Radar detectors

Love my V1 (have 2 of them) - but all of the false alarms are getting annoying. When was the last time that V1 did anything to upgrade their technology? Going to try the 9500ix next as it adds gps technology to get rid of false alarms and also adds the benefit of warning for traffic/speed cameras.

I went for a run this morning and there was a constable patrolling the neighborhood. I stopped him and told him my story about the guy in front of me being pulled over and my ****** not going off. He said they use laser and that the cop probably just had his door slightly ajar where I didn't notice. He said I was lucky I didn't get pulled over in my viper. Hahaha.

At the end of the day all a detector will do is buy you some time and make you slow down at times, which is the goal of traffic law enforcement anyways. Most people believe cops hate detectors and that just isn't the case. All it takes is one car with a radar detector hitting his brakes and the whole pack of cars around them will slow down also...thus doing the cop's job for him. As for how much $ to spend and what brand, get whatever you feel will look/perform/be the best, but just be aware they can ALL be defeated very easily. The best detector in the world is nothing compared to the trained human eye and some solid common sense. The only advice I would offer about illegal shifters and stuff is be careful, if you want to give a cop a reason to investigate and dig around a little more then using a shifter will certainly do that if he has the time/wants to.

DrTaco said:

At the end of the day all a detector will do is buy you some time and make you slow down at times, which is the goal of traffic law enforcement anyways. Most people believe cops hate detectors and that just isn't the case. All it takes is one car with a radar detector hitting his brakes and the whole pack of cars around them will slow down also...thus doing the cop's job for him. As for how much $ to spend and what brand, get whatever you feel will look/perform/be the best, but just be aware they can ALL be defeated very easily. The best detector in the world is nothing compared to the trained human eye and some solid common sense. The only advice I would offer about illegal shifters and stuff is be careful, if you want to give a cop a reason to investigate and dig around a little more then using a shifter will certainly do that if he has the time/wants to.

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Traffic enforcement is about $$$. Otherwise, traffic enforcement duty police would be shooting radar from glow in the dark green semi's so that everyone saw them and slowed down. They would give out radar detectors with your license and the police would be required to use only a constant-on signal. That would make people slow down, right? No need for hiding, laser, instant-on, POP, etc.
The jammers/shifters everyone has been talking about are completely legal (except in states where detectors are ilegal also). The ones for laser are passive, so they are OK. If you are trying to actually "jam" radar, that is an active signal and is illegal. However, something that can jam radars is very expensive and too big to effectively package in a car.

ROCKET62 said:

Love my V1 (have 2 of them) - but all of the false alarms are getting annoying. When was the last time that V1 did anything to upgrade their technology? Going to try the 9500ix next as it adds gps technology to get rid of false alarms and also adds the benefit of warning for traffic/speed cameras.

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Bingo. I borrowed a friend's V1 once to see if I liked it, and unless they've made serious improvements, no thanks. What good is the extra range if you get false alarms all the time and start ignoring the warnings because of it?

TowDawg,

You are more than welcome to have your opinion about what traffic laws are for and not for. Rock on and not my concern. But as far as setting up large areas where police identify themselves to control speed and use only always-on in their cars, happens each and everyday.

As for ACTIVE jammers (let's call them scramblers because most people call them that), yes they are illegal all over. But, you are mistaken about passive shifters/"jammers" being legal everywhere, they are not. You are confusing federal laws and state laws. Check your local laws (has nothing to do if radar detectors are legal there or not either). The passive "shifters" that are available to the public will not do anything to a police radar/laser unless you are very very close in product testing, so I don't care about those. I am simply warning people to avoid anything that will activly try and scramble a signal because it will get them in far much more trouble then it's worth, that's why I said avoid "illegal shifters/jammers". The problem is that companies use too many terms like "scrambles, jammers, shifters" in an attempt to sell their products and people buy without knowing what they have.

Also, YES there are several active jammers (the illegal ones) that work very well. You are confusing passive shifters not being big enough to fit/hide in a car and active jammers (which work and can/fit in a car without issue).

