I figure instead of posts on which detector is best, we should have one on how to use your detector to the fullest. If you don't know how to drive with one, even with a V1 or 8500 won't mean anything when you get your ticket handed to you
Here is a very common scenario to start us out:

Scenario:
You get a brief X,K,Ka blip. You are on local roads. No malls/restaurants/hospitals in sight. Must be instant on, so you slow to normal speed. Given the detection range of a good detector, could be a mile or so you picked up the faint blip, even around a curve. So you cruise, watching the odo for a mile or so (remember, local roads it could take a few minutes to go a mile+)

 

When that baby goes off, the attention goes to full alert and I slow down. Saved me many times.

I have noticed that many cops in NJ, leave their radar on all the time just to set the detectors off so you will slow down.
*edit* Correct many miss-spelled words*

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: gto2050 ]

 

Have have had many dectors in the past- Passports, Bell's, Cobra's
It's sorta like fishing, you have to feel out
the signal that is being x-mitted and determine what is real radar or laser hits.
Laser being the hardest because of the units control buy the trooper. Kinda like shooting ducks at a carnival.

Keep in mind that supermarkets and hospitals use motion detectors to open their front doors so that will set them off sometimes.
Just keep it cool when you get a progressive signal. The thing that is going get you though is the VASCAR, no detection there.

Drive fast!, use all the tools!!

 

Ahaaa! This is where the V1 with directional arrows will set it apart from the rest of the sh*tty pack. That one single brap: with the V1, you know whether to speed up or slow down. With any other detector, you must slow down and search...and search...and search....both ahead and behind....you may never see anything and then you just don't know whether you can start to speed up again or not. If that cops were crossing the overpass just a bit after you drove underneath, your V1 would show he was behind you. If the overpass did not have ramps down to the local road, you can speed back up. If it does, you watch your rearview mirror mostly, waiting to see if the trooper got on behind you. With Passport and others, you are focused 95% ahead, 5% behind (the usual) because you have no idea where that single isolated beep came from. It happens.

 

Ahaaa! This is where the V1 with directional arrows will set it apart from the rest of the sh*tty pack. That one single brap: with the V1, you know whether to speed up or slow down. With any other detector, you must slow down and search...and search...and search....both ahead and behind....you may never see anything and then you just don't know whether you can start to speed up again or not. If that cops were crossing the overpass just a bit after you drove underneath, your V1 would show he was behind you. If the overpass did not have ramps down to the local road, you can speed back up. If it does, you watch your rearview mirror mostly, waiting to see if the trooper got on behind you. With Passport and others, you are focused 95% ahead, 5% behind (the usual) because you have no idea where that single isolated beep came from. It happens.

 

Lazy cop firing his radar gun often, ... V1 is very helpful.

Cop pacing you at night, you are screwed.
VASCAR timing, screwed too.
Lasers, screwed as well.

So, it helps but it's not %100 proof.

 

Ignore X, cautious on K, slow down on Ka, Laser- your screwed. (cops here use either Ka or instant on).

 

I disagree about X! I was following a motorcycle cop who was instant-on zapping people with X-band just a few weeks ago!

 

It is true that some cops(not many) will use X-band because most people just ingorne it. So if you are on a freeway or expressway and you pick up an X band I would suggest slowing down and taking a look around you. I have had a couple different detectors and from what I have concluded in my home town is that most cops that are driving around dont have their radar on, they only have it on when hiding trying to catch some poor fool that is speeding without protection. When ever mine goes off K or Ka I always slow down and take a quick look around me to find out where its coming from. I also make sure that I know what cars are behind me so that a cop doesn't get the chance to sneak up on me.

 

he he... you know what's funny.... you misspelled "miss-spelled".

 

For what I have found when driving my hour and a half each way to work. The NJ State Troopers use X-Band, and the Locals use K or Ka. Most Supermarkets use X and you just have to watch out. I use the Escort 8500 and I love it. Saved my butt. Just watch for those quick blips of Bands. Usually a cop tagging with Instant On.

 

hey all,

you knwo a scanner would get rid of all that, a portable scanner would be so more effective and you would not get stopped, raders only work with the cops radar guns and they have to be on. A scanner detects his radio signal from the back of his trunk and then beeps and it tells you a cop it close then you slow down. But if you hwear no beep, opens roads all the way home. laterz all.\
<font color=red>Dantes</font color>

 

Just got the V1.

Coming up a Laurel Canyon (in LA -- the day I get the V1 remote up and running), KA goes off with 2 bogies and the arrow up front -- no cops in sight?

