Bel E 925

[foot474]

Do you have any information on the Bel E 925 radar detector. I bought a cobra detector but it was giving false signals everywhere i was (even on a country road). I seen this detector at circuit city and the salesman told me that it would be a good detector. I am looking to spend less than $150 on one. But if anyone has any info on this model please reply.

[Radar Roy]

Not familiar with that model, have not tested it. An important buying feature you may want to consider is if the detector is upgradeable and/or if it can detect the new Ku bands coming out. This model is not upgradeable and it does not have Ku.

If you can afford the extra $100, get the V995, that way you wouldn't be sorry in another year

[theeagle2015]

With that in mind, that brings some questions to mind, as follows:
1)if and when Ku is approved in the USA, which radar units and what percentage will be Ku frequency units;
2)will the POP mode be an issue for Ku?;
3)how rapidly will Ku radar become a big issue in the USA?

[compu44]

Firstly, The E925 is a good unit as it stands right now. The range is the best one could ever expect from a $100 unit. I picked one up for $80 on sale at circuit city little over a month ago for my mom's car. Before installing it in her vehicle, I tested it thoroughly in mine, and I was impressed. For the price it should last her a year or two, by that time, it will be time to look at something new. It's one that I would really like to see Roy test out, it's a very interresting unit for the price. In fact there were a couple features that I liked on the 925 better than my RX65, being a non-angled display, come with a visor clip standard, and has a city-all function, but I still won't be giving up my RX any time soon.

As Roy pointed out, it's not upgradeable, and it will not detect POP or Ku bands. So these are important things to keep in mind.

I do not expect to see POP on the Ku band. The sole reason for POP was to evade radar detectors, and Ku will accomplish the same thing while remaining admissable in court, something that POP is not.

I would expect the Ku to become an issue somewhat more quickly than POP because I would assume that the lower frequency output would be somewhat less expensive to manufacture, so within a couple years, these may be an issue. Cops will love these because they will be undectedable for most existing units. I know people still using detectors with no Ka detection, so i'm sure there will be plenty than hang on to non Ku detectors for a long time. I can think of only four detectors in the US that are currently able to detect the Ku radars, being the RX65, Vector 995, Vector 990, and the Valentine One. Escort X50 will be upgraded for Ku, but i'm talking capable now, not months from now. As far as I know, the POP update for the original 8500 still isn't available, so i'm not putting a whole lot of faith in escort as far as speedy updates.

The other advantage from the law enforcement perspective, is that the targeting range of Ku should be pretty good. Ka is a high frequency signal (35GHz), which will suffer from a high attenuation, so the distance that it can travel and still be useful is shorter than a lower frequency like X band (10.5 GHz). Ku is down with X as far as the frequency goes, at about 13GHz. This is why shortwave radio (low frequency) can be listened to from around the globe. Plus there will be no reason for the manufacturer to limit the output power for the time being because the 4 detectors that will be able to pick it up realistically make up an extremely small market share. This will also increase targeting range substantially.

Just a few thoughts. If I have anything wrong, or if anyone has anything to add, please do so.

[jimbonzzz]

Plus there will be no reason for the manufacturer to limit the output power for the time being because the 4 detectors that will be able to pick it up realistically make up an extremely small market share. This will also increase targeting range substantially.

This makes a lot of sense, and maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing. The police will likely be told that only some small percentage of detectors on the road will be able to detect Ku. So maybe, they'll feel confident for a while that they can defeat detector users, and they won't bother with instant on and they'll leave their units in constant transmit more often (we can only hope )

Jim

[compu44]

My throughts exactly. I for one, (owning a Ku capable detector) am looking forward to the Ku guns.