AUTHOR: CHRIS LONGHURST
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with any branch of the motor industry. I am not qualified to give out legal advice on any aspects of motoring covered in these pages, although I exercise my right to express opinions. The information presented here is the result of information-gathering and research. The sources for this information include the equipment manufacturers and the police forces across the UK. Neither myself nor the provider of my pages make any warranties, express or implied, as to the results that might be obtained from the use of this information. Neither myself nor the provider of my pages shall be liable for the misuse of this information, nor any third-party claims or losses of any nature including, but not limited to, lost finances, punitive or consequential damages.
COPYRIGHT: ALL MATERIAL ON THESE PAGES IS THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CHRIS LONGHURST UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND AS SUCH IS COPYRIGHTED ACCORDINGLY.

Welcome to the Testing Ground.

This section of the Speedtrap Bible was opened to the general public in February 2000. The idea is that I test as much "anti-speedtrap" equipment as I can get my hands on. In a lot of cases this might also involve a little destructive testing - purely for scientific purposes you understand. Let's face it: there are a hundred and one companies out there all out to sucker you for money with massive claims of radar-invisibility, laser-invisibility, camera-proof plate covers and other suchlike. Some of them work, but most of them are just, to use the technical term, crap. You send off your cash for the Miracle Super Turbo Laser-Enhanced Photoderived Infra-red Tempered Technology Plate that claims that it makes your entire car invisible to just about everything, and then a week later you get a piece of bent plastic back in the post with a slip in the envelope that reads "all sales are final." So in an effort to educate you, and give you somewhere to look before you part with your cash, step inside the Testing Ground. (hard hats and eye protection must be worn at all times)

The Ontrack Protector.

 This piece of kit - an alleged camera-proof numberplate cover - has recently received some interesting reviews both in the press and on other websites. I've had one on test bought directly from Ontrack in Canada. Out of the box (or the plastic sack in this case) it looks like an extremely impressive piece of kit. I showed it to my work colleagues and we all oo'd and aah'd about it, and the marvellous mirror effect that it pulls off when rotated. But would it stand up to a little scientific scrutiny when tested for the UK market (read: messing around by some guy with a website)? The short answer is not in the UK. The long answer follows. Note: Results may be different for different countries and different equipment - this analysis is valid for use in the UK only. M'kay?
First of all, you need to understand that in the UK, 99.999% of all GATSO sites are mounted at the side of the road, with the camera set at an angle of 20o, with a spread of about 30o. This means that their effective target zone is an conical wedge that goes from about 5o away from the kerb over to about 35o across the road. See the diagram on the right. When I got my Protector plate cover, the first thing I did was cut it in half and take one half of it to pieces to see what made it work. It's basically two sheets of perspex, and sandwiched in between them is a third piece of perspex. Do you remember those old postcards you used to be able to get that changed their image depending on what angle you looked at it from? Remember there used to be a mass of tiny little vertical ridges on the front of the postcard? Well this third piece of plastic in the sandwich is just that - covered in thousands of tiny inscribed lines, and backed with a mirror finish. What this means is that each of those little lines acts as a tiny lens that bends light. If you look straight on to the edge of the lens, you see straight through it. But as you move around to the side of the lens, it bends the light more and more until you can only see the mirrored backing. This is precisely how the Ontrack Protector works. If you look straight on to it, you can see right through it. It gives a sort of double-vision type distortion if it's not pressed right up against the background object (your numberplate). When you turn the Protector, it becomes more and more mirrored until at 45o it is a complete mirror and you cannot see what is behind it. Neat! But there's one fatal flaw. Remember I said that UK GATSO cameras work at an average angle of 20o? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that at that angle, the protector is not completely mirrored, thus you can still see through it. Worse still, as you carry on from 45o over to 90o, the Protector becomes transparent again. So for a GATSO camera, your plate is still very readable. Remember I cut my Protector in half? Well, I stuck the other half to my numberplate and photographed it at all manner of angles both from another driver's perspective overtaking you, and from the point of view of a GATSO camera. Take a look at the photos to see the effect for yourself. There is an interesting question which comes up then. Imagine you're minding your own business in traffic, and a police car overtakes you. As they pass the back of your car, your numberplate flicks from being visible, to being a mirror, to being visible again.

