attyjeff

well, I guess it seems that either a V1 or passport and you cant go wrong.

reno928s

What about Bel STI driver? Does anyone have one of them?

FastPirate

i know a guy with teh STI driver...there no reason to have one unless you are a truck driver or u live in state where radar detectors are illegal...not worth it, V1 ALL THE WAY!!!!

and someone earlier was commenting on the way teh V1 looks...personaly i like it much more than the passport...its very simple, form follows function, as for false alarms...if you have X mode off completely (which i dont because there are a few crafty cops around here that use it) you wont get any falses except for those godamn infinity FX's who have some weird kind of laser tailgating system that automaticly brakes teh car...makes the V1 go nuts...even so, you could offer me a K40 tommorrow for the same price, and i woud STILL take the V1

jmporsche944

I have the V1 and love it. I could care less about falses, i would rather it false a more and always keep me out of trouble, then to have something trying to determine if its a real signal or a false. If it annoys me i put it in logic mode.

As for the looks, ill take the metal case and badass look over a cheap plastic radar detector anyday.

michael2e

Jeff, just wanted to extend my thanks for offering this thread and sharing your learned opinion. Not every day you get to hear about the strategy from a police officer viewpoint. Any other pointers I'm sure would be well appreciated by all. Just curious about your thoughts on X band ( where I seem to get the most false alarms) - do you disable this monitoring on your detector?

George D

V1 is one of the best. It tracks multiple sources and has those arrows. Love the arrows. I've never regretted buying the best stuff.

If you don't need the arrows, spend less money and get one of the other top detectors. I need the arrows, so the V1 is my detectors of choice.

George

reno928s

Fast Pirate, My point earlier wasn't about the legalities of the radar detectors, but towards them (police) knowing when you are approaching. Many times the police were hidden behind a wall but knew I was coming. The only way they could have known was if they locked onto my radar detectors signal. That's why detctors running stealth I would think is more valuable, do you guys agree?

George D

Agree, but the best detectors detect their radar before thay can detect our detectors. I usually only rely on my detector on the highway and open stretches of road where I am, at times, completly breaking the law. Seeing that KA light and beep a mile or so ahead when I'm breaking the speed laws allows me to hit those big reds and shed 50mph in seconds. Silly, but I don't drive a highly modded 951 that is street legal just to obey speed laws when in open country out here in the awesome roads here in Arizona. I'm not reckless, but I do enjoy the abilities of my car whether it's on a track or open mountain roads.

In town in traffic, my car could be a Civic, as thats typically how it's driven.

George

attyjeff

Michael. x band is not really used anymore,......now someone on here will yell at me, but it was highly used "back in the day" I guess it was the top of the line, but as tech moves foward somethings get out dated, X and some K but mostly X are used to open doors at stores or for alarms at business. Ka seems to be the hot item right now, well in Florida, it seems harder to pick up. also I just thought I know that Fort Walton Beach (florida) police department is still using hand held stationary radar, (x-band)I asked why and they said the are paid for and work good in a small city, and the budget doesnt call more radar units.They must be 15-20 years old, but if you get a ticket there are several things to do, ONE be nice two be nice, an officer Might give you a break if you respect him or her......even if they are an ***, you will never win on the side of the road, Third, an officer will remember the *** he wrote a ticket to and he will make notes about it, if you were the avg nice person they wont remember nothing about months later. also only a number of brands are allowed to be used (in florida) approved to be used, and they MUST be tested before shift and after each ticket, and at the end of the shift, further the officer MUST keep a radar log of all the above, also the units MUST be sent off every six months to get tested, If the officer was moving the vehicle he was in MUST be certified and the officer MUST test the unit in moving mode. They are tested in stationary with tuning forks, I just saved a guy from a DUI, he was clocked using Laser, the officer was certified to use it BUT he didnt follow the statute as HOW to test it before shift, THE DEPARTMENT DIDNT EVEN KNOW, well they had it wrong......That was the Florida State Police Department. and he didnt have all the test on his log book, this was just the five minute class, I could tell you alot more, some people get mad at me for telling you this stuff, but Hell, its our rights, they wrote the law and we all have to follow it,

jmporsche944

Ill yell at you X band is used ALOT in NJ, and i believe one other state? But is rarly used elsewhere.

FastPirate

um...i dont mean to be a jerk or anything...but it is completely impossible that the cop detected u with a rdd and that way knew u were coming, he musta known another way or he was just really good at using instant on... plus the V1 doesnt emit much of a signal anyway. RDD's mostly pick up on cheaper radars, you would have to be pretty close to catch a V1.

P-Car944

If it was the older V1 ie. the 1.8 (3.813 software ver.) the V1's that are 1.8's and atleast 2 years old are very well immune to the the Spectre RDD to almost 100 feet detection range for the Spectre. That has all changed with the newer horn changes in the new V1's with a RDD (Spectre) with over 300 feet.

VWaddict

FastPirate, -Ask a radio engineer, but be careful not to spread inaccuacies. The police CAN detect radar detectors WITHOUT having a speed detection device switched on, so your detector won't alert you.

All superheterodyne radio detection circuits use a local oscillator, a fixed "intermediate" frequency away from the band that they're trying to receive.

This goes for AM radios, FM radios... everything. To see a demonstration of the effect, take two battery powered AM radios tuned to the same AM band and move them close to each other. You'll hear a 'howling' noise as they begin to pick up each others' IF circuits or local oscillators.

Radar speed detection involves TRANSMITTING a radio signal and measuring the change in the return times... the 'doppler' effect which a moving target imposes on the signal.

Radar DETECTOR detection involves simply "listening" for local oscillators or IF detection frequencies. Your detector can never tell when it's being detected itself, since the police don't need to transmit anything to detect you.

They CANNOT tell how fast you're going from the signal which your detector emits, but it does tell them that they have to get a direct bead on a reflective surface of your vehicle. The favourite point for LIDAR is the front license plate, since the 'heiegenschein' effect (reflecting light back to the source, even if it is off-axis) means that you're guaranteed a good reflection signal for doppler measurement.

The only state in the USA which I know detectors are outlawed in, is Virginia. I've turned mine off every time I drive through there, since I know the fines are significant. I've only ever been passing through for a couple of hours, so I just drive sensibly until I get out of state.

I'm an electronics engineer myself, but not a radio engineer. I do know several broadcast transmission engineers though, so if there are any further questions, I can find out more detailed information, but some of the recent information posted has been W-R-O-N-G, so I wanted to try to post some hopefully more accurate info, so people don't get the wrong impression, and think they're "safe" when they're NOT.

Keith

FastPirate

that wasnt wat i was suggestion...i wasnt suggesting that they couldnt catch someone speeding without radar turned on... i was saying that it is nearly impossible that they used a RDD to figure out if someone was coming, while sitting on the other side of a bridge or wall (assuming they were completley behind it of course which i assumed the cop was because otherwise you would see him) because it RDD's cannot detect through walls because radar doesnt go through walls between the ranges of 11 ghz and 14 ghz which is teh frequencys that are let out by most radar detectors that the RDD's pick up on.... plus correct me if im wrong (because im really not sure) in the US most RDD's are the VG2 which do not detect the valentine one (nor do i think it picks up the 6500 or the rx65, i read an article somehwere on this...ill try and find it)...personally i think the cop probably was just listening and heard an engine coming so got the instant on ready, or they waited for the car to go through and than hit the vehicle from behind ...and my conclusion is still...forget the STI driver unless your livin somewhere where its illegal to have a radar detctor or your a commercial driver

ewainwright

Thanks Keith