From: steve@ScuderiaCiriani.com
Date: June 13, 1999

Since Valentine is no longer making the G-Analyst, one of the companies that made software for it, GEEZ, is now making the hardware as well. You can get the complete Racer's Bundle for $395, including the G-Cube (hardware), GEEZ software, and G-Dyno software for capturing dyno-type data.

The concensus is that the Valentine One is the detector of choice. Other detectors may do an adequate job, but not anywhere near as good as the Valentine. C&D rated it way above anything else. No use skimping on this.

These work, but too late to do any good. By the time the alarm goes off, you are most likely toast.

Available with most radar detectors, or as an additional cost option to them.

Not many (if any of them) do much good.

The laser techniques, such as the license plate bracket one, do actually work, especially if your car has very few reflective surfaces (e.g.- chrome, non-pop up headlights, etc).

Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 02:00:37 -0500 From: David Liberman

I promised I would write about this interesting little box, so here it is.

My trooper-evasion arsenal includes a Uniden Beartracker BCT-10 Police Scanner. This little black box, about the size of an inflated radar detector offers two features: a pre-programmed police and weather scanner, and a Mobile Extender Alert. It also has six buttons on top, two led displays on the front, a removable whip antenna, a suction-mount windshield antenna, external speaker jack, etc. When used with a conventional radar detector, you have a distinct advantage over the forces of evil that patrol our highways.

The scanner portion comes with 866 pre-programmed freequencies, including all fifty states and the Canadian provinces. Setting the device for the state of your current location is as simple as pressing a button while watching the display scroll through the choices. You can choose to listen to either highway patrol frequencies, local police and highway patrol, or public weather channels. A knob on the side adjusts the volume of the somewhat tinny speaker. And, since many frequencies broadcast garbage in various forms, the Beatracker gives you the ability to lock out up to fifty unwanted frequencies.

The Mobile Extender feature only applies to highway patrol departments that use these short-range radios. In these areas, when a highway patrolman steps away from his car, signals to and from the patrol car are sent to their portable radios via the mobile extender. The BCT-10 picks up these signals. Using a numeric range display, you can determine the distance of the radio emissions. This can be very sensitive within short distances, but has a range of about three miles.

Properly utilizing the Beartracker involves developing a mental picture of the patrol environment around you. For example, listening to highway patrol frequencies, you can determine the general distance of specific patrol cars based upon the strength of their replies to the dispatcher. No reply from a patrolman, or a very weak one means that they are far enough away that you don't have to worry. A crisp transmission however, ensures that he is nearby. If the department is using mobile extenders, you will likely get additional alerts from the BCT-10 when the patrol car is very close.

One major caveat. Don't rely on the mobile extender feature until you've seen it in action. That's how you'll know if mobile extenders are in use. They don't use them in Alabama, so I've never had the thing go off, except a couple of times when I'm cresting a hill near several transmission towers. But on my Florida trip, the BCT-10 paid for itself about twenty times over. Often, it would go off about thirty seconds before my radar detector! With this little box, you have the ability to sniff out troopers when they are not using their radar. And, considering the proliferance of Florida Highway Patrol, I had plenty of opportunities to see it in action.

There is a new model out, the BCT-12. I don't know if it offers more features, but it has probably had the frequencies updated. The street price on this gem is somewhere around $150, and is available from various electronics specialty sources. Even if you don't have mobile extenders in your area, the weather bands, along with the ability to listen to them call your license plate in, is worth the price.