Believe me this is a bloody obvious effect, and bound to attract the attention of anyone behind you. Not to mention that your numberplate does look slightly blurred even when viewed straight-on. These two factors would combine to make any police officer suspicous, and you'd likely be tugged so they could have a closer look. When they find the plate cover, there's a good chance they could charge you with attempting to pervert the course of justice. So buy one and use it at your own risk - personally, I wouldn't bother. Mine is now in the bin.

Equivalent of GATSO photos. The Ontrack is over the "76" on my numberplate. Note I've blurred the last few characters manually because the Ontrack does not work.
Equivalent of first GATSO photo. Numberplate very readable
Equivalent of second GATSO photo. Ontrack actually increases visibility of the numberplate!
And Finally: If you still don't believe me, "C.V" emailed me on 5th March 2000 - he's just been done for tearing past a GATSO, Ontrack Protector in place. The police are not only doing him for speeding, they're having him for attempting to obstruct the course of justice too.

Kit Claims Expect to pay Rated
Ontrack Protector "Makes your plate invisible to speed cameras" around £60

The Bel Vector LR.

 This detector was supplied in the UK - ie. it wasn't bought in the USA and shipped over. So you'd think it would do a good job - perhaps it's even for the UK market? Well you'd be fairly right. The Vector LR is a good robust piece of kit. It comes with the usual sucker-mount clip that you stick to your windscreen, and a long cable to connect it to the 12v lighter socket in your car. Being car-powered rather than battery-powered, it ought to have much greater capabilities. The manual is fairly concise, with a few misleading paragraphs, but once you fiddle with the detector, you can figure most of it out. It has a text readout on the front which can be set to either bright, dim, or dark. Dark mode is sort of like stealth mode - it simply displays a very dim 'C' for 'City' or 'H' for 'Highway' in the display with no other lights. At night, this makes it exceptionally difficult for anyone else to see that you're using a detector. Like most detectors, when you turn it on, it goes through a full repertoire of electronic squawks whilst cycling all the current settings on the display. Almost immediately I turned it on, it falsed on the X-band in my company car park. It falsed again as I pulled out, and again as I approached the first set of traffic lights. One lay-by and a quick scout of the manual later, and the X-band was disabled - not simply a nice feature, but an imperative feature for use in the UK.
Like most detectors, the Vector LR has a City and a Highway mode. The difference between them, according to the manual, is a difference in sensitivity to the various bands detected. In practice I couldn't really find a lot to distinguish between them, but I dutifully switched modes depending on what sort of road I was on so as to use it as per the manufacturer's guidelines.
One of the more interesting modes is "Voltmeter" mode. The front display shows a constant readout of your battery voltage as you drive. More interestingly, when it starts to detect radar, instead of showing the strength of the source as it does in "Normal" mode, it shows the frequency instead. I can tell you now that every garage forecourt I've driven past in the southeast is using something on the K-band - probably door-openers - and all within the 24.120GHz to 24.180GHz range. I suspect the same is true for most other petrol stations in the UK.
So how good is it when used in day-to-day driving conditions as oppose to sterile lab conditions and rigged empty-road testing? Well I spent 1,000 miles with the Vector LR driving all over the southeast, visiting all manner of traps that I knew to be live, plus local police haunts where they usually hang out with a van and a laser gun. Here's what I found:

