Got my XTR-690se in

[Sui]

Will be trying it out in the field and whatnot over the next few days - today would have been a good day for an acid test as I had a 100 mile roundtrip, but UPS didn't deliver it til late this afternoon. I'll use my old KEC detector as a benchmark although I kinda doubt it's much of a benchmark considering its age. I'll share my thoughts when I have a better feel for this unit.

[unmamfqlm]

I used one for a short amount of time. Everyone tends to have good things to say about the SE, with the exception of mediocre K band detection on occasion.

[TRun]

Don't run both detectors at the same time. You can't even benchmark with a detector that doesn't even cover the whole Ka band.

[Jag42]

The SE does very good on Ka band against Texas DPS Ka 34.7 and other encounters like these on my youtube channel. Turn POP off on the SE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHT36ecKFZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbwSp8IaDzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cZCc0lnOMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NTFbZJXymI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAobt7AxseM

[Sui]

I used one for a short amount of time. Everyone tends to have good things to say about the SE, with the exception of mediocre K band detection on occasion.

Based on what I've read in the forums and seen on videos of the 690se in action that's kind of what I was expecting. I took it out for a spin tonight, ironically the first thing it found was a cruiser sitting in a parking lot at an intersection I was approaching in a hilly and urban area at about 1200 feet out on K-band. I was coming down a sloping hill and he was sitting behind a Walgreens store. Not too bad considering I didn't see the cop until I was at the light.

Verified laser detection works, and thanks for the Laser ID function I was able to determine it to be a false at 998 pps. Have no idea what that could have been, I'm guessing maybe a new door sensor? I wasn't near an airport.

Didn't have any further action except for a single X-false, which also happens to be at the same Walgreens store - about a half scale signal. This store sets off every detector I've ever seen in action that goes by it whether it be my own or other people's RD's. I only had the RD in normal filtering, I will have to try making the same pass at Filter1 and/or Filter2 to see if it ignores it.

What made me feel a bit better was the first time it picked up on the cop's K band signal instead and ignored the X at the same location.

Otherwise no contacts - which makes me really happy because the KEC detector falses on X and K quite often.

Don't run both detectors at the same time. You can't even benchmark with a detector that doesn't even cover the whole Ka band.

I was aware of not running both at the same time and didn't do it. Mainly what I was doing was seeing how the 690se did by comparison in X/K-falses and K-band detection, which is what all the local cops use in the suburbs I live in. They all run around with their radars constantly on so they are fairly easy to spot. Offhand I would say that my older detector would have picked it up under the same approach and conditions but nowhere near as far away. I need to get more K-detections to really determine how well the 690se can sniff them out. Seeing as I got only 1 X-false and no K-falses in 35 minutes of driving though, that's a pretty good sign that the detector knows what it's looking for.

The SE does very good on Ka band against Texas DPS Ka 34.7 and other encounters like these on my youtube channel. Turn POP off on the SE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHT36ecKFZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbwSp8IaDzs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cZCc0lnOMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NTFbZJXymI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAobt7AxseM

Yes already turned POP off, and SWS also. I have already watched most of these videos, and found them valuable since you live in the same state I do - so I appreciate that.

Anyway, as the old addage goes one never can find a cop when they need one lol - I was hoping to find more on the freeway using Ka but no spottings and no detections after the first cop parked in the Walgreens.

All and all not a bad first time out - this unit will get plenty of opportunities to find Ka as I run on the freeways a lot around this region in my job. Will post further assessments later.

There is one thing that left me scratching my head - according to the manual you can set the battery saver to 1, 3 or 6 hours. The only options my unit is offering me in the settings menu is on or off.

[MOPARado]

Sui Wrote:
Anyway, as the old addage goes one never can find a cop when they need one lol - I was hoping to find more on the freeway using Ka but no spottings and no detections

I'm starting to believe thats an unwritten rule when first trying out a RDer.

Been trying to evaluate my new 693se against Ka. In the few weeks i've used it, only had two Ka encounters. Out of those two, the best one was an unmarked LEO way behind going in my direction using 34.7 rolling IO. About 30 seconds of intermittent Ka with an occassional ID. The ID finally went solid then about 15 seconds later the LEO passed by. Got another few seconds alert as he speeded ahead, made a quick U-turn, turned on the lights and proceeded to pull over one of those diabolic speeding perpetrators in the opposite direction.