Gotcha.
The passive jammers only work on laser, and actually work very well (well, some of them). I believe it's the Laser Interceptor model that gets the highest ratings in tests and causes the laser gun to give no reading almost every time. My ****** shifters work very well also. I had a cop buddy set up and shoot me a bunch of times with laser. He got no reading back on the first shot almost every time (and on the second and third shots a good bit). Basically, you can't just keep flying by and expect to not eventually get clocked, but even 1 "no signal" gives you time to get on the brakes.

Tow,

As long as you are happy with your purchase and feel you spent your money well. Then I am happy too! I am a traffic unit guy in Illinois, so any questions you ever have always feel free in a PM. Can't promise to give out any trade secrets though haha. If I get a chance I will post up some pics of ILLEGAL jammers I've pulled out of vehicles (you can't even imagine the POS they have been hidden in) for some educational time.

I would love to see some jammers. Were they homemade, or gvt/military type things?

I have one of the ****** 9500ci installed in my DD. Pricey but I LOVE IT!!!! The Range of the RedLine/V1, but with the GPS tech of the IX!

Not a snake but here is the link to the install on my G8

http://s4.beta.photobucket.com/user/MxRacer476/library/2009%20Pontiac%20G8%20GT/******%209500ci%20Install

I hate living in a police state like VA, where detectors are illegal and 20 over the speed limit can land you in jail for a year.

The V1 is the best by far BUT instant on will get you every time therefor I use the battery operated SOLO windshield mount that has no ugly wire hanging around or the need to hard wire and its so easy to go from car to car.

ViperSmith said:

I hate living in a police state like VA, where detectors are illegal and 20 over the speed limit can land you in jail for a year.

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Yes that would ****! My condolences!

TowDawg said:

Bingo. I borrowed a friend's V1 once to see if I liked it, and unless they've made serious improvements, no thanks. What good is the extra range if you get false alarms all the time and start ignoring the warnings because of it?

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You know to can manually defeat the X & K bands which are not much used anymore by law enforcement and pretty much lose all the false alarms. Keep the Ka & L bands.

Maybe not in CA, but there are still a lot of cops running K elsewhere. At least I think it's K, I only know it by the sound, but Ka and Laser are not the only ones around here.

K band has been around since the 70's and a lot of towns/cities still use it, especially those with smaller budgets. It has to do with so many older units being fielded out and those units just having been maintained and never replaced with newer technology. X band is even older and is hardly used anymore, but once again, they are still out there and used in smaller departments. You will also find them around on a lot of larger and older speed trailers that stay in stationary positions and are just old dog workhorses. X band is older, but more weather resistant than K.

There have been 50 threads regarding this issue. Have to do this for old times sake...



Hello? V1?


The V1 is very old technology. If you live in an area that has hot weather, I would never get one. There is the infamous silent death issue, where the heat prevents the detector from working, although it looks like it does. Many people do not get it for this reason.

I have V1's in both my cars. I keep it set on L and have no problem with false alarms. Also, I live in Florida, where it tends to get a little warm, and have never had any problem with the heat affecting it.

For your collective information.

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=100542

Only problem - who owns that site and is it really independent?

PatentLaw said:

For your collective information.

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=100542

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When they are flogging product they cannot be unbiased, especially since the Valentine is only sold direct.

I liked this website but there's been no updates for a while:
http://guysoflidar.com

As much as I like my V1 (saved me countless times), they have sat on their butt for a loooooooong time without significant updates. The Bel/****** top of the line series is much better overall even though the V1 has it's patented dual antennae and directional arrows. I think the patents on those run out soon so it may be all of Valentine's competitors will be gaining those features as well. At that point it will be hard seeing what Valentine can do to catch up with all the other features that their competition has added/innovated in.

Valentine has released an app for the Andriod phone. They also say there is 1 on the way for the iPhone late spring.

http://www.valentine1.com/v1info/v1connection/