Pass 25MPH school speed area and KA goes to 1. I see a guy pulled over by a moto-cop. I keep seeing KA with random signal strength. I stay slow. Bimmer comes up and wants to race from stop light -- I let him win. Around 2-turns 1/2 mile ahead, I see Bimmer driver pulled over with cop #2 (KA is now off).

Hmmm...

1. I will be watching Ka like a hawk!
2. That multiple bogie counter saved my ass!

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: EricL ]

 

I drive into the city too often so that x-band is set off by automatic doors, security systems, etc... so much that i just ignore them. I guess the best way to not get caught is to have the ninja philosophy - "be aware of your environment". I always look at my rear view mirror to check for cops when i'm speeding.

And with that scanner- does it pick up signal emiited from trucks as well?

 

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: fast_daddy_car ]

 

The officers in Princeton use both X and K. They will use X and sit in mall parking lots. They also like to use K just past those "your speed is..." machines, which also use K. The bogey counter is great for these (8500 & v1).

 

So where do most people have their detector mounted?

I have mine to the left of the rearview mirror, with half just below the tint band.

Do you think out tint degrades the signal at all? My unscientific tests with an automatic door showed no differences.

 

I have my V1 to the right of the mirror. The top of the unit sits flush with the tint line and the unit is as close to the black mesh as it could be and still "stick". The unit is set back (or forward) so the sun-visor can almost go 30 degrees further than straight down.

I didn't have a laser gun to check on the tint issue and the V1 book only mentions problems with "specialized" tint.


BTW -- I noticed that a emergency vehicle (fire truck and paramedics) caused the unit to light up as they went through an intersection in front of me...

 

Yep, this wasn't supposed to be a comparison thread. BTW, I didn't upgrade, my friend's old unit was too old to fully upgrade, so I purchased new. Plus he sold it on eBay for nearly the price of a new one. I guess there are idiots out there.

 

Hey,
I just noticed that you are in gainesville.
What color is your car?

I go to santa fe and will be going to UF in the spring. Who do you go to for audio/performance shop wise?

 

Well, you guys sold me. I should have my V1 tomorrow to try out for 30 days. I found someone at work who had one, they definitely look better in person than on the web site, size is not an issue at all. After I try it for awhile, if I keep it, I'll let you know where to send me some crow for breakfast

 

hmm. good idea! can you reccommend any good scanners?

now that im giving up my detector.

 

They were making a big deal about listing in on the "local radio" link between the officer and the car. But some people said that the police where changing to new radios (spread-spectrum, etc) to keep people from IDing the location of their officers.

Does anyone know more about this?

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: EricL ]

 

Scanners have been available for years that will detector police radio. For what I understand it works by detecting whenever there is a transmission on police radio not radar, and warns you. All police radios receive and/or transmit whenever any officer or dispatch speaks. So if there is a cop at the 7-11 when you drive by and the cop on 7th street downtown calls in a license plate (5 miles away), you get the alert because the nearby 7-11 officer's radio goes off, too.

This is good. If you want to know where every police car is. It's not going to tell you where the cop is exactly, only nearby. Or not so nearby. I don't know what the true range is. Pick your frequency; or can you? State Trooper, S.O., city police(s). You can't monitor them all, or can you? Or maybe you want to be alerted every 30 seconds for every single squad car or patrol car you pass.

Obviously this can't be used for traffic radar situations and this is pretty worthless if you live in cities like NY, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago, LA, Miami, Boston, SF, and others where there are one or two dozen LEO departments to deal with. They are on their radios constantly.

Plus, scanners are illegal in some states for possession, a few more states for possession in auto, most if not all states for use for illegal activity. Always have been and still is (by statue) for decades. Another complete waste of time and money IMO.

 

 

Unless pig radios work differently than every other 2-way radio I know of, this is not true.

However, it IS true that even if they are not transmitting, they are transmitting - albeit a VERY faint signal.

The whole concept of a 2-way radio is that transmit and receive on the same frequency can't happen at the same time. A pig radio is simplex - it can only transmit or receive at a specific time. Remember that the purpose of a transmitter is to send a signal so strong, it can be heard a LONG distance away. A receiver, on the other hand, is build to hear VERY faint signals and be able to discern the modulation out of that small signal.

Cell phones work because they have band pass filters on both transmit and receive. On the transmit side, they "send" on the high side of a frequency spectrum. On the receive side, they only "hear" on the low portion of that same spectrum. That way, you can transmit and receive without the receiver hearing the signal the transmitter (on the same device) just transmitted!

So - unless a cop is talking himself, you should never see a signal.

Unless they have a computer - in which case that's probably ALWAYS transmitting.

