My Bulgaria: Forums

brianj42 · Mega User! Joined: Oct 20, 2005 Posts: 2645

Easier to post a new topic rather than mess about with the continuous technical glitch thats says "No Topic Exists"...

Following on from the "France Breathalyzer" post. Speed Camera Detection

For the purposes of clarification as I know that the whole technology of speed camera (Cash cow technology) detection can be quite confusing initially. There are three devices which aid the motorist as far as speed cameras are concerned.

A: Radar detector. This fits on the dash or in my case behind the front grill. It detects live cameras that omit radar signals whether static or mobile. They do not detect digital ones though. This is legal in BG and the Uk and is particularly useful in BG as they tend to use silly old handheld ones which it detects quite nicely thank you. I do recommend getting one for BG.... As per the list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_detector they are illegal in most western EU countries.....In France, the police have been known not to fine motorists, but make them remove the detector and make you drive over it.....

B: GPS/SAT NAV. The sat nav camera locations is built into the software itself and ONLY reports cameras that are in the software. It DOES NOT detect mobile cameras, cameras that have been added since your last software upgrade, or basically cameras that it has not been told about. To keep up todate with camera locations you need to regularly update your sat nav software...You can buy an add on for some sat navs that feed live camera information but this is very expensive...

C: Jammer. Again, these are another device that fits on the dash, or in my case, behind the front grill of the car. They omit conflicting radar signals at speed cameras and basically block the camera so it cannot ascertain your speed and therefore cannot detect/catch you. As such, because they transmit rather than detect, they are illegal virtually worldwide only exceptions being countries that don't give a hoot or they don't need/want to rip off motorists.

So there you have it. Three technologies which are legal in some countries, illegal in others. Some countries do police the issue and others don't give a fig. BUT, Western European police have been known to step up the anti at times to bring in extra cash, this IS A KNOWN FACT.

In the Uk they reckon there are about 500,000 jammers fitted on cars but to date there have been NO successful prosecutions.

There endeth todays lesson. Go well, drive careful, avoid the fines.....