Thursday, December 22, 2005

Ku Band Radar. Is it really coming to our shores?

According to one of our sources, the older european radar band is likely not coming to our shores.

RDD invisibility skeptics

Since the publishing of a recent report on the invisibility of the STI driver to the SPECTRE III, we have come to learn of two skeptics of those findings.

It's been suggested that a modified SPECTRE II is not the same as an actual SPECTRE III.

We'll just have to wait a little bit longer to see what comes of this.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Ides of December

Yesterday (15 DEC 05) may prove to be one of the most significant days (in the world) for decades (generations) to come - and serve as an exemplar of the guileless importance/potential of connectivity.

With the vote in Iraq and surrounding areas from Iraqi expats, the ME region appears to be continuing its nascent steps towards The Functioning Core. Movafagh baasheed!
حظ سعي

Thursday, December 15, 2005

The really big and exciting news this Christmas season comes from Beltronics - STI Driver Undetectable Detector!

Some believed it was not really possible or feasible, BUT:

Bel has recently announced a new high-end model called the STI Driver. A recent SpeedZones field test found the STI Driver to be completely undetectable by all currrent RDDs such as the SPECTRE III! The STI Driver model has been in the offing for some time and appears to be nothing short of an engineering "miracle!" Kudos to Beltronics for their innovation!

From what we gather it is built like a tank and performs exceptionally well with all radar bands and has undergone a major improvement to off-axis laser detection capabilities.

We are anxious to get this new model into our test cycle.

Valentine Research has recently informed me of an updated model now shipping (ver 3.826) which has some improvements to their "J" function (muting out false Ka LO leakage from lesser radar detectors in close proximity). After the Christmas and New Year's holiday, we will send out our Valentine One (ver 3.826) to get flashed.

Veil Guy

Radar detectors testing methodology

I wanted to create a short note addressing the concerns expressed by a few that our testing methodology is "flawed" whenever we compare two high-end detectors "side-by-side."

Certain individuals have commented that testing radar detectors in this fashion is taboo.

After living with the three top radar detectors over the years and have personally driven more than 6000 miles with them in operation in both stand-alone and "side-by-side" comparisons, I can state that we have not noticed any real noteable performance differences of any of them in either of the two testing modes.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend such operation on "lesser" detectors, however, but feel that at this level of performance, any two of the top detectors (we use the current Valentine as our reference detector) should get along quite well - particularly if they are spaced well apart on the windscreen.

Prior to conducting our extensive radar detector tests, we asked the leading authorities in the detector industry including a representatives of each of the top three detector manufacturers as well as authoritative reviewers. Other than the one dissenting opinion (which I believe is based upon historical experience of older models) they each gave us a thumbs up to our testing approach.

In one case we did attempt to include a "lesser" detector (although, not in price!) into the mix and found that it caused our reference detector to false Ka. In this instance we immediately suspended our test and decided that the 2nd detector wasn't worthy of testing because of its poor (lack-of) control of its own LO leakage and limited programming/configuration.

Other than this one obvious cross-talk issue we have found our detector comparisons revealing of actual performance in the real-world. We have approached known sources of bona-fide radar (X, K, and Ka) - from a variety of various angles - and have found alerts to essentially occur from any one of these top detectors as they would when run in solo-operation.

Of course, police laser/LIDAR performance of detectors is not subject the same potential of RF cross-interference permitting "fair" back-to-back realtime comparison of any given two laser detectors.

As radar detector manufacturers continue to "clean-up" the operating modes of their detectors (Bel appears to be leading the way with its new STI driver and the V1 continues to become tighter in operation) we believe the ability to do "side-by-side" comparisons will eventually become a more accepted practice - at least with the top-engineered radar detectors.

Veil Guy

Hello World!

This is the Veil Guy saying, "hello" to all driving enthusiasts out there!

Since the radar detector industry is developing new technologies more quickly than we have been documenting on the veil site, we have decided to create a blog to document the changes that occur during the interim period of our new reports reviews.

We have received a number of requests to expand upon our detailed radar detector reviews of the big three radar detectors to include models from both Whistler and Cobra and we have received two units for analysis from Roy of Radar Busters.

Veil Guy