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  1. #1
    Newcomer
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Garner, NC
    Posts
    7

    Default I got to take the STI on a road test yesterday....

    Must say that I was pretty disappointed. I had an original Escort 8500 for the past 6 years (the wife still has a 4600 in her car), so that's what I'm used to. We traveled ~380 miles in a company Dodge Caravan and the STI was running the whole time. We passed about a dozen LEOs that I saw, and not a peep from any of them on the STI. Two of them had vehicles pulled over. Were they all shooting 33.8, or did none of them have radar on, were all shooting IO that the STI didn't catch? Don't know, unfortunately. Passed one 'your speed is' camera and got about a .1 mile warning around a curve.

    What the STI really seemed to like was falsing X on the open road. About 20 minutes after we got started, the STI started showing a X band hit of 10.576. This went on for miles. Nothing could be seen behind us, nothing in front of us. I powered the detector down and tried again. As soon as it started up again it was right back at it. Finally after nearly 15 miles this stops. Then an hour or so later, it started beeping 10.576 eight times about every 45 seconds. This too went on for about 15 miles. I was running in auto mode, but had to put it in City No X on the highway to shut it up. Again, there was nothing visible behind us or in front of us.

    Anyway, I was still in my 30 day test drive so I just called to get an RMA number to send the unit back. It was shipped before the 33.8 fix. I really want the STI to work because I like the idea of a totally stealth detector. I'm gonna try a few other detectors over the coming months and make a decision.

  2. #2
    Old Timer
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Posts
    8,881

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ibleedblue
    I'm gonna try a few other detectors over the coming months and make a decision.
    Good decision. Sorry to hear the STI didn't work for you. BTW, when you were on the open road, you wouldn't have happened to have been on an interstate with X band drones?

    As for the LEOs, they could have very well not had their radar units powered on, not even had radars, or have been very selective with IO. Of course there is the possibility that the STI is broken. On the trip, did stop at a store with automatic doors? Did it alert?

  3. #3
    Newcomer
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    10

    Default

    Well, I am about to send my STi back also. I am not impressed at all with it, as a matter of fact my RX65 was way better for my local NJ cops.
    The ramp up on my in K and X band is terrible. It will jump 90% of the time from 3 to 9 in no time. Also about 400 yards from my home there is a sharp curve with a well known speed trap (school zone). They use instant K-band and I could pick them up with my RX65 at about 1/4 mile before getting to that curve. With my STi... it alerts me with a full ramp up just as I'm about to enter that curve. First I thought wow, they switched to an instant on but driving for a few days I thought this is odd... so I took my wife's whistler... stopped on a side of the road about 300 feet from the curve and hooked up the whistler... Instant alert :shock:
    OK, so I powered it down, hooked up the STi and... complete silence...

    My unit has a manufacture date code of 2407 and I do believe that I got an out of tune unit. Because there is no way a whistler 1793se can beat a Bel STi... can it?

  4. #4
    Newcomer
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Garner, NC
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ELVATO
    BTW, when you were on the open road, you wouldn't have happened to have been on an interstate with X band drones?
    I seriously doubt it. I've traveled this road MANY times over the years with the 8500 and never run into this before. Actually the first issue started when we were crossing a very long bridge (about 1/4 mile long) and over open water. Nowhere for LEO's to hide there! We weren't even on the interstate when this was going on, just some two lane State roads. On the interstate I didn't get the random X band alerts for miles and miles.

    On the trip, did stop at a store with automatic doors? Did it alert?
    Yes and yes. It picked up doors well. And it picks up traffic sensors mounted on overhead signs on the interstate pretty well. But in 3 weeks of running it I didn't get a peep from any of the LEOs that I passed. Oh well. I really want to try a 9500i, but the reception on it seems to be lacking even more than on the STi.

  5. #5

    Default Re: I got to take the STI on a road test yesterday....

    *****

  6. #6
    Newcomer
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Garner, NC
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Interesting. The first time the STi got stuck on X band, I was on US64 in Pittsboro, NC. That was near Jordan Lake, so that could explain the issue. However this is when the STi was constantly going off in X. When I started getting the intermittent X later on, I was on NC49 near Asheboro, NC, and wasn't near a body of water.

  7. #7
    Newcomer
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    San Diego
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Cell towers have been known to set off X-band.......

  8. #8

    Default

    *****

  9. #9

    Default

    I have somtimes passed over a dozen LEO and not one of them wer running radar...dont be too concerned, try and find a known auto door false area and compare it to your escort...if it is no good then send it back, i know my original STI was crap on K band. roy swapped it out and now it is fine except for the crap ramp up...but i run it all via my cheetah mirror now.

    Did you know the STI only has 2 levels of ramp up!! listen carefully next time...2 levels that it!!!

  10. #10
    Scratonicity Groupie
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Posts
    7,614

    Default Re: I got to take the STI on a road test yesterday....

    Quote Originally Posted by MEM-TEK
    Quote Originally Posted by ibleedblue
    ...What the STI really seemed to like was falsing X on the open road. About 20 minutes after we got started, the STI started showing a X band hit of 10.576. This went on for miles. Nothing could be seen behind us, nothing in front of us. I powered the detector down and tried again. As soon as it started up again it was right back at it. Finally after nearly 15 miles this stops. Then an hour or so later, it started beeping 10.576 eight times about every 45 seconds. This too went on for about 15 miles. I was running in auto mode, but had to put it in City No X on the highway to shut it up. Again, there was nothing visible behind us or in front of us...
    I ibleedblue,

    Welcome to the forum!

    I am curious where you were at when you were getting the X band false alerts. It sounds a lot like what I experienced on I-95 at various points while traveling through Providence RI, Wilmington DE, and around Baltimore MD.

    Maritime vessels and ports use X band radar for navigation, and their radar antennas continuously rotate to scan the entire horizon. I too got X band alerts in the areas I mentioned, with each alert lasting only a few seconds. I didn't time the intervals between the alerts, but recall that the alerts seem to be spaced somewhere between 30 to 45 seconds apart. Both my V995 and STi produced these X band alerts in the areas I described.
    oh come on. you where doing so good and now this BS. I lived in Dover, DE for 4 years and drove all around Wilmington, & all of MD for those 4 years and what you just said is 100% BS. I had my STi, V1, 9500i, RX-65, and x50 all over these places and not once did I EVER get any type of this alert.

    95 from DE through MD to WV is one of the quietest drives for any radar detector. Then 1 in DE the Toll Road is terribly quiet. There is a local leo who hangs out at around exit 156 on 1 North Bound running constant on Ka band but that's about it.

    So in summary, all those maritime ships around DE are non-existent. There is no such X band false anywhere near Baltimore or Wilmington. Give it a break, the dude had a bad run in with the STi so leave him be without the BS!

 

 

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