Who's got what radar detector...how good it's worked for them...thinking about getting the Vatlentine 1.....also, which one's got the female voice alert?

 

Not sure which one has the female voice stuff, but the Passport 8500 is considered the current state of the art. The Valentine 1 is an old design and it works, but it doesn't really keep up anymore.

 

Thats what I've heard of V1 as well. I personally have Bell 980 and it works great, it also got voice alert but its annoying, I turned it off. Look more into Bell 980, its got some great features.

 

I have the Uniden Stealth 767... that is the best radar detector I ever had. It picked up every trooper on my way to and from Orlando. Virginia sucks cuz they outlawed radar detectors but that god NY hasn't made it illegal cuz i'd be screwed

 

Thats another thing that makes Passport 8500 so good... it has the full anti radar-detector detector (VG2). So even when driving throught these states they can't see that you have a radar.

 

I have had both the V1 and the 8500. The 8500 has a little better range, especially in KA. They both false a bit in Ka, but the V1 falses more! The V1 arrows ar cool, but the shape and design of the V1 is Butt Fugly! The 8500 has more programming features and costs about $100 less. They both hold their vaule well....check out EBAY and see for yourself!

SHUMAX

 

i have the 8500, and it has saved me a few times. best feature -- the display that shows you multiple signals at the same time, something like 2Ka, 2K, and 3X. its cool when you see all of them pop up....

another cool thing, the cig. lighter power cord, has this mute button on the top of the plug, so when you get a signal, and you dont want it to keep beeeping, you just slide the right hand from the shifter and give it a push to silence the detector. it also has a blinking LED to indicate that a signal is being picked up (so you can totally dim the top display).


dfwmax

 

I have the Cobra with the female voice alert, what a piece of junk! Even in highway mode, I usually spot the cops long before the thing alarms.

Monday I saw lasar up close and personal for the first time. I was on I-10 and passed a State Trooper that was parked on the shoulder. He was leaning on his trunk lid trying out his new lasar gun. I passed within 10 feet from him and my detector never went off.

 

www.radartest.com

DW

 

ive been lasered several times.... once there was a trooper on the side of the road, and we were all travelling in a pack (just 7mph above speed limit), and i guess he decided to laser me for fun (??). does anyone know if the laser gun can be continously on? or is it always a one shot?

another time, i think i picked off a reflection(?), the cop was maybe 500ft away, and i was behind another car when we got scanned. we were both doing about 80 in a 65, but the cop didnt do anything to us.

since the laser is a very selective (narrow target area), any detection of laser will have the 8500 screaming at you. ok, maybe not screaming, but ringing (it sounds like a cell phone ringer for laser). the first time it went off, i went for my phone and not the brakes.....


dfwmax

 

i have the bel 855. it has a male alert. it's a good detector. i'd rather have the valentine 1 or the female voice alert also. i heard one of the uniden's has a hottie voice.

 

There's some web site out there that is just a radar detector review/comparison.
Seemed pretty unbiased.
I thought I had the URL, but I just looked and can't find it.
Sorry.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Also one of the auto mags [Car & Driver maybe?]
did a comparison pretty recently.
All the top models had advantages/disadvantages.
And you have to factor in cost too.
[or, maybe you don't?]

Anyway, I have the V1.
It is kind of big [but smaller than I thought it would be].

And yes Shumax, it isn't the best looking...

I really appreciate the directional arrows, helps a lot.
I also got the remote/stealth display.
Haven't installed it yet, but I will, I will

 

I thought this would be an amazingly good unit for the price, based on Uniden's history. It's very cool looking, has a very useful display, but... after a year of use I have had two missed signals when I thought I should have had one.

On Amazon, a reviewer conducted a test with his Passport 4500 and LRD767 side by side. He said that on one particular radar trap, the Passport screamed and the Uniden was mute. He promptly returned the unit after that. Now, there are many questions one could ask, such as positioning--were they both aimed in the same place? If it was laser, which is a precise beam, did it strike close enough for the Passport to go off but not the Uniden?

The two features I like about it are the digital compass and the SWS band, which come in very handy. It also allows a good range of muting and dimming.

If you are a speed demon, where you just can't be happy without cruising at least 20mph over the speed limit in local and highway roads, get a Passport. Otherwise, the Uniden LRD767 is a reasonably priced alternative.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fast97maxse
[B]There's some web site out there that is just a radar detector review/comparison.
Seemed pretty unbiased.
I thought I had the URL, but I just looked and can't find it.
Sorry.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?



www.speedzones.com may provide you with some useful information, as they recently tested the top models of radar detectors/jammers.

 

www.speedzones.com may provide you with some useful information, as they recently tested the top models of radar detectors/jammers. [/B][/QUOTE]

yeah, I think that was the site
but I thought it had a side-by-side comparison chart...
Maybe that was in the magazine article?

Also check out
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/165.html

 

i have the Uniden 360.. i think its called that.. worked prett d@mn good so far. better then my friends passport his dads V1.. this is how we tested....

they put a little "cop box" up in my neighborhood so we took a splitter thing and plugged that into my outlet thing, we then put 2 radars up at a time right next to eachother and drove towards the box starting from about a mile away.. my uniden went off first, then we went around a corner and drove towards the box and my radar went off first again.. we tried this test about 5x's with my uniden against the v1 then about 5x's against the passport...mine came up victorious each time...just some of our tests.....

 

The reason your Uniden did that was because of automatic filtering inside the V1 and the Passport.