Trap type Traffic Weather Warning at speed, facing you Warning at speed, facing away
M25 Controlled speed cameras Light Clear 10-15 secs at 70mph 2-3 secs at 70mph
Heavy 12-16 secs at 55mph 3-4 secs at 55mph
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 10-15 secs at 70mph 2-3 secs at 70mph
Heavy 12-16 secs at 55mph 3-4 secs at 55mph
Standard fixed GATSO Light Clear 10-15 secs at 45mph 2-3 secs at 40mph
Heavy 10-15 secs at 45mph 1-2 secs at 40mph
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 10-15 secs at 45mph 2-3 secs at 45mph
Heavy 10-15 secs at 45mph 1-2 secs at 45mph
Handheld radar Light Clear 30-40 secs at 45mph not relevant
Heavy 15-20 secs at 45mph not relevant
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 25-30 secs at 35mph not relevant
Heavy unable to test unable to test
LTI20.20 or similar Light Clear 4-5 secs at 30mph not relevant
Heavy 1-2 secs at 30mph not relevant
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog unable to test unable to test
Heavy unable to test unable to test

The TV Remote Control Test
Is there a (excuse the pun) remote possibility that the Vector LR can detect IR light close to the wavelength used by IR illuminators on devices like SPECS? Yes, but only just. Up to about 50cm away in fact, although this indicates that it just might find a SPECS illuminator.

Note that the Vector LR cannot detect Ku band radar, so it would have been no use against a minigatso. Which is a good job because no matter how many times I visited the Thames Valley's favourite minigatso site, the buggers weren't there! I never thought I'd say this, but there's never a speedtrap around when you want one......

Conclusions
For the money, a damn good piece of kit. Doesn't detect Ku, and no detector will ever tell you there's an unmarked car tooled up with VASCAR following you. Apart from that, thumbs up from me.

Kit Detects Expect to pay Rated
Bel Vector LR K, Ka, X, Laser, all selectable around £279

The Bel 990i.

 This detector was also supplied in the UK, and the observant amongst you will notice that it doesn't look a million miles different from the Vector LR tested above. In fact externally, it's not. It comes in the same case, so looks the same, but the internals have been given a good seeing to. Like the Vector LR, the 990i is another good robust piece of kit. It comes with the same accessories and in near enough the same box. Again it's car-powered rather than battery-powered, meaning better detection range than the cordless variety. The manual has a lot of depth to it, and to be honest, if you're not good with programming your family video, then getting the 990i to do what you want it to could be a tad tricky. However, like the Vector LR, once you fiddle with the it, you can figure most of it out. It has the same text readout on the front with the same bright, dim, and dark modes. Like most detectors, when you turn it on, it goes through a full repertoire of electronic squawks whilst cycling all the current settings on the display. And with the 990i, there's an absolute shedload of settings. Depending on how you've got it set up, you can tune out most frequencies by their actual frequency, rather than simply turning off all of the K band. The 990i comes factory-supplied in the UK set to "International" mode (hence the "i" in "Bel990i") instead of "America" mode, and consequently comes with the annoying X-band already disabled.
Like the Vector LR, the 990i has a City and a Highway mode. In practice, again I couldn't really find a lot to distinguish between them, but I dutifully switched modes depending on what sort of road I was on so as to use it as per the manufacturer's guidelines.
Note that the 990i comes with the same, extremely useful "Voltmeter" mode too. Now based on my experiences with the Vector LR and petrol station forecourt door openers in my neck of the woods, I took the plunge and disabled the 24.120Ghz frequency on the 990i. And do you know what? I've had hardly a peep out of it since. Not at garages anyway. Which brings me nicely on to the obvious question:
How good is it when used in day-to-day driving conditions as oppose to sterile lab conditions and rigged empty-road testing? This time I spent 1,500 miles with the Vector LR driving all over the southeast again. I had the pleasure of ride-sharing on my trips to work now, so when not driving, I could concenrate my attentions more closely on the Bel990i and how it performed. Now I'm searching for a metaphor here. "Highly strung" would be one. I don't know what Beltronics have done to the detector circuitry in the 990i, but it's certainly a notch up on the Vector LR. Take a look:

