opinions on bel 985 vs bel 940

**louisdarke** · 08-10-2006, 04:43 PM

i just repaired the speaker on my bel 985 and it seems to be working fine again.
while it was down, i bought a new bel 940 and it seems to work as good as the 985. maybe a bit less filtering.
should i return the 940 while i can, and go back to the older 985, or keep using the 940, and use the 985 as a backup unit?

any thoughts?

thanks

**KaPro** · 08-11-2006, 04:01 AM

KEEP the 985!!! Just do not let it bake in the sun. That is one of the best detectors ever made. IMHO. Scott

**louisdarke** · 08-13-2006, 08:23 PM

i've driven around with both the newer 940 and the older 985 in the car and have seen these results so far.

both detectors in city x mode: 1. 940 falses more on the k band and the 985 falses more on x band.
2. both detectors picked up a "your speed is" sign from the same distance, and alerted exactly at the same time. the 985 showed 1-2 bars more strength as we approached the sign, but not the entire time.

i have not run into a real radar threat as yet, but should this week, upon returning to work. i will update the findings, when i hit a real cop with a real threat of radar/laser.

having both detectors next to each other doesn't seem to bother either one of them, which is a good thing.

they are mounted low on the windshield.

i also run a blinder m-20 which is a great item. saved my as* more than once........

**louisdarke** · 08-27-2006, 06:18 AM

took a trip to atlanta from tampa, florida and noticed these results when running both the newer model bel 940 and the bel 985. in the 900+ miles, they really performed very similar. a little more falsing on the 940 every now and then, but other than that, not much difference in performance. i encountered several types of radar, k, ka, laser, and the 940 actually picked up laser and the 985 didn't. i also run a blinder m20, so the laser encounter was not a problem in that scenario.

i had the 985 mounted a bit lower than the 940, which was mounted lower than mid windshield.

**leo68** · 08-27-2006, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by louisdarke

i've driven around with both the newer 940 and the older 985 in the car and have seen these results so far.

both detectors in city x mode: 1. 940 falses more on the k band and the 985 falses more on x band.
2. both detectors picked up a "your speed is" sign from the same distance, and alerted exactly at the same time. the 985 showed 1-2 bars more strength as we approached the sign, but not the entire time.

i have not run into a real radar threat as yet, but should this week, upon returning to work. i will update the findings, when i hit a real cop with a real threat of radar/laser.

having both detectors next to each other doesn't seem to bother either one of them, which is a good thing.

they are mounted low on the windshield.

i also run a blinder m-20 which is a great item. saved my as* more than once........

Even though you don't see any problems using both radar detectors together they can interfer with each other. Best to test them separately.

**jdreynss** · 08-27-2006, 09:36 AM

I suspect that the difference in the two may be Ka detection range

**GTO_04** · 08-27-2006, 08:14 PM

Does 940 have POP mode? If yes, you should keep it because 985 does not have it. Otherwise no reason to keep the 940. 985 has been an excellent RD for me. Not even 1 "service required" message.

GTO_04

**Ray** · 08-27-2006, 09:39 PM

Any of yall know what differences there are between the 980 and the 985? I thinking that the 985 just has more features.

**billgerr** · 08-27-2006, 10:08 PM

The 940,960, and 985 are essentially the same hardware and differ only in firmware features:
940: No tech mode, no numeric value left of the bar intensity indicator, no Accusweep,
960: No Accusweep,
985: all features

I've seen no differences in sensitivity amongst the three: X,K, Ka, and laser are all similar. None has POP detection. FCC ID'd units may have better filtering wrt Ka falses.

Bill

**Ray** · 08-27-2006, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by billgerr

The 940,960, and 985 are essentially the same hardware and differ only in firmware features:
940: No tech mode, no numeric value left of the bar intensity indicator, no Accusweep,
960: No Accusweep,
980: all features

I've seen no differences in sensitivity amongst the three: X,K, Ka, and laser are all similar. None has POP detection. FCC ID'd units may have better filtering wrt Ka falses.

Bill

The 980 doesn't have tech mode. I think that's where the 985 comes in. I was wondering if there is any difference in detection between the 980 and the 985. I could have sworn that I saw on a thread before that features is the only real difference but not sure.