Just bought a Whistler XTR-690se

[MOPARado]

yellowtibby, you might want to use the detector for a couple weeks before you return it as defective. Shortly after starting to use my 78SE, i drove through a heavy traffic congested business area with Ka falses just about every block. Yeah i thought the unit was defective and was tempted to return it. A couple days later i drove through the same area with NO Ka falses and have not seen that falsing scenario there since and that was a year ago. Why? Don't know for sure but my best geuss is the detector probably drifted off in LaLa land and needed a power-on reset to get it back on track.

I generally get very little Ka falses in my area.
I put about a 100+ miles/day on my 78SE usually going days without a Ka false. But once in a while the thing will Ka false abnomally like you said for no apparent reason. These false alerts are typically RSIDless and last from 1 to 4 seconds.

These RSIDless falses from what i've gathered here is most likely due to the SE's ability with its great Ka sensitivity to receive very weak distant radar energy and because this energy is so weak it'll typically have a high noise floor. Yep it detected that energy, verified its 'somewhere' in the police radar band but is too weak and/or noisy for the DSP to decipher the exact frequency ID accurately. So it alerts anyway without an ID. Where do these weak radar signals come from? Other nearby radar dectors, micro-wave towers, distant real police radar and as some here have said, even home internet/cableTV dish antennas.

IMO and its just my opinion FWIW, these IDless Ka falses comprise over 90 percent of all the Ka falses in my case. I and a few others here have suggested ad-nauseum for a 'last-ditch' option to eliminate these IDless types of falses once and for all possibly utilizing the City button.

This option would basically hold off a full blown alert UNTIL a legitimate police radar frequency ID can be accurately processed by the DSP. Maybe just a beep and/or a quick periscope flash while in this standby-hold state just enough to alert the driver but not be annoying. Once the signal becomes a little more stronger enough for the DSP to process a legit ID, then instant full alert.
Even if that weak Ka energy is sourced from a distant or off-axis LEO, if the SE can't produce an ID then in all probability, the LEO can't clock either.
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[yellowtibby]

Thanks for the response MOPARado. Last night I decided to take the whistler out for a drive again. This time I got a full blown 2 second, KA 9 35.5 alert with no cop in sight on an empty road. I try this RD for a while and hopefully the KA falsing will not be as bad. It's weird because the very first time i took the Whistler out of the box and took it for a drive, I was going down the same roads with no KA falsing, in fact it was so quiet I was ecstatic at the filtering performance. I then turned the RD off and back on and then the falsing started. I double checked to make sure none of the settings were changed. Hopefully it corrects itself.

[MOPARado]

First of all go with MB's setting recommendation to see if it helps if you haven't done so already. As a last resort in those high false areas, try disabling Ka max mode. Ka max as you'll eventually come to appreciate is highly sensitive to Ka band radar. I've had many 3 to 4 mile legit LEO Ka alerts with others reporting even higher alert distances.

Unfortunately along with all this Ka sensitivity comes the occassional false. After using my 78SE for so long i've learned to instinctively separate the 'wheat from chaff'.

Understandably, newbies to these sensitive detectors can become frustrated real fast with the falses, frustrated enough to return the unit and look elsewhere. Which is why i wish the hell Whistler would abandon their hard headed attitude and just put in the option i described above. They have a golden opportunity to do just that in their new remote which is yet to be released.

By the way, after using my Whistlers for over a year now, knowing what i know now, i'd bet that 35.5 Ka alert of yours was an out of sight LEO.
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[TRun]

Just because your eyes can't see the leo doesn't mean a detector can't and vice versa.

[yellowtibby]

OK so I was able to drive around more, and you guys are right, the # of KA band falsing has dropped significantly. I'm happy with my purchase and I don't plan on returning the unit. Yesterday I actually got followed by a local LEO who decided to turn on his radar gun while tailgating me for 2 miles. My RD instantly shot up to 35.5 KA 9. First real LEO encounter.