Trap type Traffic Weather Warning at speed, facing you Warning at speed, facing away
M25 Controlled speed cameras Light Clear 25-30 secs at 70mph 15-20 secs at 70mph
Heavy 40-45 secs at 55mph 15-20 secs at 55mph
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 15-20 secs at 70mph 7-15 secs at 70mph
Heavy 22-26 secs at 55mph 15-17 secs at 55mph
Standard fixed GATSO Light Clear 10-15 secs at 45mph 5-7 secs at 40mph
Heavy 10-15 secs at 45mph 5-6 secs at 40mph
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 10-15 secs at 45mph 5-7 secs at 45mph
Heavy 10-15 secs at 45mph 4-5 secs at 45mph
Portable MiniGATSO Light Clear 8-10 secs at 40mph 4-6 secs at 45mph
Heavy 12-16 secs at 40mph 4-6 secs at 45mph
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 7-9 secs at 40mph 7-9 secs at 40mph
Heavy 7-9 secs at 40mph 7-9 secs at 40mph
Handheld radar Light Clear 40-45 secs at 45mph not relevant
Heavy 25-30 secs at 45mph not relevant
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog 25-30 secs at 35mph not relevant
Heavy 25-30 secs at 35mph not relevant
LTI20.20 or similar Light Clear 6-7 secs at 30mph not relevant
Heavy 4-5 secs at 30mph not relevant
Light Heavy rain/mist/spray/fog unable to test unable to test
Heavy unable to test unable to test

The TV Remote Control Test
Is there a (excuse the pun) remote possibility that the 990i can detect IR light close to the wavelength used by IR illuminators on devices like SPECS? Yes, and better than the Vector LR. This time it went well up to about 2m away.

Note that the 990i can detect Ku band radar - ie. miniGATSO. It's one of the reasons I took so long before publishing the results of the test. It took weeks to find one but eventually Hampshire police were kind enough to have one propped up on a road we used as a detour to come back from work on the day the M25 was closed. Good job we had it with us too. We went backwards and forwards past the chaps in blue several times - I'm sure they were getting suspicious in the end.

Conclusions
For the money, a better piece of kit than the Vector LR. Detects Ku, and that means thumbs up from me.

Kit Detects Expect to pay Rated
Bel 990i K, Ka, Ku, X, Laser, all selectable around £349

The Morpheous Geodesy (World Exclusive Review!)

 Exclusive to the Speedtrap Bible comes the latest in high-tech gadgets to assist motorists in locating known speedtrap locations. Morpheous are a small UK-based company who have manufactured a GPS-based speedtrap location device called Geodesy. Click here to pop over to the Morpheous website.

On the 12th of May 2000, I was priveledged to be asked to join the Geodesy's development team for a sneak preview of this little wonder. On the 20th September, the first production unit arrived for testing. The unit itself is about the size of a small box of cigarettes, and has the same layout as a radar detector. ie. it's long and flat, with controls and lights on one end. You can see that it's a tiny unit which makes it all the more amazing to find out what technology is packed into it. The system comprises of two custom-engineered circuit boards piggybacked together. The upper one contains a hand-tuned GPS antenna with a 12-channel-parallel state of the art GPS receiver. The lower board contains all the processing circuitry, including a database system capable of storing up to 16,000 fixed locations in latitude / longitude format. There's also 512k of onboard memory, and a control panel on the front which contains a multitude of lights and one (count it, one) button.

The light on the left is a multifunction status LED which can show blue, red or green depending on the unit's status. The row of LEDs across the centre are proximity indicators. As you approach the location of a known camera, the LEDs start to count up in red. As you get closer, they start to wink too. Once you've passed the camera, the LED's count down again, but in green. The button on the left has two purposes. If you press and hold it, it mutes the sound on the Geodesy. If you simply press it and release, it stores the current location in a "user database". And here's the clever bit. Geodesy ships with a docking station that contains a tiny custom-engineered modem. You connect this to a telephone socket, and each time you drop the unit into it's docking station, it uploads your user database, and downloads the positions of any new cameras confirmed by Morpheous. Once your data is uploaded to their central system, the camera location is confirmed, and it is placed into the download queue so everyone else who owns a Geodesy will get that new location appended to their database. Because of this upload /download capacity, Morpheous are registered with the Data Protection Act, and the data is highly encrypted so as to prevent third-party interference. Similarly the custom chipsets inside the unit are reverse-engineering-resistant.