The V1 and the passport have a circuit that 'quells' it's detecting ability when it entounters a constant radar 'noise.' All detectors emit a signal that is very faint; that how the VG2 (radar detector-detector) can locate a car with a radar detector. When the V1 or the Passport line 'hears' that constant noise from another unit(your Uniden) near by, it filters the signal out and cuts down on the range; much like a city button, or Logic in the case of the V1. Your Uniden has nothing of this sort and is one of a few detectors that annoys me on the highway I am constantly finding that Unidens and Cobras set off my V1 and my 8500 because they are generally poorly made. I know because I speed up to see what other motorists have in their car that is setting my unit off. As soon as they are past me the warning on my units vanishes---you tell me, is it them or the squirl with a radar gun on the side of the road?!
So your test is void. If the V1 and the Passport line didn't have this feature, you would have been able to see them trounce your Uniden. Don't believe me? Go to www.valentineone.com and read about it from Mike himself.

Good luck...stick with a Passport or the V1 and you won't be unhappy!

SHUMAX

 

I'm probably going to get a Passport SR-1 once I've saved up a bit. http://www.passportsr1.com/ has all the info.

 

I have both a V1 and Bell 980.....Both are good but the V1 is much nicer for actually knowing where to look for the cop. When the 980 goes off you dont know where the heck to look. The V1 you know if tis in front or behind you. The cops around here use Ka moving all the time and one could be behind you 2 miles and with the 980 you are looking and looking but the V1 tells you. Its nice to know exactly when you pass a radar unit like the V1 shows....with the 980 you wonder......more ahead or remnants of the one you just passed???? My choice is V1 but both give enough notice in normal situations. Instant on your toast, unless he hits a car in front of you before....once again the V1 says its in front....the 980 its anywhere....could be 4 miles to your left or behind.

 

My Uniden came with that VG2 thing

 

lets see... so be exact.. i have the uniden 6499SWS.. it says "Detects Laser, X, K, KA SuperWideband + VG 2 undetectable!" so im trying to think of what you were sayin...

lets say there are 3 cars driving side by side down a 3 lane road towards a cop with his radar gun out aiming right at us...since mine is VG2 undetectable and the passport and v1 are filtering out my VG2... my radar would go off first where the V1 and passport are less effective to the cops radar since they are filtering out my VG2 and lessening the range..right? am i making sense?

i guess buying a radar is really a big 'opinion' issue now huh? since in my area, about every other car has a radar detector, and since my radar does not detect other VG2s, my radar would be more effective in my scenario..right?

and correct me if im using the term "VG2" wrong....

 

I got a whistler 1585 I think it was the first with sws and voice alerts. It has vg2, all the bands and laser. Never failed yet plus I have it wired to my fuse box and ran it up one of the side posts, it sits just above the mirror. I put mine there cause it's out of site so it won't get "borrowed", I think it was about $230 now Whistler has the 1600 models out from $99-200+ which don't have many false alerts.
Whistlers are highly recommended by audio and car shops. I used to work fo circuit ****ty so I went with the audio peoples recommendations.

 

I got the V1, and have yet to see it fail... It was great on the runs to Vegas... And even better for just runs on the highway... I would hate to get clocked while running sumone... V1 in my own opinion...

 

I think you ought to lower your detector a few inches.
If it sits behind the blue tint-strip it can interfere
with the signals it is supposed to be receiving.
If that makes you worried about some scum walking off w/ it
[certainly a possibility] you can always take it down
and stick under the seat or in the glovebox
- or take it w/ you.

Also - for those with the V1...
The V1 is heavy and mine sometimes just falls off.
Those suction cup things suck.
Or, rather, they don't always suck very well.
I got some of that heavy duty velcro stuff
[like you get w/ the EZ-Pass thing]
at Radio Shack and I'm going to replace the cups
w/ this stuff.

 

VG2 is nothing more than a name for a function. When you have VG2 it can detect a radar detector-detector devise and shut it's self off internally until the threat has passed---you will receive no radar warning while this happens. My Passport beeps with a disticnt warning when it detects a radar detector-detector and then shuts itself down. It does no good if you have the unit on the windshield with the cord visible---the cop can still see it. Mine is hardwired and you can't see it at all.

As far as three cars driving the SAME direction down a THREE lane highway? It shouldn't make your unit go into STEALTH mode unless it picks up the signal. Like I said before, my Passport 8500 and V1 both pick thos detectors up when they are within 100ft of me and it won't stop going off until they are outside of 100ft. I even had a cobra unit set mine off about 5-700 ft. away!!!

If your unit has VG2 is will just 'hide' itself when it 'sees' one of those radar detector-detector guns....nothing more, nothing less. What I am talking about is a circuitry function that the V1 and Passport line has that filters out 'junk' signals from 'leaky' detectors like the Unidens and Cobras that I have had experiences with. I guess you could say it doesn't work all that well b/c it still goes off. But it might be working and only allowing for me to hear it when its within 100ft....who knows??

SHUMAX

 

I haven't had any problems with the blue tint impairing the signal so I never been ticketed yet. I had the radar in the same place back when I had my 3rd gen. So I've been ticket-free for about 3yrs. regardless of the position. thanks for the heads up anyway though. Besides I don't like to move the detector cause it's hardwired.

 

know what I really want?
A super rader jammer -
it wouldn't just jam the radar gun,
it would actually melt the electronics inside.