Radar Detector Review Thread!

[olletsocmit]

I wanted to put together a very in-depth radar detector thread for everyone. I only have had a Escort Solo S2, so this is all I can comment on. Could people with radar detectors and some free time please post a picture of their detectors, the specs, accessories they have/use, and a review of it. please so short its good or what I have is the best responses. In-depth reviews only please. I will compile everything and add to the first post as I get reviews. Please put in the effort, this could really help people out when going to buy.

[rhodri45]

my valentine 1.



you can see its hard-wired in to the car's power, so it auto turns on/off with car power, and cleans it up. its nice, no wires or nothing can be seen except by where it plugs in.

this pic has it window mounted up top, however it is now visor-mounted (v1's come with both mounting kits) so its less visible from outside.

i am low, so i just have to turn the volume off when a cop is at the side (which hasn't happened yet in 2 months of ownership) and they can't see it, its great.

it picks up Laser, Ka, K, and X bands, from very long distances. Ka is used by most police today, as it is hard to detect. however, as seen from a story i posted about it in my build thread (labeled My $hit in my sig), the v1 picked up Ka band from the bottom end of the other side of a 3mile long bridge while i was on the on ramp 3 miles from the cop. i wasnt even on the bridge yet. and he was on the other side of the road too, and its divided with concrete

it picks up all the K signals from other detectors (lesser quality puts out its own K level to track police type K levels). v1 doesnt do that, but it picks up all 3 bands + laser. it also picks up all the grocery stores like any other detector would.

it also gets laser! which is nice. all be it, if it picks laser, that means the laser is ON YOUR CAR or on the car DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOU. laser doesn't bounce around the road like radar does, so it can only tell you when laser is VERY CLOSE to you, and it might already be too late. very few places use lasers though...obviously big city areas (IE socal, new york, NJ, etc) will have lasers, but most places don't yet.

there are laser jammers on the market, which pick up the cop's laser signal and send back a "bad read" signal...which is IMPOSSIBLE to prove on the cop's end that you are jamming him, since the laser gun itself is tricky to use correctly as is.

the V1 also tracks up to 9 "bogeys" (signals) at a time! NINE! and it tells you which signal is on what band, and flashes the most dangerous one (closest, strongest signal). it will also tell you each direction each signal is coming from (front back left right) however, a radar/laser signal won't be able to screw you from the side, the V1 lets you know it's there for later use.

TL;DR: get the V1. totally worth the 400 bucks.