Morpheous are planning a couple of optional extras to be available for their unit too. The first is a PC Interface Kit which allows you to fiddle with the internal settings of the Geodesy to your heart's content (such as changing the colours displayed by the LEDs, changing warning times etc etc). Secondly, there's a plan to make an LCD screen available later too, which would show you a constant readout of speed, latitude, longitude and number of known sites in your direct area.
The beauty of the Geodesy is that it's entirely legal. Because it's not using any form of radar detection system, there's not even a loophole that could be used to outlaw it. It is first and foremost a road safety aid based squarely on proven GPS navigation principles, and Morpheous have received excellent support from police forces all over the country in building up their database of known camera locations. You see, fore-warned, is fore-armed. If the councils wish to drop the speed in any area, they put a camera up. If you know about that camera as you approach it, you know that area has been targetted for safety reasons, and can ensure your speed is appropriate. The alternative, as we all know is being needlessly fined for not being psychic enough to know where councils consider their accident blackspots to be.

In-use.
Well bugger me if it doesn't do exactly what it says on the tin. I plugged the unit in to the supplied power clip, (it comes with a power clip pre-wired for a car cigarette lighter, as well as one with bare connectors for fitting to motorbikes) it winked to life and true to form, took about 10 minutes to autolocate before the blue light came on. Every time after that, it took less than 10 seconds to come on-line. This is because the unit needs to autolocate the first time you use it, then once you turn it off, it "remembers" where it last was, and hence knows which satellites to look for next time you turn it on.
Now there's a whole fistfull of fixed GATSOs around where I live, so took the unit out for a spin to see how clever it really is. And believe me, folks, it's bloody clever. The blue light sat there contentedly until I got to within about a mile of the first camera. Then the red LEDs started to come on, one by one until I could see the camera up ahead of me. By this point, the unit was beeping quietly as well as flashing the LEDs at me. And bang-on target, it flashed all the red LEDs and changed it's beep to a 1980's Galaxians videogame-like sound as I approached the location. (I had my Garmin GPSIII in the car with me, and it was showing an estimated positional error of around 20ft) As I drove away from the site, the LEDs turned green, stopped flashing, and started counting down again until they were all out, at which point the unit reverted to the single blue LED.

Frankly, I was impressed. The more camera sites I found, the more I realised that this is the ultimate boy's toy. It has the auto-update feature in the base-station which means that each time you plug it in, it will grab any new sites and add it to it's database. I didn't find one around Reading or Bracknell that it didn't already know about. One thing to be aware of though is that it works on circular distance. It doesn't "know" which road you are on, simply where you are, and where the cameras are. So if you're approaching a camera which is on a side road, it will start to warn you as you approach that road, and as you pass the end of the road, the warnings will diminish. You can tune the unit to give less than a mile's warning (the default) which I would recommend. 500metres ought to be enough for all but the most lead-footed, inobservant drivers.
The poor thing nearly melted down when I drove from Bracknell to Reading down the Wokingham road. I've concluded that around the Reading area, you're never more than 8/10ths of a mile from a speed camera. For this reason alone, it would be worth tuning the range down otherwise it will be permanently counting up and down as you pass cameras in side streets and streets that are parallel to the one you're on.

The unit is small, as you've read above, and in my car, it snuggles neatly on to the top of the instrument binnacle. This gives the GPS aerial a clear view of the sky whilst keeping the LEDs in my line-of-sight. It goes without saying that if you park under a bridge, or get stuck in a tunnel, the Geodesy will lose track because it cannot "see" any satellites. Upon exitting the tunnel though, it will re-acquire satellite lock-on within about 5 seconds.

Conclusions
For the money, a damn-near infallible piece of kit. If you were going to spend £400 to £500 on a radar detector, consider the Geodesy because it does so much more. It can warn you of SPECS type cameras when the locations are added to the Morpheous database. It can warn you of temporary limits. If the database was so-updated, it could even tell you which gantries on the M25 have cameras on, and which are duds.
Double thumbs up from me.

