As a happy owner of the V1, I am actually thinking about selling it to buy the 8500. My last road trip (3500 miles and 12 states) I ran into a lot of KA instant on radar!! My friend got a ticket with KA instant on with no prior warning, using my V1. I read on radartest.com that the 8500 has superior KA detection range, so that is why I want to switch. Could it help? I will miss the direction arrows but I could live without it. I read the other posts and also checked on eopinions.com and I am still unsure. Thanks in advance. Also, if interested in my V1, make an offer, $320?? ahkim@excite.com

 

In most cases radar detectors will help you but if the cop is using KA instant on radar gun then your pretty much screwed. I don't think the 8500 would have helped ur friend any either. The only real way to combat ka instant is to make sure that your not the only one on the road and that there are cars ahead of you. Hopefully the cop will have bleeped the cars ahead of you first in which case ur v1 should have no problem detecting it. There was this article that I read long time ago about the art of speeding. When I find it I will post the link. The article was pretty informative about when and how to speed to greatly reduce the risk of getting busted even with a radar detector. bottom line though... v1 or 8500 doesn't mean immunity to tickets as your friend proved. Goodluck man.

 

With instant-on, you are toast, no matter what detector you have on board. Instant-on is exactly that. The radar unit is not emitting waves until it's pointed at you and then activated. If there isn't another vehicle that the radar is targeted at, then you are the target. Both the V1 and the Escort are superb at picking up instant-on from a distance, but neither can detect it before the beam is activated.

 

Dude, instant on is just that -- INSTANT ON. No detector can detect something when it's OFF. Simply put, if you are the one and only target of a cop's instant-on radar, you will get a loud, sudden warning which basically tells you he already knows how fast you're going.

No detector is a cop detector. It just detects the radar once it's on. Instant-on foils ALL radar detectors, no matter how good.

The only way you get instant-on protection (this has helped me many times) is when he's zapping cars in front of you a mile or so, as you're approaching you pick up some leakage. If you are ever driving on the highway and you get a quick little "blurp" of KA, LOOK OUT AND SLOW DOWN IMMEDIATELY. The next one might be you, and with no warning.

/aac

 

Yep, instant-on means instant ticket if you're speeding and you're the target. IMO, it is very unwise to speed on long open stretches of road because the cops have a huge field in which to target you plus they can sit way back and select their target. You're only prayer against instant -on is if the poor guy in front of you gets beamed first. I won't lie, I speed. I'm typically 5mph over in the city, 10mph over on city highways (less places for cops to hide or target you), and 5mph over on the interstates. I have a cheap $100 Bel detector that has served me incredibly well. I use it to keep myself honest. The great thing is that it picks up KA from distances over 1.5 miles on the highway and in the city over .5 mile. That is pretty good detection if you ask me.


Dave

 

False signals are what drive me crazy. I would sacrifice a few feet of range to get rid of those damn false alarms anyday! Get the detector that is best at weeding out the false alarms. I've never owned one, but the V1 is what I'd like to have in my car.

I've had cheap detectors that beep at anything and everything. After a while, you just learn to ignore them. I don't use one anymore... Partly because of instant-on, mostly due to false alarms.

Good Luck!

 

If a cop uses Instant On, your screwed and your caught. They use laser out on the highways here in NJ. Instant on is illegal here but how are we going to prove them, cops word vs yours ya know? Anyways-there are a few ways to prevent instant on w/ laser. The laser needs to hit a flat metal surface aka your license plate and not your body. If it hits your body, the laser will bounce into another car. This is why some states you must have front plate. You can either take your front plate off or buy that clear cover that puts a glare on your plate kind of giving it a paint effect and it wont register on the gun. Just thought i would add this in.

 

If you are only going 5-10 mph over the limit, you probably don't even need to plug it in. Most times, cops don't even bother unless you are doing > 15mph over the limit.

Synki, isn't instant on the same as regular radar except that the cop turns it on for only a couple of seconds when you are in his sights? If so, then how can something as simple as a cover on your license plate deflect the radar? If that was the case, wouldn't the same thing work for regular radar? I'm not flaming you, I was just curious because I live in NJ like you and I have a hard time driving the speed limit. It doesn't sound right.

