Creation of Speed Trap Hunter Blog: Real-World Speedtrap Encounter Travel Diary

Speedtrap Hunting with Beltronics STi-R, Escort Passport 9500ci, Valentine One v3.861

For most, this past Memorial Day holiday was a day of rest and relaxation oftentimes preceded with a long drive and/or flight to a destination of relatives and/or friends.

For many vacationers, driving is considered a necessary, if not unpleasant, part of the holiday, no doubt, and for many of these would-be weekend-warriors, they would be subjected to some of the most intense levels of traffic enforcement (ie; speeding ticket revenue generation).

I can't fathom exactly how many tickets must have been issued this past weekend, but I am certain it was a staggering amount, given the level of traffic enforcement I experienced—more radar and laser speed traps in a three day period than most drivers experience in a three year period!

On Tuesday, a friend of mine who works in the radar detector industry, had indicated to me that a news flash had just came across his desk—that 'accident/fatality rates were down this weekend' (no doubt, of course, to the heavy-handed nature of speed enforcement deployed).

This only means one thing, expect more of the same as additional holidays make their appearance this 2008 summer season.

Getting back to the original nature of this post, I chose to spend my Memorial Holiday weekend a little differently than most...I decided to go to work...hunting—speed trap hunting that is. Yes, you read that right.

Another speed trap hunter (Steve) and myself spent the vast majority of this holiday weekend driving and I do mean driving—try on almost 1000 miles throughout the Buckeye state, alone. Ohio, home of the Browns, Indians, Reds, and some of the most intense mixture of police radar and police laser speed enforcement, not to mention red light cameras deployment I have ever seen in nearly 30 years of my spirited driving experience.

Yes, when it comes to traffic enforcement, Ohio does, indeed, have it all—instant-on and steady x-band, k-band, all flavors of U.S. ka-band radar (33.8ghz, 34.7ghz, 35.5ghz), as well as a wide assortment of generation Gen 3 police lasers, notably, the LTI Ultralytes.

Mind you, we didn't come unprepared. On the contrary, we armed ourselves to the teeth with the best speed trap countermeasures currently known to mankind, including the best radar detectors and laser jammers along with Veil G4 anti-laser stealth coating and other passive countermeasures, including a GPS-enabled redlight camera detector called the Cheetah GPSMirror.

For this holiday weekend, our vehicle of choice was a late-model 5 series BMW, tricked out with all of these gizmo's and badged with racing stickers that surely made us a preferred target!

Our speed trap countermeasure arsenal included only the best-of-breed:

• 1 Escort Passport 9500ci Custom Installed/Remote Radar Detector
• 1 Beltronics STi-R Remote Radar Detector
• 2 Beltronics STi Driver Radar Detectors
• 3 Valentine One Radar Detectors (v3.813, v3.826, v3.861)
• 2 Escort Passport 9500i GPS-Enabled Radar Detectors (one red & one blue)
• 1 Beltronics RX65 Pro Radar Detector
• 1 Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar Detector
  
• 3 Whistler XTR/Pro Series Radar Detectors
• 1 Cheetah GPSMirror Red-light/Fixed Camera/Speed Camera Detector
• 1 Cincinnati Microwave Laser Shifter ZR4 (Front & Rear Laser Jammer)
• 1 Veil G4 Anti-Police-Laser Stealth Coating
• Flip Video Camcorder
• Canon SD850 Camcorder
• Lots of gas
• Lots of enthusiasm
• Unlimited θάρρος
• Faith in the Almighty and a little touch of luck
  

You may be asking yourself at this moment, is all of this "stuff" really necessary?

For us hardcore folk the answer is an unequivocal and resounding YES, along with a strong dose of good driver common-sense.

I am pleased to report, at least to this point, today, Saturday morning (one week later), after accumulating nearly 4000 miles on the odometer (and traffic conditions permitting, at speeds that were well-north of the posted limits) I have managed to remain safe and ticket-free.

Escort Passport 9500i Blue @ 141mph

The purpose of the Speed Trap Hunter blog is to create a running diary of real-world experiences of speed traps and other traffic enforcement snafus and the equipment and techniques used to successfully hunt (mitigate) them.

We expect to start this running diary with two Speed Trap Hunters; myself, known as Bob, the Speed Trap Hunter (founder); another friend and fellow enthusiast and certified (certifiable) Speed Trap Hunter, named Steve (co-founder of the Guys of Lidar), who will share our joint experiences on the highway and report his own real-world experiences in the mid-west (Ohio).

We may, indeed, have yet another Speed Trap Hunter who lives out in the West to share his experiences from the left coast.

The only conditions to participation is that they must be honest stories (not fabricated), not 'marketing' pieces for manufacturers/retailers, nor may they promote reckless/dangerous behaviors (safely 'speeding' in and of itself does not constitute reckless behavior, just ask our German friends who drive the Autobahn).

Win, lose, or draw...and eventually we'll lose one from time to time, expect to hear the truth about our travel experiences on the open highway using the best-of-breed speed trap countermeasure equipment that is currently available to us civilians.

Since I just finished accumulating nearly 4000 miles over the last seven days (during the Memorial Day Weekend Holiday) some of these initial "war-stories" may not appear in chronological order, but once things get rollin', our travel logs should appear in chronological order (the most recent appearing first).

Some of my individual and collective experiences with Steve (aka: Speed Trap Hunter, Ohio) will factor into an updated real-world radar detector review in a format that we pioneered several years ago (The Ultimate Radar Detector Review 2005—the results of which still hold true to this very day.

While our real-world testing techniques and review/writing style have (occasionally) been imitated (IRL or imagination), they have never been equaled. It doesn't get any 'realer' than this.

While we do not condone nor encourage the willful flouting of traffic laws either collectively as a group or as individuals, we hope that our shared real-world experiences may open your mind/eyes to the new possibilities of safe and prudent driving while keeping your license free from any undue speeding ticket "blemishes," the demerit points that can come with them, and the inevitable higher insurance premiums that can inure for many years after an unfortunate speedtrap encounter.

You are invited to join our "gang" and participate in our evolving dialog and we hope that the information you gather here (and on our related websites) will help you avoid your next speeding ticket, make you a more safe, prudent, and responsible driver, and enable you to share in our collective passion for the products we use everyday and the love of safe, prudent, and spirited performance driving.

You are also welcomed to participate with our sister forum: Speed Trap Hunter Forum which covers, in greater detail, the equipment that we use to avoid being the next would-be speeding ticket prey as well as engaging in enlightened discussions on anything and everything related to the current state of traffic enforcement in the U.S. and abroad.

Happy and safe motoring, and remember, keep it between the lines!

The Speed Trap Hunter