If you operate a radar detector in a car it is legal except in Virginia, Washington D.C. or on U.S. military reservations where they are illegal. In Canada only three provinces allow detector use in cars; British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. In trucks (18 wheelers) it is a different story. Operating a radar detector in an 18 wheeler was made illegal in all states effective February 1995 per USDOT directive, Code of Federal Regulations, CFR 47, parts 392, 392.71. Much retail radar detector packaging space is dedicated to the issue of claiming invisibility to the VG-2. The VG-2, marketed by Kustom Signals Inc., was the first radar detector / detector (RDD). All radar detectors radiate some amount of microwave at a certain frequency. Many times you are driving on the interstate and your detector goes off. You look around for Smokey....no Smokey. It was the radar detector in the opposite lane of traffic keying up yours. VG-2 is looking for microwave, lo (local oscillator) leakage at 11.55 GHz. Detector makers did two things to defeat the VG-2. First they changed their lo frequency. Second, and most clandestine, was to detect the VG-2's microwave leakage, shut down the detector until the threat was passed, and then turn back on the detector. It is called VG-2 Alert or a radar detector / detector / detector. Checkmate right? Wrong! Two years ago a new RDD, the Spectre, landed from Australia. It looked for the expanded detector lo leakage frequencies. Detector makers countered by changing lo frequencies. A new Spectre with a wider lo window has entered the market along with an entirely new RDD, the MD-3 from Hill Country Research. All three RDDs were provided SML by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police, for the field evaluation. Texas troopers operated the RDDs and detectors started at a cone placed at 1/2 mile from the RDDs. Test vehicles drove at 30 mph and when detected, the test vehicle was told to stop and its range was determined by a Kustom Pro III laser gun. Rocky Mountain Radar's (RMR) new 150 and 250 models claim they can detect all RDDs. They were tested. The results follow:
[...Due to formatting problems, results removed from post. Check their website for the details...]
The Spectre II was the clear winner here detecting all retail radar detectors. It did not detect one pre-production, engineering prototype. The new MD-3 did not detect the higher lo frequencies of the Valentine One, Bel 985, Passport 8500, and Passport SR7. TXDPS will combine these findings with their field evaluations in making a purchasing decision. SML is publishing an article, "Detecting Detectors" at the request of a major law enforcement publication. The article will be published in the Fall. A new product was introduced by Dealer Marketing called the "Detector Finder". The Finder is a handheld device designed to assist police in locating illegally operated radar detectors in a vehicle. It contains low output, Part 15, CFR 47, less than 5 mW, emitters for X, K, and Ka band plus laser. Small enough to fit into a pocket, the officer simply depresses one of the radar buttons when questioning a suspect vehicle to key up the detected radar detector by the RDD.