I might be a little late joining the coversation but ithought i'd throw my thoughts out there anyway. I frequently make long trips from the Saint Louis area up to chicago, sometimes to nashville, kansas city, etc I travel atleast 2 times per month and have for the last year. Having been busted for speeding my fair share of times i figured it was time to even the odds.
There is no substitute for a good radar detector. I use a Belpro65 and wouldn't leave home without it. Sure there are instances where the officer may use instant on radar, or even POP(although you can't write a ticket off of POP radar as far as i know) but those instances are going to be few and far between. Someone on the first page of this thread gave some excellent tips on how to drive and i would have to agree with him 100%.
Never speed up hills or around blind corners because those are the prime spots for the officers to sit. And most importantly always keep a "rabbit" or what i call "bear-bait" out in front of you. If you have someone running 85 let him get about 1/4-1/3 mile ahead of you. He will get hit with radar long before you do giving your detector time to go off and you time to slow down.
I also bring along a scanner more for entertainment purposes than for avoiding the police. Generally speaking the only time a scanner is going to help you is if #1 there is a large speedtrap setup and you are constantly hearing other motorists plates run, as the frequency gets clearer you know you are getting closer, or #2 you hear the lone cop of the side of the road who just nailed a speeder and you are lucky enough to hear him call out his current location. It is nice to know in advance where the officer is sitting, allbeit he just pulled over someone else, but he might be done and waiting for the next sucker when you come speeding past.
I run a cb in my truck which is great for avoiding traffic problems but you need a good CB antenna to really make it worth your time. When i use mine it does a good job and does alert me to where the troopers might be hiding, but the cops are on the move all the time, and knowing that there "was" a cop sitting at milepost 250 and i'm at say milepost 200 isn't really that valuable of information.
If you want a nice little unit you all might try the BCT-12 if you can find one on ebay. They are about the same size as a radar detector and alert you with a 0-9signal meter of nearby transmissions from highway patrol. It is a basic unit with 50 state plus canada preprogrammed in it, and there is no way of changing anything in its memory. It also has DOT, news, wx, etc search banks. I don't use mine so much anymore because its hard to say how uptodate the preprogrammed frequencies are. The model came out i believe in the mid 90's and was discontinued sometime ago. It worked decent for me in Missouri, but back in its hayday(prolly 10 years ago) it was considered better than sliced bread
Also, one more note about using a scanner for travelling, it is a pain in the a$$ to program a trip from your home town to anywhere, and then once you get back home reprogram your scanner back to the way it was with your local frequencies. With a 246 or similar it wouldn't be so bad because it has a huge memory. However i also have a BCT-8 and 5 banks just isn't enough memory to store your local frequencies plus other states highwaypatrol/sheriff/whatever else you want to listen to.
Hope that helps, radar detector is your best bet if you really need to speed. That and not driving like a moron and paying attention to your surroundings.