Kit Detects Expect to pay Rated
Morpheous Geodesy Almost every type of fixed camera, as long as it's in the database £400 to £500

The Evo Magazine Test.

 A contributor to the Speedtrap Bible had the priveledge of being invited to the big detector test carried out in late 1999 by Evo magazine. Read on, and enjoy.

Radar detectors have had a bad press: to begin with they were illegal and then when they became legal they were assumed by most people not to really work. Only one way to find out what the truth is - to test them against all of the speed detection gadgets that the Police have. Surprisingly the Police were keen to participate - mainly so that they could see how the public’s "counter measures" worked. We tried out all of the radar detectors available in the UK, two laser jammers and the Backflash anti-Gatso device. We spent two days with the police in different weather conditions and on different sites. Please note that the tests were not conducted on the public road. First we tried the radar detectors. The tests were to drive towards a traditional rear-facing Gatso camera at 60mph and see how much (if any) warning we got. The second test was to drive towards a police officer who was pointing a handheld radar gun at our vehicle. As most of the radar detectors also have a laser detector built in we also drove the car against the UK's two most popular Police laser guns - the LTI20.20 and the Prolaser.

Detecting a GATSO.

Only 2 detectors really gave long enough warning of radar to enable you to easily slow down to under 30mph. They were the Valentine 1 and the Bel980/990. We picked 30mph as a point of reference. If you speed in 30 limits, then you should be nicked. The Bel990 gave twice as much warning as the Valentine 1. Some of the others only beeped after we were past the Gatso (very useful - Not) and the others gave you various amounts of warning - but not enough for us to be able to slow without sharp braking. We also tested against a mini Gatso - which is a portable roadside unit (looks like a blue suitcase on a tripod). The only detector to pick this up at all was the Bel990. This is because of the Ku band radar it uses and the Bel is the only device to detect Ku.

Detecting Hand Held Radar Guns

The next test was driving towards a handheld radar gun. Again only the Valentine and the Bel detectors were able to give us enough warning to be able to knock off enough speed before the radar gun could acquire our speed. (The detectors can pick up the radar gun emissions at a long range - before the gun can get a lock on you.) As radar scatters and bounces in all directions you can even get a warning on a detector from a signal that has bounced around a corner. Neat!

Detecting a Laser Gun

Test three - the detectors vs. a laser gun. Most of them picked up the laser - but all gave warnings too late. A modern laser gun will acquire you as a target and measure your speed in 0.3 seconds, thus you get 0.3 seconds warning - and that’s all you get. Unlike radar, a laser gun sends a much narrower pulse for a much shorter period of time, often just a fraction of a second. As even the world’s top drag racers don’t have reaction times that fast, it’s a bit pointless owning a laser detector that can detect laser as you can't react to the warning.

Radar/Laser Detectors - Summary

In summary the best radar detector in terms of warning is the Bel990. The other important consideration when selecting a detector is the "cry wolf" factor. All of the detectors cover a range of wavebands and many things operate in these in addition to radar guns. For example automatic garage door openers often work in the X-band and some security systems operate in the K-band. If in use on the road its always beeping with false warnings, then when it goes beep for real you might ignore it. The Bell 980/990 is one of the few that has been refined for the UK and Europe and you can select individual wavebands to ignore. Although you can do this customising to the same degree with the Valentine, it's not widely recognised, but it does come with illuminated arrows to show you which direction the signal came from. All of these detectors attached to the windscreen with little plastic suckers that are hooked into a clip and the detector slides or clips into this. How it attaches to your car/windscreen is important, as you will probably want to remove it from view when you park. At up to £500 a pop, you don’t want to leave it where prying eyes can see it. The Valentine has the easiest method and is easily removed with one hand, all of the others are a little fiddly. For motorcycle riders either of these detectors could fit behind the bikes screen, but with a helmet on and the wind/engine roar we couldn’t hear them or really notice the flashing warning. However we are aware that a proper bike specific detector (probably based upon the 990) should be on the market soon. We thought that the police would take a dim view of detectors, but we were surprised by their open attitude - they were of the opinion that anything that made drivers slow was a good thing. They are not cheap - but compare it to an £800+ fine for speeding and it’s a bargain.

