Just picked up the RX65 - first impressions

[SoulRider4Ever]

Well, today is a new day. I have re-entered the world of radar detection. 8)

I used to own a Cobra model radar detector 3 years ago. I haven't had a radar detector in my car since then. Today, I finally buckled down and picked up a Bel RX65 Pro for $232 total!

Well, as soon as I hooked it up and plugged it in, I started getting K alerts. About 30 seconds later, I saw a cop :shock: .. I was shocked, well it works. I left it on default settings for the ride home. It stayed quiet for the majority of the ride.

Coming down a very curvy, windy, 2 lane road, a car flashed their lights at me, letting me know a cop was sitting around. I smiled, and slowed down to 55 mph, wondering how long it would be before the Bel picked up any radar (assuming he has it on). Well coming around the bend of the next turn, I get a K alert at about 3 bar, for 2 seconds. It stops.

Then the road goes into a straight away, and I am getting full blast K and see the cop in bushes on the left about 1/4 mile up the road. I smiled with satisfaction because I knew whether or not the person who flashed his lights at me ended up warning me; I would have had ample time to slow down before the cop was in sight.

So after only 15 minutes of the radar detector being in my car, it was already impressing me.

I chose this radar detector over the X50 mainly because I live close to New Jersey and travel their a lot. As I've read on some reviews the X50 tends to lag a bit on picking up X band. I also bought it because it was cheaper than any X50 I could find :P

I'd have to say the RX65 is so easy to program, it took me 5 minutes to have the settings I wanted. I am disappointed that the Threat display will only do 1 of each band, and not 2 X and 1 K or something, but I suppose I'll make due :wink:

Current settings I have now are

Pilot - H
Voice - ON
PwrOn - FST
Meter - THT (threat mode)
AMute - ON
City - LoX

Bands MOD
X - ON
K - ON
KA - International
SWS - ON
POP - ON
LSR - ON
KU - Off

I'm interested to see if I get a lot of false alarms on the POP or not, as I do live in New York.

I was also wondering if having other feautures turned off would allow more processing power to the Ka for a faster sweep or not. (ie - LSR OFF/SMS OFF)

[crazyVOLVOrob]

Turn off SMS it does nothing and is useless...and you might want to turn off POP if it gets too annoying

[sethy]

I am disappointed that the Threat display will only do 1 of each band, and not 2 X and 1 K or something, but I suppose I'll make due Wink

The rx65 always sounded like a great detector, but the threat display is what won me over with the x50

[robert]

count yourself lucky they're using constant on.... mainly instant on here. :?

welcome to the forums! :D

[sethy]

Didnt even notice he was a newcomer. Welcome!

That is cool that they use constant on there, they use a mix of instant-on and constant here as well...

[The Walt]

Welcome from another newcomer!

My new RX65 is already in town, and on the way to my door now. I might have to leave work for a sec to pick it up when it arrives. ;-)

[AceFreely]

I have had mine for two days now. Works great, display and features are very nice. Coming from the V1, I can say that I am a little worried about not having that dedicated rear detection. My main complaint is the laser falsing around airports, it really is rediculous, to the point where I am going to have to disable laser. For instance, on the way to work this morning (I-65 borders Louisville International for about 3 miles) laser was going nuts. Meanwhile I notice a flash of K, which is a big deal because that is what LEO here mainly uses. However, in the default mode the Rx-65 determines that laser is a higher threat than K and therefore it only shows the laser alert. I guess I will have to either disable laser for daily driving or live with the falsing and change to the multithreat display. I will probably go with the later. Very nice detector other than that...

[SoulRider4Ever]

Turn off SMS it does nothing and is useless...and you might want to turn off POP if it gets too annoying

I was under the impression that turning off SWS would then just give me a non decoded K alert. If that's the case I'd rather have it say the warning rather than just give a K band, as I'll be more likely to think its police. In my area a few years ago with my Cobra that had SMS, it went off maybe twice for an ambulance. It's not common, but it is available where I am.

If I am wrong in saying that disabling SWS will alert a K band then I will be more than happy to disable it!

[happya$$]

I owned one for about three months and this is what I can tell you

PROS

GREAT range on Ka, K, X
Falses very little when POP is disabled

CONS

Tone alert never hits full alert
Laser detection not up to par to my expectations
Falses too much when POP is enabled

You got yourself one hell of a detector. The main reason why I got rid of mine was because I missed the Multi Threat display or expert mode

[synmoo]

count yourself lucky they're using constant on.... mainly instant on here. :?

welcome to the forums! :D


Most of my encounters in this area have been constant.....

And yes welcome to the forum!

[SoulRider4Ever]

Ok after reading some topics on these forums, I am going to change a few settings.

SWS - OFF
Meter - Tech

Instead of Threat display I'm going to go Tech and get a good idea of what cops are using for KA band. I am considering switching over to USA only mode :o

But I'm going to leave it in International for awhile to see if I'm actually getting any Ka bands outside of the big 3.

This area doesn't use any photo radar, just some weak redlight with xband in the "bigger" towns.

I'm also leaving POP enabled for awhile as I haven't gotten too many falses on it, and I hear NY is one of the lucky states that uses it.

[SoulRider4Ever]

Update on settings

Well, I've decided to disable POP because it falses way too much. I believe it to be other radar detectors that I am picking up. I will enable it if I ever plan to drive in upstate NY near Albany area, as I've heard they do use POP there.

I also tried setting the RX-65 to USA mode for a bit after disabling POP, when I noticed I kept getting 33.8 (BEE III) falses all the time instead of POP falses. After getting real tired of Ka falses, I set it back to International Ka, and it hasn't falsed on me once yet so far.

I have also decided to set it to Auto mode instead of Highway for awhile, as I noticed it'll beep once and then stop if it's a false on X or K. It still seems to have the same sensitivity to Ka even in Automode.

I will also note that with Ka in International, I haven't noticed any significant gain in Ka detection with USA mode. Just more falses on 33.8 band w/o POP enabled.

Funny that after owning this awesome radar detector, I've realized I'm pretty much back to the default settings, other than switching between Threat and Tech display modes. I guess the guys over at Beltronics knew what they were doing when they made those settings default 8)

[compu44]

Update on settings

Well, I've decided to disable POP because it falses way too much. I believe it to be other radar detectors that I am picking up. I will enable it if I ever plan to drive in upstate NY near Albany area, as I've heard they do use POP there.

I also tried setting the RX-65 to USA mode for a bit after disabling POP, when I noticed I kept getting 33.8 (BEE III) falses all the time instead of POP falses. After getting real tired of Ka falses, I set it back to International Ka, and it hasn't falsed on me once yet so far.

I have also decided to set it to Auto mode instead of Highway for awhile, as I noticed it'll beep once and then stop if it's a false on X or K. It still seems to have the same sensitivity to Ka even in Automode.

I will also note that with Ka in International, I haven't noticed any significant gain in Ka detection with USA mode. Just more falses on 33.8 band w/o POP enabled.

Funny that after owning this awesome radar detector, I've realized I'm pretty much back to the default settings, other than switching between Threat and Tech display modes. I guess the guys over at Beltronics knew what they were doing when they made those settings default 8)

I think that one way the auto mode might work is looking for several signals of slightly different frequency at low strength. Since door openers are usually in groups, this sometimes works. I've noticed that Auto mode will sometimes cut the K alert from a local CVS, and sometimes not. It will always, however, beep at least once. It seems to cut it out more often if the Ka is set to USA mode for some reason.