Every community is a little different. Here, some local/city cops use X band and state troopers use K or Ka.

I've kept mine on All Bogey mode because of this. It's not real bad unless I come up on a shopping plaza, then it goes crazy.

If you go by a cop and don't get a beep, then he's not got his radar on!

Some places, the cops have instant on radar, so be wary.

 

i went with an esort 8500

my $.02

The only time it falses is X band around comm door openers.

I've never gotten a false laser

whenever, I see a k or ka, i slow down. there's almost always a cop up ahead (or behind). Granted when he's behind i have to *find* him by looking in th rearview.

A small price to pay for annoying falses.

If it falses all the time (enough that you turned it down and got a ticket...) whats it worth??

 

It's not a COP detector my friend, it is a RADAR/LASER detector. Just because you pass a cop doesn't mean he/she is using laser or radar!

 

It's very hard to compare V1's because they never change version numbers (eg. V1, V2, etc.), yet they go through a continuous development cycle to improve the V1. I wouldn't be suprised if the newest V1 model has less false alarms on laser than my almost 4 year old V1.

Speaking of which, Valentine has a discount upgrade policy on their detectors.

BTW, the V1 will tell you if those K and Ka warning are behind you with the direction indicator. I wonder when that patent runs out?
--
Jeff

 

yea, i never had a radar detector before, so i always figures most cops just always have there radar/lasers on i'm getting used to it now... it just saved my a$$ on the highway yesterday, I LOVE THIS THING!!

 

Here are a few things worth noting:

Logic/Advanced Logic modes:
The only thing these logic modes do is change the way the detector responds to X-band. Nothing else. In Logic mode, a weak (non-threatening) X-band signal is displayed but muted. In Advanced Logic mode, weak (non-threatening) X-band signals are not displayed at all. In either case, if the X-band signal gets high enough to become threatening, it will respond and display the alert. The owner's manual covers all this.

X-band:
In most places, X-band is or has already been phased out by the police. In the many years I've owned my V1 in California, I've *never* seen a cop use X-band. It's always automatic doors at grocery stores and such. This being the case, I disabled X-band detection. This reduces the false alarms dramatically, as just about everything now days uses X-band. K-band is, unfortunately, also being used by lots of things now days, but cops still use it so I can't shut that off safely. See this for more info on the bands and their usage:
http://www.valentine1.com/lab/Previously8.asp

"Secret" programming mode:
You can use this to do all sorts of tweaks to the V1, such as enabling Ku band (used in Europe), changing Ka sensitivity, and disabling any bands you don't want. Go here:
http://www.valentine1.com/lab/mikeslabrpt3.asp


All this info is available either directly on the V1 site, or in the owner's manual.