Whistler XTR-695: issues, questions, answers

First of all I would like to say hello everyone on this forum and appologize from the begining for my possible writting errors since I am not an English native speaker.

I intend to share my findings on using the radar detector I own, based on the specific conditions I have in my area, and to clarify some aspects regarding my detector, based on your experience.

So, I live in Romania, a country with all types of terrain, with a lot of curvy and hilly roads.

Enforcements and opperation mode:
- Python II - a K band radar equipment - the cops are using it on C/O but also on a kind of I/O (that seems not to be legal, but that is the situation :rolleyes: ). These are maybe more than 90% of equipments used here.
- Traffipax Speedophot - K band equipment - there are a couple of them in all the country, but a very scary radar, since is very difficult to detect in time
- Decatur.... I don't know exactly what tipe is, I undestood is a new radar the police start to use - a Ka band radar.

Radar detector I use:
After a lot of posts read on this forum and also on some Romanian forums and based, of course, on my budget, I decided, two years ago, to buy a Whistler Pro58 that served me well. For a couple of weeks, I have upgraded it to a XTR-695.
The settings are everything off except K and Ka, highway mode, filter, POP off.

Findings on my XTR-695 in this short time of using it on 3000 km driving are as follows:

The detector is very, very quiet even in the city. There are a couple of automatic doors it detects on K, but when I am very close of them. It doesn't pick up all the gas stations I pass along. It picks up very rare other detectors (Cobra's or other chinese or korean models are sold here) on Ka.

As a comparison, the previous pro58 was very noisy. I almost used to pick up all the door openers and cheap detectors on my road.

- Python II - K band
- detected from 600 - 800 meters in heavy traffic, in the city, with a small hill and a small curve between me and the police car, which was hidden among the cars parked on the side of the road, the radar facing me;
- detected between 700 - 1200 meters on the national road and normal traffic, radar facing me;
- detected around 2-300 meters with the radar facing the same direction with me (forward facing is the name?);

- K band speed measurement panel - detected at around 6-700 meters when moving towards it and 50 - 70 meters when coming up from behind it;

- Speedophot - K band
- around 50 meters when approaching from behind and 150 - 200 meters when going straight to it;

Questions:

- Reading the facts regarding detection ranges impressed me a lot but here, in the given conditions, my results seems to be far from what I read. Can my unit be defective?

- I "tested" against the K band speed panel (that saying your speed is....) the pro 58, the 695 and a Bel940. All of them have detected it from almost the same distance, 600- 700 meters. Could all of them be defective? Or that is what you can get against this "threat" with the same class units ?

- I read about "factory reset" that can improve the functioning of the detector. I do this also, but there is no noticeable improvement. I personaly think that this reset practically can not improve the range, for example, since this procedure restore the settings to those default that came from the factory. Am I wrong?

- Is there any way to check if the Whistler I bought is an original one? I personally didn't find any differences between what I bought and what I saw on the Whistler's website, regarding the aspect of the product or packaging... regarding the packaging issues I read on the forum, my unit was perfect in terms of front lens, not a single scratch, even if the unit doesn't have the protection plastic as found on the pro58...

- What is all about the message displayed on the unit (a forum member said he observed on his unit) that one telling no ramp-up?

I would really appreciate any oppinions from any of you that had experience with xtr695 regarding all I wrote above.

Thank you very much!

PS. I followed the advice and posted in this section. If needed, my post can be moved on Whistler section since I think is not necesary to post it twice.