Originally Posted by OC Xfire
I was told directly from a sheriff friend here in Southern California that they aim their radar guns at the front license plate, so the lower your detector, the better off you'll be in picking up the signal.
I have mine mounted where the sensor is just above the windshield wipers and I've never had a problem. I normally pick up the signal around corners as well.
I guess if it's illegal to have one in your state then mounting it up high is the only option.
They do aim for your front license plate or headlights.
You're a bit misguided with this though. For RADAR, putting it as high as you can on your windshield will give you the best results / detection. You can research this more if you'd like because I don't want to type pages on why this is.
For LASER, putting it as low as you can closer to your headlights, bumper, or front license plate will give you the best detection. It should also be noted that since LASER is such a NARROW BEAM, that is has almost ZERO scatter. That means if you do get a laser hit, 99.9% of the time the officer ALREADY HAS your speed and you should expect a ticket if you're speeding considerably.
Now, mount low for laser detection vs mount high for radar detection.
If you do not have any laser jammers, then all your radar detector is going to do is notify you that you're going to get a ticket if you're speeding, which, chances are, you are if the officer is using laser to get your speed.
That is why you should place your radar detector as high as you can to get the best possible detection, if you have no other laser countermeasure, then it's completely useless to put it down low.
And if a radar detector is illegal in your state (Va, Washington D.C) you can best believe they will use RDD (radar detector detectors, spectre II) to locate it. There are only a handful (talking a max of 5 here) of RD that are immune to this (Bel STI-R, and the 9500CI are two examples).
Just mounting it out of sight if you're driving in VA is a STUPID thing to do, and you're sure to get a ticket on the highway if you don't have a RDD immune device, the Bel STI-R is the only windshield mount RD I believe that is..
Check out radardetector.net, it'll have everything you need to know.