Laser Jammers

The next test was of laser jammers. These work by detecting the pulse of laser light and responding to it with another pulse back at the gun that is designed to trigger an error message on the laser gun and thus cause it not to record the speed. These devices are legal in the USA but may not be in the UK or elsewhere due to DTI laws. As none of our laser tests were on the public road it did not cause us an issue. We had two types of laser jammer fitted to two identical cars. We drove them at the laser guns - starting about 1 mile away. Initially we forgot to tell the police that we had jammers fitted and they were confused as to why they could not get a reading - initially thinking that their laser guns were all faulty. This seemed to indicate that however the jammmers disabled the guns, it did not result in a warning to them that they were being jammed. Once they were aware of the jammers we carried on with the tests. As the laser guns can be used up to 999m we started at long range. Both of the jammers essentially do the same thing - they send out a pulse that disables the gun and warns you at the same time. The Defensor K40 jammer was able to easily jam the LTI20.20 but was not as successful against the Prolaser gun. The LTI gun sends out a very short pulse (about 4/100th second) where as the Prolaser gun emits a much longer pulse. The Target LE850 jammer was successful against both types of gun and effectively disabled them for around 5 seconds. When the LE850 detects the laser gun it emits a series of beeps and then jams. In tests, if you were travelling at 90mph when targeted with a laser gun you could start braking and be doing under 20mph before the laser gun is able to register your speed. The LE850 jammed successfully every time we tried it, but in other tests we’ve seen, it had about a 90% success rate - so it is not total protection. In tests the device was not hidden on the car but even then the police could not see it until it was pointed out to them. It is small and black and could easily be fitted to cars or motor cycles. We understand that at least one UK police force has a device for detecting laser jammers. The police tell us that it would be a case of "perverting the course of justice" if caught with one operating on the road. As far as we know no one has yet been to court for having one - to have this proved. In the USA they are legal and it was only recently that radar detectors became legal in the UK after a test case. Both jammers were fitted to the front of the test cars as 90% of laser gun usage is at the front of vehicles. With the LE850 you could fit a second unit on the rear for all round protection.

Jammers - Summary

The LE850 is the best jammer tested as it works against the two main types of police laser gun. It will give you around 5 seconds to correct your speed; legal in the USA, but may not be legal in the UK. Both the K40 and Target LE are available from CA Automotive : 01252 792 572.

Radar jammers exist but we did not get around to trying them as handheld radar is in decline and a good detector should be enough warning against Gatsos or handheld units.

Backflash anti Gatso gadget

This works by fitting 2 units, one either side of your numberplate. Each unit has a flash detector and a flash head - they both connect to a control box. The idea is when you get flashed the units flashes back to "white out" your numberplate. First we tried just taking pictures with a basic digital camera in various light conditions. The Backflash flash obscured the outer letters, but enough of the numberplate was readable to identify. Next we tried it speeding past a proper Gatso camera. Again the plate was slightly obscured, but still readable. As the flash heads are very visible a policeman is very likely to spot them and again the police tell us that their use is likely to end up with a "perverting the course of justice" charge. The other problem is where to fit it. It is meant to go either side of the numberplate, but as most numberplates are a snug fit into the recess in the bumper - the required space does not exist. The only way we could get it all to fit on was to fit a smaller (and possible illegal) size numberplate.

Miscellaneous Info.

Other useful info gleaned during testing: If you pass through a GATSO at over 154mph it seems to confuse it and also if you are braking very hard. Numbers of GATSO units are on the increase whilst the use of handheld radar is on the decrease, instead being replaced by the more accurate laser guns. When the Police use a laser gun they should only use it on a road where they have line of sight and sufficient space to stop you safely, so generally they operate on straight of a minimum of 500m. They are meant to calibrate the gun for speed reading accuracy and aiming scope alignment at each site they use them, their own manuals describe these tests as critical, so ask if they have been done.