Radar detectors: Are they useful now?

Ravi Kolhe | 8/16/2013 | |
Radar detectors have been around for nearly 50 years saving people time and money. Unfortunately, it has not all be fun and games during those last 50 years; technology has changed. Radar detectors went from a highly useful device capable of outperforming anything law enforcement had to use. As time went on much of that has changed and many detectors are riddled with false alarms from door openers and various other sources.

How is it any different now?

Detectors have come a long way over the last 50 years, but so have the items they’re meant to detect. Years ago there was only one source of police radar, and that was from the police. In modern times though everything uses police radar frequencies from door openers to toilets at your house! With all of these advances in technology, it was time for detector manufacturers to have a new outlook on their products.

Innovation at work

Over the last 10 year or so as false alarms have ramped up to extremely high level's detector makers have had to switch gears. In a perfect world with no false alert's sensitivity is king, who can get the longest alert distance was a big contender in tests. However, that has all changed over recent years, the only thing extreme sensitivity means is constant false alerts. The big names began to notice this issue and finally built GPS technology into their top of the line products. This resulted in a quiet unit free of false alarms.

Is it really a big deal?

Incorporating GPS technology into radar detectors is one of the biggest changes since radar detector rejection false alarm suppression. Life without GPS filtering consisted of a daily commute with your detector going off in the same places every day. Not only did these bother people due to the constant false alarms, but it also made them ignore the alerts. Ignoring a device that is intended to save you money and time sounds like it needs to be reworked.

But how does it work?

Generally, when you drive by the same false alarm daily you ignore it mentally. What GPS filtering allows radar detectors to do is for the detector to remember the frequency, and location and mute it. You can finally drive in peace through those daily false alarms without any false alert at all. If a new frequency shows up that has not been detected before it alerts. False alarms generally do not move around due to their stationary use so once they’re remembered you’re good to go When you do hear your detector go off you know it’s a legitimate cause and not some false alarm bothering you. This new technology has allowed detector manufacturers to continue making ultra-sensitive units while keeping them quiet enough for general use.

Conclusion

Detectors have changed greatly over the last 50 years, with the invention of GPS and incorporating it into the device a huge break in technology has happened. The biggest complaint about radar detectors was all the false alarms, now with those eliminated, we can look forward to a higher-quality product. High end detectors will no longer suffer unbearable false alerts and still picks up legitimate radar from miles away.

Speed Countermeasures is a leading supplier of radar detectors where you can buy Beltronics Pro 500, and Rogue Mounts.

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