Last Summer i got at least one legit Ka alert/day. Lately, hardly nowhere to be found.
I think the LEOs around here might be saving up their Ka guns for Spring! lol

[Sui]

I'm starting to believe thats an unwritten rule when first trying out a RDer.

Been trying to evaluate my new 693se against Ka. In the few weeks i've used it, only had two Ka encounters. Out of those two, the best one was an unmarked LEO way behind going in my direction using 34.7 rolling IO. About 30 seconds of intermittent Ka with an occassional ID. The ID finally went solid then about 15 seconds later the LEO passed by. Got another few seconds alert as he speeded ahead, made a quick U-turn, turned on the lights and proceeded to pull over one of those diabolic speeding perpetrators in the opposite direction.

Last Summer i got at least one legit Ka alert/day. Lately, hardly nowhere to be found.
I think the LEOs around here might be saving up their Ka guns for Spring! lol

I think a lot of it often is just luck of the draw. I know I will get some Ka warnings on I-35 south of San Antonio with the XTR-690se - yesterday I had the old detector in the car and saw three cruisers on that freeway and got NO warnings at all. The one Ka frequency it can detect the cops don't use around here. On the other hand it got a ton of X and K falses as usual.

With all the stuff I've seen about Whistlers with K-band being a weakness I thought it was a bit amusing that its very FIRST detection ended up being a cruiser using K. What gives?

[Sui]

Took the XTR-690se out again today.

Much much more police action this time around – four in all. There were three K-band cruisers with C/O. One was a pair of cruisers parked perpendicular to the street, detected them about a quarter of a mile out. The second was when I was making a right onto another street and the cop was coming the other direction fast – pretty much hit me with full scale fairly quickly once the RD was aimed his way. The last was a second cruiser further up that street approaching the other direction and around a curve – the 690se spotted him about half of a mile out.

Also got one Ka band detection but no sighting, I’m guessing the cop was on a cross street somewhere but the alert identified it as a 33.8 and lasted about 20 seconds so I would say it likely was police radar since that’s one of the known police radar frequencies on Ka. It’s anybody’s guess of how far away it was but I only got a scale of 3 out of 9 on it.

Oh yeah, drove by a truck and got a strong Ka alert with no frequency readout – looked over at the cab and he had a Cobra sitting on his dash, LOL.

Two X falses in about an hour’s time. Considering X was going off constantly with the KEC XR3KA I used to run, I can live with that. No K or laser falses today.

So far I’m liking this unit quite a bit.

[unmamfqlm]

Took the XTR-690se out again today.

Much much more police action this time around – four in all. There were three K-band cruisers with C/O. One was a pair of cruisers parked perpendicular to the street, detected them about a quarter of a mile out. The second was when I was making a right onto another street and the cop was coming the other direction fast – pretty much hit me with full scale fairly quickly once the RD was aimed his way. The last was a second cruiser further up that street approaching the other direction and around a curve – the 690se spotted him about half of a mile out.

Also got one Ka band detection but no sighting, I’m guessing the cop was on a cross street somewhere but the alert identified it as a 33.8 and lasted about 20 seconds so I would say it likely was police radar since that’s one of the known police radar frequencies on Ka. It’s anybody’s guess of how far away it was but I only got a scale of 3 out of 9 on it.

Oh yeah, drove by a truck and got a strong Ka alert with no frequency readout – looked over at the cab and he had a Cobra sitting on his dash, LOL.

Two X falses in about an hour’s time. Considering X was going off constantly with the KEC XR3KA I used to run, I can live with that. No K or laser falses today.

So far I’m liking this unit quite a bit.

Sounds good. I had a weird Ka encounter today too. I was the only one in sight on the road, but I got a consistent Ka alert for about 1.5 miles. I guess I had a leo in front of me and then he turned somewhere. I sped up for a while to see if I could spot him, but no luck.

[Sui]

Sounds good. I had a weird Ka encounter today too. I was the only one in sight on the road, but I got a consistent Ka alert for about 1.5 miles. I guess I had a leo in front of me and then he turned somewhere. I sped up for a while to see if I could spot him, but no luck.

I do need to figure out which city it was, because when my Ka detection happened I was where they border each other and I had turned in both of these cities to the band list as K only - gonna have to revise that, one of them evidently is using Ka also.