New Member with 995 vs Whistler XTR-550 - Day 1

[Radar MD]

Hello Everyone,

I couldn't find the "Introductions Forum", so I guess I'll just give a short one here and then dive right in.

I'm a radar detector hobbyist from way back to the beginning of the "sport", and my experience includes being a manufacturer's rep for the old Snooper brand (I do not rep or sell ANY automotive electronics - including anything to do with radar detectors - anymore, nor have I ever had anything to do with law enforcement). My other experience includes having a good friend who repped police radar units, knowing some industry people from the early detector, jammer and police radar days, writing a few articles on radar detectors for car clubs, appearing in the local media as a radar "expert" (when there were no forums or internet, so my meager knowledge was better than most), owning a vintage radar detector collection and also owning a few police radar units. My friends and I were probably among the first hobbyists to do fairly impressive RD tests back in the 70's & early 80's - similar to what it sounds like the Guys of Lidar are doing now.

I have run without a RD for about 12 years (my last detector was an original model V1) and I am just now starting to get back into it. I picked up three used detectors recently - one old one for fun (Escort Passport 5000) and two because I got great deals on them and wanted to see if they could cut it as my daily runner - a Whistler XTR-550 and a BEL Vector 995 (S7, late 07).

The Whistler is actually a pretty polished, easy to live with RD, but it has two flaws that bother me - one is that once it establishes band identification it doesn't change until all signals end. In other words, if it picks up an X door opener but then a Ka police radar comes on the scene while still in range of the door opener, it continues to alert X (but does track proper signal strength) as long as one signal is still present - even if the only signal still present is the Ka! The other flaw is that even though it is generally quiet, it goes X band full alert within a mile of a communications tower array that all my other detectors remain silent for.

Yesterday was my first day with the 995 and I had what I believe are some serious issues. First of all, it was a sunny day and while I was driving south, into the sun, the unit pretty much alerted Laser continuously. Neither the Whistler or the 5000 gave any Laser falses when I switched to them. When I would turn around and head north, or go under a bridge, the Laser alert would stop.

The other problem is a seriously slow response time to instant on Ka radar. I own a BEE 36 Ka unit and a number of X and K band guns, so the first thing I did is bring everything out to the car and test the 995's response time. On X and K band it is a tad slow (1/4 of a second?) but not too bad, but on Ka it takes a good two seconds for an initial alert. I tried turning off the voice and that did not help at all. I tried POP on and off and that had no effect. The BEE 36's antenna and the 995 were only 3 feet apart, in case that matters. No matter which band I used, this is an area where the Whistler XTR-550 smoked the 995 - the Whistler is virtually instantaneous no matter which band or gun I used. Even the old 5000 only has a few millisecond lag.

I started driving around with my BEE 36 and could flip it on, clock a car, and turn it off again without the 995 ever making a peep. It doesn't catch up after the fact either - if the gun is off before the 995 alerts, you never get anything.

Whoa, this is disconcerting! Do I have a defective unit, a setting that can be changed - or is this just the way this model responds to Ka?

Thanks in advance for any feedback and I look forward to being part of the community in the future!

[steve f]

From what I've been reading, up until early to mid 2008 there was a problem with Bel units responding to instant on radar. There was a delay and if the signal went away during the delay, you didn't get a warning. From info posted at this site, this has been resolved on the newer detectors.

I know that the Bel RX65 I bought in Dec (made in late Aug. 08) features a blurb on the outside of the box that it now features the fastest response time to instant on radar available. I don't know the truth of that claim, but I suspect that it's in response to the issue of the older units missing instant on bursts. It would be interesting to see the results if you could get your hands on a late model 995 and compare the two.

[Radar MD]

I'll definitely be testing this further because if it is defective I still have a few days to return it. It's slow response is not just to an on/off flip of the switch, however, it is also to an instant on trigger that is then left on in continuous mode - and only Ka band was extremely slow. Also, the unit was produced in October of 2007, if that helps.

[V995OHDH]

i have an 995 from early 08 i believe if you want to test it

[Radar MD]

Thanks V995OHDH, that is very generous of you but I'd probably drop it or something so it's best if you hang on to it. I'm going to try to borrow one locally with a similar production date and see if it compares.

There seems to be a lot of posters on these boards who also own radar guns and surely some of their BEL units must also be 18 months old (that's not THAT old!), so I'm hoping that some of them will chime in on whether any of their units also have the slow response to Ka band I/O that mine has. If theirs don't, I've got to figure that mine is defective and decide what to do with it.

[KaPro]

Sounds to me like there is a fly in the ointment with your 995. Speedzones used to do an immediacy of response test and the 995 was always the quickest. I believe it was an older test they used to do. It also was an S7 equipped 995. I think it's the 2003 or 2004 speedzones tests.

[KYDRIVER_1]

Good to see people making real good threads like this that are truly informative. I have a 955 and I feel that it has missed I/O but I can't prove it. I only used it for a couple of months before I got the V1, with it i dont worry. But I'm interested to see what you find out. Keep us posted.

[crazyVOLVOrob]

Where did you purchase your BEL v995? Too many laser falses means their is an issue with the detector.

My V1 falses more to laser than my BELv995, thats how I judge that everything is still fine in my v995

[Radar MD]

I purchased my 995 from a friend who owns an electronics store that carries both home and car electronics. This particular unit was the "store demo", which I think means it sat in the display case but was also used by store employees whenever they needed it.

Interestingly enough, I drove all over town with the 995 yesterday and it didn't laser alert once, but it was a cloudy day. Today we have bright sunshine, so I'm going to take the 995 and aim it into the sun, along with my other units, and see what happens.

[crazyVOLVOrob]

I purchased my 995 from a friend who owns an electronics store that carries both home and car electronics. This particular unit was the "store demo", which I think means it sat in the display case but was also used by store employees whenever they needed it.

Interestingly enough, I drove all over town with the 995 yesterday and it didn't laser alert once, but it was a cloudy day. Today we have bright sunshine, so I'm going to take the 995 and aim it into the sun, along with my other units, and see what happens.

It shouldn't be alerting laser constantly even on Sunny days