 

Instant on as in laser-Instant on laser. Flicking the switch hehe. Laser aims for your plates. It needs a flat surface that it can bounce back off of to register. Radar is just a direct hit regardless of where it hits. Laser is more accurate then radar and can tag you way further up the road. Officers needed to take a test to use laser. Laser now is used on majority of the ST cop cars. The plates deflect from laser not radar. I guess i either worded it wrong or you misread it. Oh, its ok, i'm not taking it as a flame, just misunderstanding. I was referring to laser and not so much radar.

 

Synki is right, but you misunderstood. The plate cover works for some of the lasers, not radar.

/aac

 

Different technology. Laser = Light Beam, Radar = Radio Waves.

 

Hey I owned the V1 for a year. I have owned the 8500 for about 2 months. I can tell you that the 8500 does have better range than the V1 on KA....but thats about it. Everyother band its identical.

What do I think after 2 months? I miss the arrows and I miss the counter. The 8500 is nice, and its $100 cheaper and performs better than the V1; in KA.

Ditto what everyone else has said about Instant-On. Your best defense is what you have or the 8500. YOu need to have a unit that can pick up the beams from other targets ahead of you. However, if you are his first shot...you are toast!


Have fun!
SHUMAX

 

I doubt the 8500 will save you against instant on radar especially if it's instantly on you.. I wouldn't trade the V1 in for that reason, actually I wouldn't trade any of the top three detectors for the other. Keep what you got..

The only thing that will defend you against Instant on is a radar Jammer.

 

Yes, different technology. But, technically, both are composed of waves of light.

/aac

 

Don't you mean waves of electromagnetism??

If they were both waves of light, then you can see radar, which you can't. And I would be blinded by all those radio stations!

DW

 

I guess you could also look into those radar scrambler devices. I sometimes see them advertised in car mags but never really bothered to look into it. If they work then I guess that would be your best defense against ka instant on.

 

They don't work, however.

/aac

 

Well, I guess the real question is if there was a car in front of me, say 1-2 miles in front, is it possible that the 8500 would pick it up for a moment and the V1 might completely miss it? Radartest.com claims that the 8500 and bel 980 can pick up KA radar up to 3 miles farther. Below is an excerpt:

It (Passport 8500) ferreted out the lethal digital Ka-band radar gun at 40,222 feet, a virtual tie with the BEL 980 but fully 3.2 miles before the Valentine One.

Do you think that radartest.com is accurate with their tests?

thanks.

 

I have a V1. When it comes to KA, the V1 ain't all that. More often than not when I get a KA warning, its like 2 seconds if I'm lucky. K and X band range are un-beleivable, but no one uses it anymore!! I beleive radartest.com Mr. Valentine better come up with a better KA version of the V1 for me to upgrade to soon, or else BEL 980 or Passport 8500 here I come!

DW

 

Can you see microwaves? X-rays? Gamma rays? Radio waves? They are all waves of light, although not visible light. The spectrum of visible light is but a tiny slice of all the lightwaves on the spectrum.

Radar is light, and lasers are light.

/aac

 

Someone close to me bought one (active unit) and is killing instant on almost daily in North Carolina.. He hung up his V1 for it because he was getting bombarded regularly with instant on since move to NC a few months ago..

 

The 8500 will trounce the V1 in KA. Much like runs his mouth about how his unit is able to trounce the oldies...in X band. I tell ya..the only place that I know of that uses X band is in Ohio on Interstate 71, 75, and 70. They use X and laser allllll the time. If you go out of the state its K or Ka and SOME laser.

Mike's right...his will torunce the oldies, and tie with the newbies on X and K band. Ka band? HE gets trounced!
I have picked a ka signal up 2.8 miles out in Indiana. My old V1 was lucky to give me .5 mile of warning!

Don't get me wrong...I still miss his arrows, but thats about it!

SHUMAX

 

Hmm, sounds too anectodal for my comfort. All the controlled reviews and tests show that none of them work at all.

Several reputable magazine labs have done reviews, and come to that conclusion.

/aac

 

Really?? The old reports I've seen claim only the X band works with the active units.. I guess just as the old reports show that the V1 has the best radar detection.#;>). I haven't seen it work myself but I've known this person all my life and I believe his jammer is working.. What "band" is the question I want to know.. But on my travels thru NC they use K band instant on.

 

What Synki is talking about is called a diffuser. The diffuser scatters the light beams and does not allow the lidar to get an effective reading. In short, the diffuser reduces the range that a laser can detect you.

