radar detector
1st Gear Member
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 112
From:
1st Gear Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 116
From:
RE: radar detector
Go to www.radardetector.net.
I am a moderator there.
We are a group of people who actually test different radar detectors on a regluar basis.
For $200 I recommend looking at the Whistler XTR 690 or Whistler PRO 78.
Both of these units have been very impressive in testing we have done, The best bang for your $
If you want the best then save the money for the Valentine 1 unit but that will set you back about $400.
Stay away from the Cobra's they are one of the worse detectors out there.
They leak emmissions and cause other radar detecotors to alert when you are by someone in a car that has a Cobra detector.
As for the KD40 that was mentioned all I am going to say is that is one expensive detector that does not perform any better than some of the units that cost less than half of what the KD40 cost.
I am a moderator there.
We are a group of people who actually test different radar detectors on a regluar basis.
For $200 I recommend looking at the Whistler XTR 690 or Whistler PRO 78.
Both of these units have been very impressive in testing we have done, The best bang for your $
If you want the best then save the money for the Valentine 1 unit but that will set you back about $400.
Stay away from the Cobra's they are one of the worse detectors out there.
They leak emmissions and cause other radar detecotors to alert when you are by someone in a car that has a Cobra detector.
As for the KD40 that was mentioned all I am going to say is that is one expensive detector that does not perform any better than some of the units that cost less than half of what the KD40 cost.
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 9
From:
RE: radar detector
You can probably find an Escort Passport 8500 X50 on eBay pretty cheap. Escort has a new detector out, the 9500i, so there may be 8500 owners who want to upgrade and are selling on eBay. I've owned both (still have the 9500i) and am very pleased with their performance.
6th Gear Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 6,936
From:
RE: radar detector
how many others have a laser diffuser?
I have only been moderatly happy with my whistler 3450. It looks great but I wish I had another radar sensor. They parked a "Your speed is" sign around the corner from me so I spend a weekend tweeking the sensor to get the best reception, it sucks from the rear.
I have only been moderatly happy with my whistler 3450. It looks great but I wish I had another radar sensor. They parked a "Your speed is" sign around the corner from me so I spend a weekend tweeking the sensor to get the best reception, it sucks from the rear.
ORIGINAL: boomerman
Go to www.radardetector.net.
I am a moderator there.
We are a group of people who actually test different radar detectors on a regluar basis.
For $200 I recommend looking at the Whistler XTR 690 or Whistler PRO 78.
Both of these units have been very impressive in testing we have done, The best bang for your $
If you want the best then save the money for the Valentine 1 unit but that will set you back about $400.
Stay away from the Cobra's they are one of the worse detectors out there.
They leak emmissions and cause other radar detecotors to alert when you are by someone in a car that has a Cobra detector.
As for the KD40 that was mentioned all I am going to say is that is one expensive detector that does not perform any better than some of the units that cost less than half of what the KD40 cost.
Go to www.radardetector.net.
I am a moderator there.
We are a group of people who actually test different radar detectors on a regluar basis.
For $200 I recommend looking at the Whistler XTR 690 or Whistler PRO 78.
Both of these units have been very impressive in testing we have done, The best bang for your $
If you want the best then save the money for the Valentine 1 unit but that will set you back about $400.
Stay away from the Cobra's they are one of the worse detectors out there.
They leak emmissions and cause other radar detecotors to alert when you are by someone in a car that has a Cobra detector.
As for the KD40 that was mentioned all I am going to say is that is one expensive detector that does not perform any better than some of the units that cost less than half of what the KD40 cost.
1st Gear Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 116
From:
RE: radar detector
Bel makes a 955 and Radio shack use to sale the Bel 755 (sames as the bell 955) for under $100.
Both of these units are less than half of the KD 40 and performed just as well in X band and was performed better in the K band.
KA band they were pretty much tied and when it came to laser the KD 40 was almost blind to laser.
I had to aim my laser gun right at the unit for it to even register laser.
Not that it really matters with laser since you are pretty much pegged once your radar detector goes off but you might get lucky and pick up some scatter from the laser from better detectors.
The 2 units I suggested from Whistler can be bought for around $125-$150 that are far superior to the KD 40.
While not quite half the price but still a much better unit for a LOT cheaper than the KD 40 series.
Doczenith1 is right you may find a good deal on the Escort 8500X out on Ebay but be careful a lot of the models are flaking out and giving a Self calibration error, which means they have issues and have to be returned to Escort to be repaired.
Since it was bought used you would be responsible for the cost of the repairs.
Also the 9500I has some firmware issues that you should be aware of Doczenith1.
