speed limit unless you have good reason not to. For the latter, you take the risk as it comes.

Driving safely while not putting yourself in the position where you might be picked off by a speed measuring device is literally now a full time job. I probably spend half a day a week, spread over 7 days, keeping myself fully up to date on what's happening out there re speed camera's, et al. My Origin get's its database updated once a week or more, dpending on how far I am travelling away from home.

This might seem overkill; however I value my licence too much to lose it recklessly!

Drive safely.

WB

this is just what i wanted to know, i know how the ra works via gps just wasnt sure if it was supposed to pick up any of these as i wasnt sure what type of radar they used if any, thanks for the input

Might depend where you are; the Lancashire speed tax vans use laser and not radar.

John.

John S,

Agreed, however the answer to detecting Radar or Laser is a radar unit, not a GPS one. :)

I have got the add-on mobile detector with my Road angel and it WILL pick up mobile cameras :)

Paid £20 extra for it ;)

Hi Jason, these are definitely NOT a speed detector, trust me ;)
Road tax, op's licences etc only.

My cousin has the sr9 nero with lazer and rader detection. He was done a while ago by a laser van - laser is by it's nature line of sight, so as soon as your detector can work the camera sight can see you and this is what happened to him. Laser is very difficult to get around unless your a long way away line of sight,

Cal

i have the add on also, and it didnt pick up anything, i am quite sure the van was a speed camera van, it even had the signs out and was following cars going away from the back of their van, so im quite sure they couldnt see the tax disk!!

Jason,

Are you able to set which bands the add-on responds to, as you can with, say, the Bell 550? If yes it may be worth switching on all the bands to make sure you are getting coverage, even though that may result in far more false alarms than you would like.

You need to bear in mind that running these camera vans is a very expensive business. Apparently standard practice is for the operators to track vehicles, using the sight/viewer only on the camera. If it's obvious that you are speeding (not too difficult to tell if you are doing, say, 70 in a 30) then they activate the laser/radar and you are dead meat.

If you drive past one of these doing, say, 32 in a 30, your detection device is likely to be as quiet as a churchmouse as the van operator almost certainly will not have bothered to "laser" you for the reasons I give above.

It is alleged that the equipment in these vans has a range of at least a mile, ie radar/laser and number plate recognition capability. That's why its easier not to speed if you can help it (no, I'm not preaching) because by the time you notice the beggars, especially if you are driving spiritedly and looking at where you are going rather than watching out for speed camera vans, then its too late!

WB

Jason, I take it the vans didnt have blue lights on top, just yellow strips??? It should have had V.O.S.A written on it as well, thats the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. The vans look very much like police vans, thats the intention, but they aren't. Although they do have the power to stop any vehicle like a police car.

cant say how much i noticed about the description but that was a good explanation wacky.B, i guess as i was just cruisin they didnt activate, and i did notice when i pulled alongside the guy lookin through somethin at some of the other cars, thanks

No worries Jason. Like I said, it pays to do your homework... :)