 

Somebody's lousy experience with one: http://dwolsten.tripod.com/interior/interior.html

 

Found a speed trap using instant-on in x-band. So I made about a dozen passes trying out the V1 in various modes

The bogey was in tall bushes, at about a 45 degree angle to the road (one lane each direction), about 50 feet in from the edge of the road. He was using instant-on in X band. Maybe it was either a low power unit or a tight beam? The terrain was farmland, so nothing for the signal to bounce off of. Could only pick up weak signals bouncing off the other cars.


1) Not much advanced notice with instant on!! And an X band instant-on was very surprising!! If the cars coming in the other direction hadn't flashed the highbeams, I might have thought it was a false alarm at first. In all modes, it was mostly intermittant strengh-one blips, spaced about 3-6 seconds apart (later learned as each earlier car was being polled). Once I got closer, like in 2 car lengths away, I got 3-5 blips. Went to 8 when I was zapped.

2) no effects on alert wether placed directly in the middle of the windshield, or within the tint band. both front and rear antennea reception about the same.

3) In advanced logic mode (big "L"), you would get a strength one blip about 250 yards before the bogey. Of course, this is only if there are targets up ahead. Even in a line of cars, was about same distance. It would register strength 3-5 when he zapped a car that was about 2 car lengths ahead of me, but the bogey was still out of sight line. Full strength of 8 bars when I was zapped.
One time I was zapped both front/rear arrows lit up and counter went to 2. There was only one bogey there. Must have bounced off the oncoming car or car behind me.
I usually use big "L" mode in normal city driving.

4) in logic mode (little "L"), I would get a strength one blip about 500 yards before the bogey. This would sound at the lower level, non-threat alert. Once I got closer acted just like advanced logic mode, with a strength one alert at about 250 yards. I usually use little "L" mode on the highway.

5) in All mode (big "A"), alerted to strength one blip at about 700 yards. But also picked up X band auto-door from the shopping center behind, and a K band auto door from around the corner. The only time I use "A" mode is in rural roads where I know there are no stores, then I want to know everything out there!


Analysis:
Either the bogey knew he was being tested, or someone now thinks that the CL-S is a very popular car
Well, even a strength one blip in X band could mean trouble down the road. I use advance logic mode in town (big "L") as it greatly reduces the falsing. With my earlier escort 8500 tests, the escort does false less, but can't comment on range.
I wish I still had that escort 8500 to test in this situation for a comparison.

From now on I will slow down for any strength one alerts. I usually waited for the 3-range to start slowing down and looking in city situations, one usually was a false alarm in X band. I also have lots of K band auto doors, which also give a strength one false, and shoot to 4-6 when directly in front of the door. I would also say about a 10 car length lead for a false K band door. I may be more cautious as it could also indicate a K band instant on.

thoughts???

 

Thanks Fast Daddy, great job of research you did for all of us V1 owners. I've only had mine a few weeks and i'm still getting used to it, and the info on the logic modes was real helpful. Thanks !

 

Mine is always on big L mode. I guess I'm going to have to play with the other modes to see what I've been missing.

 

I keep mine in L mode all the time unless I leave for the country. There's way too much noise for it not to be in L mode. You just need to be aware of when you should bring it back to A mode. I95 from Greenwich to Branford has traffic sensors on X band so it's useless to listen for X there.

 

Are detectors legal now in CT? Haven't been through in awhile!

 

Yep. They've been legal for about 10 years. My first couple of years driving they weren't and it sucked having to take it down ever single time you passed a cop, even the ones standing guard next to construction sites.

Now I test detectors and jammers w/ the local cops. State Police, they're still asses even the local PDs think so.

 

Most good radar detectors have a setting that allows you to turn off X band completely. That is because X-band radars are almost always older units are may be competely phased out in your area but no all areas of course. The reason why an officer uses a X-band radar is to clock traffic, not to fool careless radar detector owners. I wouldn't ignore X by any means.

For example if the Pennsylvania State Police adopts the new Ka as the radar of choice, you might as well turn off X-band because no other LEOs use radar in PA.

 

I would never turn X off in CT. The stretch of I-95 from Greenwich to Branford and also up in Hartford, have those traffic sensors all on X-band. In full Logic mode, it's still nearly impossible to tell what if it the sensors or a cop using the cover w/ an old X-band, which they still do use. The flip side is, because, I-95 is so congested the Staties prefer laser there so worse case, I don't see him in time and the jammer will hopefully work. They do use K-band but they sit on the left shoulder using its narrower spread to hit traffic in the passing lane.

Plus a lot of the local PDs still use X-band so it will be here for a while.