What is happening is when you block out a certain "false alert" in an area it is blocking the whole range of the radar band.
Example, if you are getting a K band alert at a certain frequency and you block it out, it ends up blocking the whole K band frequency and it becomes blind.
So what is happening is you think everything is fine because you are no longer getting any alerts because you blocked out the bad one and along comes a real radar and your detector does not sound because it blocked out the whole band. Next think you know you are being pulled over and your detector is not alerting to the radar.
Another issue is sometimes the GPS looses connection with the satellite under heavy cloud conditions and it does not remember where you blocked out certain areas and it may report falses in the same area that you blocked out until it can re establish communications with the satellite.
I have even see it loose all of its stored locations that you put in after not being able to communicate with the satellite and you power it down before it gets a chance to re establish communications.
Escort still has some major bugs to fix with this unit, I think once they do it could be a fantastic unit.
As a reminder to everyone, NO radar detector is 100% foolproof, especially with instant on radar.
Both of these units are less than half of the KD 40 and performed just as well in X band and was performed better in the K band.
KA band they were pretty much tied and when it came to laser the KD 40 was almost blind to laser.
I had to aim my laser gun right at the unit for it to even register laser.
Not that it really matters with laser since you are pretty much pegged once your radar detector goes off but you might get lucky and pick up some scatter from the laser from better detectors.
The 2 units I suggested from Whistler can be bought for around $125-$150 that are far superior to the KD 40.
While not quite half the price but still a much better unit for a LOT cheaper than the KD 40 series.
Doczenith1 is right you may find a good deal on the Escort 8500X out on Ebay but be careful a lot of the models are flaking out and giving a Self calibration error, which means they have issues and have to be returned to Escort to be repaired.
Since it was bought used you would be responsible for the cost of the repairs.
Also the 9500I has some firmware issues that you should be aware of Doczenith1.
What is happening is when you block out a certain "false alert" in an area it is blocking the whole range of the radar band.
Example, if you are getting a K band alert at a certain frequency and you block it out, it ends up blocking the whole K band frequency and it becomes blind.
So what is happening is you think everything is fine because you are no longer getting any alerts because you blocked out the bad one and along comes a real radar and your detector does not sound because it blocked out the whole band. Next think you know you are being pulled over and your detector is not alerting to the radar.
Another issue is sometimes the GPS looses connection with the satellite under heavy cloud conditions and it does not remember where you blocked out certain areas and it may report falses in the same area that you blocked out until it can re establish communications with the satellite.
I have even see it loose all of its stored locations that you put in after not being able to communicate with the satellite and you power it down before it gets a chance to re establish communications.
Escort still has some major bugs to fix with this unit, I think once they do it could be a fantastic unit.
As a reminder to everyone, NO radar detector is 100% foolproof, especially with instant on radar.
1st Gear Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 116
From:
RE: radar detector
ORIGINAL: ttocs
how many others have a laser diffuser?
I have only been moderatly happy with my whistler 3450. It looks great but I wish I had another radar sensor. They parked a "Your speed is" sign around the corner from me so I spend a weekend tweeking the sensor to get the best reception, it sucks from the rear.
how many others have a laser diffuser?
I have only been moderatly happy with my whistler 3450. It looks great but I wish I had another radar sensor. They parked a "Your speed is" sign around the corner from me so I spend a weekend tweeking the sensor to get the best reception, it sucks from the rear.
While is it nice that is a remote install and you can mount the antenna hidden but depending on how it is mounted, the grill or other things can actually block the antenna which will shorten the detection range.
Most radar detectors rear detection is fair at best.
The only one that has a seperate rear radar and laser antenna is the Valentine 1.
Most of the other manufactures cheat and use the front antenna and put some clear plastic and a cheap mirror inside and it will reflect rear radar to the front antenna and try to say it has a rear antenna when it really does not.
It amazes me when I take radar detectors apart and see what kind of cheesy and down right scams they try to use on them.
A laser defuser does help but I would not depend on it alone, I would recommend you look at Veil (http://www.laserveil.com/) and some kind of laser jammer if your area has laser in use.
Speaking of laser jammers The ones from Rocky Mountain Radar DO NOT WORK!
We have all heard their ads and seen them, they call it the Phantom or Phantom II or Phantom III.
They also say the scamble radar, and they do not.
They say they uses a FM chirp to scramble radar, but since FM and radar are on 2 seperate frequencies how would it scramble radar?
Kind of like saying that AM radio could scramble FM.radio.
These things are no better than a shoebox with a brick in it.