RX65 Performance in Canada

[mwdf]

I got my RX65 issues fixed by Beltronics and have been moderately happy with it since I got it back, but it's not performing the way I remember it performing when I lived in Florida, so I am wondering if perhaps there is a difference in the way Canadian police use radar, or the radar equipment they use.

I am used to picking up a solid stream of Ka band warnings when an officer running radar is driving toward me in opposing traffic, but running the detector in Alberta (Canada), I notice that it picks up a weak Ka signal briefly, stops, picks it up again a couple seconds later, then stops, then picks it up again 4 or 5 seconds later, then stops, and at some point around 15 seconds or so after the first Ka warning, I see a police car traveling towards us. At this point, the radar detector may or may not be beeping. It is NOT a steady Ka alert.

The other day I rounded a corner and there was someone that got pulled over by a cop, I got blasted with a brief Ka 6 level alert, and then the radar detector fell silent. The officer was not in his vehicle, so he was not turning his radar on/off. He was standing at the persons window talking to them about their traffic violation.

Today I was driving through Airdrie on the highway and there was a speed trap in a construction zone. My radar detector did not pick up a single thing. I thought that perhaps the officer was using Laser, but she was using a handheld gun, no tripod, and at no point did it pick up any laser signal. I thought maybe she just hadn't fired the gun because she didn't see any speeders, and maybe that is the case, but it was odd.

Then driving back through a small town (highway still) we saw 4 police officers - 1 setting himself up at an on-ramp, another one 1/2 mile down in the median clearly pointed at traffic for radaring (officer inside the vehicle, no tripods or anything), 1 officer driving near us, and one that had just caught a speeder on the other side of the road and was pulled over behind their victim. I would have expected to pick up at least a little bit of Ka band from this, but the detector didn't do a thing!

I was told on another thread on this forum that Canada uses the same frequencies as the USA does, and that it would be fine to set my detector in Ka USA mode. After all these issues not picking up radar, I set it to International mode (and even enabled Ku band just in case), but didn't encounter any police after making the change, so don't know if it made any difference or not.

The detector is mounted on one of those neat lil brackets that mounts it directly under the rearview mirror, and it is aimed level and straight (changing the angle left/right made no difference in performance). It has a clear shot out of the windshield with no films tints or anything in front of it. The vehicle is a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500.

Thanks!

[TRun]

Canadian radar bands are the same as USA. What you describe of your encounters appears to be Instant On. Plus the cop may have had a laser gun since you don't need a tripod to operate one.

[AirMoore]

Canadian radar bands are the same as USA. What you describe of your encounters appears to be Instant On. Plus the cop may have had a laser gun since you don't need a tripod to operate one.

X2.


When a car is pulled over... you never have a clue... maybe the officer had a radar-unit he laid on his passenger seat etc. Also remember geography plays a huge role in detection.

Cautiously try it out for a bit longer, then call Beltronics with your concerns... they will likely blow you off and or make you send it in at your expense (even if they did something incorrectly)... but that is what they do over there.

[mwdf]

Do officers that are driving tend to use Instant-On? I figured that would be kind of an inconvenience to do while driving, but I suppose it would be possible.

[TRun]

They can use Instant on while driving if they wish. I see most leos around me prefer constant on all day long. Its just a matter of preference. Its not too hard to operate radar while driving since the radar has a handheld remote.

[mwdf]

So when an officer drives with instant-on - are they able to aim it at all, or do they pretty much shoot the car directly in front of them? In which case, the concern should be rear-detection more so than front?

[AirMoore]

So when an officer drives with instant-on - are they able to aim it at all, or do they pretty much shoot the car directly in front of them? In which case, the concern should be rear-detection more so than front?

They can get oncoming traffic as well as traffic in their own lane, and if they have certain equipment they can shoot behind them too.

[EscortRadar]

If you continue noticing this erratic behavior then contact us to have it serviced. If it was recently serviced then it will be taken care of at our expense.