ptiemann's Full Review: Cobra Electronics ESD 6050 Radar Detector
(This epinion has to be moved in the 6200 category where posting is not possible yet.)
* The market
* Installation
* Advertising vs facts
* City driving
* Highway driving
* 'Success' stories
* Are detectors 'ok'? Recommendation
* The market
I bought the Cobra ESD 6200 half a year ago and will finally write my longly announced epinion on it. Back then I went to the local SEARS store where they had a selection of models priced from $59 to $199. I chose the Cobra for $120 because from my un-informed perspective, it seemed to have all the features that the $199 model had. I know now that there are other models in the $400 range, with the Valentine 'V1' being one of the best.
* Installation
Installation of detectors is a snap - take it out of the box, place it on the dashboard on a high spot and connect it to the cigarette lighter. It's important to put it on the highest spot on the dashboard because the detection does not work if the sensor does not have free "view" - the rays pass through glass but not through metal. So I made sure that it was not sitting behind the windshield-wiper and that there was visibility through the rear window too.
You can run into problems if there is metal in your windshield because you have a heating system which presents a barrier to the rays.
Know that a detector will drain your battery as I realized when I came back from my 3-week vacation.
* Advertising vs facts
Cobra advertises that the ESD 6200 covers six bands. Actually, there are only 3 bands:
1) X-Band - classic photo radar
2) K-Band - classic radar or informational messages
3) Ka-Band - 'STALKER' radar, is accompanied by Lidar alert
How can Cobra claim 6? They added:
4) Lidar (commonly known as 'Laser')
5) VG2 - see below
6) Safety Alert - they operate on certain frequencies in the K-Band.
I get X alerts when driving in the city with the sensitivity set to 'high'. The security systems in gas stations and shops usually trigger that as a false alarm. I had only two X alerts in 6 months that actually came from a police car. On freeways in the Silicon Valley, they have counting devices at the ramps that will trigger such X alerts also.
The K alerts are much like the X alerts. Usually wrong alarm. Here in California, the police departments sometimes puts those neat informational units telling you your current speed versus the speed limit as you drive by - for educational purposes. Often there is a police car closeby.
These units trigger a K alert.
Ka alert - watch your speed. I have never had a Ka alert that was wrong alarm. It always comes with a laser chirp, and the manual simply says: There ARE no false signals
Police uses them on highways and interstates.
VG2 alert is detection of detector-detectors :-) There are units that the police uses to spot radar detectors. Advanced models and also the Cobra 6200 automatically go in a stealth mode when they spot a VG2 signal; the voice will say 'VG2 alert' and you have no X or K-protection for a while. The laser protection remains, though. Cobra claims that it goes in stealth mode before the police's VG2 system sees you. I've had maybe 3 such VG2-alerts in 6 months.
The safety alerts are a marketing trick in my opinion. They include a train alert, speeding emergency vehicle (ambulance) or road hazard. I've had only once received a train alert - on my driveway! The ambulances here in California seem not to send out the expected signal, so I consider these safety alerts as non-existent for me.
* City driving
I don't speed in the city, so I could turn the detector off.
The detector actually has a city- and a highway-mode. In city mode the sensitivity on X and K-Band is lowered to avoid false alerts. That seems to work, when I switch to city mode, I don't get an alert when approaching a gas station. But I'm too worried that I might forget to set it back to highway mode when entering the highway. So I rather tolerate a few false alerts, reminding me to drive careful.
(Also I don't drive much in the city anyway.)
* Highway driving
Here is, where it kind of 'pays off' - looking at how much one single speeding ticket costs. Wrong alerts are possible, like at ramps in the Silicon Valley (X alert) or on I-5 through LA where there are stores very close to the street (X, K alerts).
All bands are in the microwave range (10, 24 and 36 Giga-Hertz, Laser even 300+ Tera-Hertz) which mean that the waves don't bend or in other words, the detector cannot look around a corner. People from the South Bay Area will know Highway 17, very curvy, a detector will react in the last moment, but it works.
No detector will help you if there is a police car standing and waiting without activated radar. They sometimes just wait for a speeder come by and then briefly use their laser gun on you. So, no, it is NOT a license to speed.
Side notes:
The Cobra ESD 6200 has an outlet for an external speaker e.g. a headset. What is that for?
When you're speeding on a freeway with roof taken off or lowered windows/ open sunroof, loud music then there is so much noise that you won't hear the acustic signal anymore. There are 8 LEDs giving optical warning but that does not work for me. The cheaper detectors do not offer the extra outlet.
* 'Success' stories
On that Highway 17, speed limit 45 due to the many curves, but most people speed. It was in March, when I returned from the airport in San Jose and in a curve the voice said 'Ka alert' and the laser chirp. I instantly lowered my speed which was not easy because people were behind me and half a second later, there they were at the end of the curve, ready to issue tickets.
I bet some drivers behind me were glad as well. I sighed and smiled on the inner side passing while passing him, thinking to write this epinion.
I also drove a few times to LA and back. There's this 250 mile stretch between San Jose and San Bernadino where the speed limit is 70mph (interstate 5). I5 is a 100% straight line, flat land, no exits for many miles - made to speed.
In the afternoon, traffic moves in the right lane at 80, in the left lane at 95mph. At 2am, it is basically the same, just with less traffic, so basically there is no slow right lane :-)
So there I was, peacefully cruising along when I got that Ka and laser alert. I knew there is 'no false laser alert', so I pulled in the right lane between two semi trucks. I maintained 70 for quite a while and finally believed that my detector did not handle the sun very well. No police car! After several minutes (!), at least 2 miles, there they were, two cars pulled over.
This happened in this way on all my trips to Southern California.
* Are detectors 'ok'? Recommendation
First off: I don't speed in the city. Just yesterday someone yelled at me for obeying the speed limit (25), something like 'Why do you have such a car?'.
It's not so much to avoid tickets, but I feel that speeding in the city is too dangerous. Something unexpected can happen all the time, and the human body is not made to react to things happening at 30mph. Speeding in urban environments also means more noise.. I try to use my bike as often as I can.
I do admit that on freeways the detector saves me probably once a month. Using a detector is legally ok in the USA, according to the Communication Act of 1934. Morally it means that I follow today's trend that you can commit any crime as long as I get away with it. Telling lies until being caught seems not to disqualify from highest political offices but I don't want to justify it with that. It's morally not ok; I do it though. Looking at how cheap those gadgets are, I am surprised that not everybody has one. If that would happen, the police would use them different (selective activation or monitoring by aircraft).
The manufacturers write this nonsense like (quoted material):
'Driving in today's congested traffic conditions, often in quite a modern car, concentrating on the traffic around you or your next appointment means that it is easy to drive into a restricted zone without noticing the change in speed limits. Therefore advanced warning through radar detection could prevent you from driving dangerously... which is in everybody's interest.'
End of quote - may I laugh?
I can recommend the Cobra ESD 6200. It is an inexpensive detector, has voice and visual alerts, the external speaker jack and the computer's voice (female, like the one on my never-personalized-answering machine); is not too obnoxious.
It seems to detect over quite a distance and from what I have read meanwhile, its sensitivity is surpassed only by models in the $300+ range.
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