Introduction & XTR Initial Test

[Radar MD]

I couldn't find the "Introductions Forum", so I'll give a short one here and then dive right in. This is much of the same post I made in the BEL section.

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 XTR-550 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! This is not just from real world observation, but from basement testing with various X, K and Ka band radars that I own. Even if the first signal it receives is a very weak X band and then a full strength K or Ka band appears seconds later, it will continue to alert X but show the signal strength of the stronger radar - or maybe the two combined?

The other flaw is that even though it is generally quiet, my XTR-550 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 BEL995 and I did a few quick comparisons between the units. First of all, it was a sunny day and I started driving south, into the sun, with just the BEL 995 on and 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 on the 995 would stop. Seems like pretty bad filtering of sunlight, but I will continue testing just in case I had something else causing the false.

Instant on response time is very important to me, so I ran all three detectors against my guns, which include a BEE 36 Ka band unit. The XTR-550 is essentially instantaneous on all bands and does report "Pulse" even when POP is off. Having the voice on or off doesn't matter at all on this unit, both are spectacularly fast. The old Passport 5000 has a slight delay, maybe a tenth of a second or so. The BEL 995 is seriously slow on Ka band - so much so that I am investigating whether I have a setting wrong or a defective unit. 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, so I will investigate if that affected it. 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.

No matter which band I used, this is an area where the Whistler XTR-550 smoked this particular BEL 995 - the Whistler is virtually instantaneous no matter which band or gun I used.

In the next few days I hope to be able to do some serious distance testing.

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

[BTJustice]

I also use the XTR-550. It really is a great model especially for the price. I haven't experienced that problem with it. When a stronger, different signal is detected, mine kicks over to the stronger signal. The signal strength stays the same as the other signal has to be stronger for the switch-over to happen. Selecting CITY 2 disables X.

[Radar MD]

I'm jealous of your 550!

With mine it doesn't matter what the band combination is, the first signal picked up determines the band ID on the alerts even when other, stronger, more dangerous signals appear. If I am picking up a weak K-band door opener and then a Ka radar is triggered at me at point blank range, the signal strength jumps up to 9 but the band ID still says K-band. If the K-band signal then ends, but your're still being shot by the Ka, the alerts still say K-band!

It's as if picking up those signals constitutes an "event", and until that "event" totally ends the first signal picked up determines the band ID for the rest of the "event" no matter what combo of radars triggers on or off.

[Michael B]

May I ask why you are comparing a Whistler that can be found for under $100 to other models in the neighborhood of three times the price?

You should purchase a Whistler Pro78 to compare aginst the other models you mentioned.

[Radar MD]

Hi Michael,

The XTR-550, BEL 995 and old Escort Passport 5000 were all purchases of opportunity. Two of the three were used units from business associates and one was from eBay. I am just now reading these forums and learning the relative merits of the various units out there. I am new to these boards and thought I would get into swing of things by giving some observations of my units, even though they come from different retail price points (although I paid almost the same price for the Whistler and BEL).

I tried to make it clear that I actually like the XTR-550 quite a bit. It is the fastest of my units to respond to instant on radar and falses very little. So far, range seems more than adequate.

The other poster with the 550 says that his identifies bands correctly in a changing signal/band scenario, which was good info for me and leads me to believe my unit could be defective - sigh.

From reading the posts it sounds like the Pro78/STR-690/695 are the top units from Whistler, so hopefully I'll be able to acquire and give my impressions of one of those units soon!

[Jag42]

Whistler has one of the fastest response times to radar. Here is one of my videos. I have a Pro 78 and i love it.

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...-response.html

[Radar MD]

Great video, Jared!

I can tell you that the response of my XTR-550 to actual X, K and Ka radar guns is even faster than the response your Whistler seems to have in your video to another radar detector - mine is darn near instantaneous. Maybe the real radar guns I'm using are easier to detect, or maybe the lower priced 550 responds faster due to less filtering or something like that.

I also agree with one of the posters in your video thread that having the alert stop when the radar signal stops is of great value and helps you judge the actual threat. Most other detectors I've used beep for a good 2-4 seconds after the signal stops and then ramp down, which I find very uninformative.

The tone and voice on the XTR-550 is also much louder than my BEL 995.

Whistler did a great job of making the basic alert on their detectors very useful and informative. Instant on response is WAY more important than a lot of people realize. From running I/O radar in my car for fun, I can tell you that often I, and presumably police officers, get over eager and trigger the unit too soon. When my BEE 36 Ka has a perfect, close target the readout is instantaneous and you won't have a chance, but very often the speed isn't acquired for a second or two due to disadvantageous angles, dips in the road, too long a distance for conditions, or various types of interference. If your detector alerts immediately in these instances, you WILL be able to bleed off speed before he gets a reading, and I would say this delay occurs about 50% of the time in highway scenarios and 30% of the time in city driving. If you have a fast reacting Whistler and nail your brakes at the first alert, you'll have a decent chance of beating the radar.

[Jag42]

[quote=Radar MD;494794]Great video, Jared!
When my BEE 36 Ka ??? Do you mean bee 33.8 Ka from MPH?

[Radar MD]

Yes, I have a Ka band BEE 36 (33.8 Ghz) with dual antennas that is about 10 years old. It is wicked fast. I got it from an old friend who used to sell Kustom radars and took this unit in on trade as it was defective. I fixed it up as it just had a bad connector.