In IL, the vast majority of the cops use Instant On (I know for a fact that certain areas have Stalkers (e.g. Elburn, IL) but there are a few municipalities (Chicago, for example) and even fewer State Police Districts (mainly around Springfield) that use Lidar.

 

I'd stay with what you have. I have a V1 and regardless of the KA detection of others, the V1 still has done me right. Most of all I like the multi radar beam detection and directional arrows. Often times, I'll be cruising through the downtown freeways picking up a false signal on X Band and roll into an X Band/Laser Trap.

The shooter of the laser hits cars, while motorcycles and cars ready for chase, crank out the X-Band thus faking out most detectors. I pick up on it right away, but without V1....I'd see false alarm....louder, louder, louder....and then WHAM! Cops and laser with lights flashing.

Also....laser doesn't need a perfectly flat surface like a license plate to be affective. shooting at a license plate from 1500 feet or even 1000 feet still yields a wide enough beam to reflect off more than just a front plate. Anything on the front will do to some degree.

Just my thoughts.

tim

 

for the COPs. Supposely it is illegal to have a license plate cover of any type. They call it tampering with the license plate. This is (of course) a scam to get easy money and there is no legal defense against it (you have to pay and you are guilty, no ifs, buts or elses). Now, it is impossible for a standing (or should I set sitting eating doughnuts) COP to tell if there is a cover on the license plate of a moving car (often over 50 mph).
What happens is that the license plate cover (a plastic one) deflects the rays from a laser gun and they cannot get a reading back, it is then when they realize that the cover is on and use the alternative excuse to suck the money out of you. In short, guilty or not they only care about the money and nothing else (well maybe the satisfaction for the power trip they are on is also there).

Hey shumax, I like your side markers. Nice job!, which ones did you use (got any other pictures?). I was thinking of installing a set myself, I considered the VW pasat, the Audi or maybe Mercedes ones, yours look nice though.

Peace

 

Here is another area that I am educated in; radar and laser. At 1500 feet a LASER beam is only 6ft wide at best. Furthermore, that LASER beam is hard to keep steady when it is balanced in a human hand.

A RADAR beam is about 1/4 mile wide at 1500ft. Your assumption that laser is as wide as you say is totally false. That's why its so difficult for your LASER detector to detect LASER. Like I said above; RADAR, 1500ft out, is 1/4mile wide and EASY for a detector to locate.

Your assumtions about the Passport 8500 are wrong too. You can set that detector up to track just as many signals as the V1. What you don't get? The great directional arrows of the V1. However, your instance that you painted about a radar trap would show up like this on the Passport 8500.

On the 8500 you would see 2 'X' band alerts that are 'false' signals as you said. Then when laser was detected it would direct all attention to laser as there is no such thing as a false laser alert. I will qualify that by saying that you CAN get a false laser alert if your unit isn't tuned right, or is pointed in DIRECT sunlight. Afterall...laser is only LIGHT waves!


My point? The 8500 does everything the V1 does performance wise, but it has MORE 'KA' range and cost $100 less. What it doesn't have is the arrows, which I will admit are very nice to have if you are worried about the office coming up from behind! From the sides? Who cares....radar can't calculate your speed from the side.


SHUMAX

 

I think there was a misunderstanding somewhere. I never indicated that the laser at 1500 ft is as wide as radar. My point is that it is wide enought to reflect off more than just a license plate that is what....12"-18" or something like that. Thus removing it or concealing it doesn't offer much protection.

Even if it is removed, most cops can still pick up on the car by aiming at the vehicle itself or the headlights which is another very common target to shoot for. Very steep angles like on a C5 Vette are tough, but do still result in pretty good reflections. All of this is according to many of my buds who are cops.

As far as keeping the beam steady....not a problem really. I'm going to lunch with my buddy today and will try again for myself. He is a Columbus Cop that does freeway patrol and back about 3 years ago let me have fun with him on a Ride Along. Took me a while, but those laser guns are dead accurate. I'll report my kills later today

His new one has little cross hairs in the site and is much easier he said. Considering he trains not only to shoot radar, but with firearms too.....I'd say most cops have no trouble holding the site on target.

tim

 

HERE ARE SOME OF THE SITES
I wish I knew this before I got my ticket last sunday


http://www.geocities.com/artofspeeding/
http://www2.deskmedia.com/~dev/speeding.phtml
http://au.yahoo.com/Recreation/Autom...ving/Speeding/
http://cars.about.com/autos/cars/c/h...0962934749.htm