New V1 Owner- Debating Whether to Keep and Adjusting Settings for SoCal

Hi Everyone,
First post here! My name is Steve and I bought myself a V1 specifically to use for the my July 4th trip to the mountains. I swore to myself that I would return it after the weekend (you'll see why below), but after feeling so secure in my car and finding this community/learning about all of the little settings you can change, I'm seriously debating it.

Here is my dilemma. I currently live in Santa Monica and recently got a new job that is only a mile away... in Santa Monica. Im not doing too much speeding during my daily commute to say the least (I walk every once in a while as well). I do drive around into the valley/other parts of the city on the weekends and on rare occasions, for client meetings during the week. Do you guys think it is worth investing $400 in a radar detector when I'm not doing that much driving? As I said, the geek in me is telling me to keep it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts :D.

While I have my V1, I'd like to try configuring my settings. I was wondering if anyone can anyone point me in the right direction for optimizing my settings for my area? I am mostly driving around Santa Monica, Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, and on rare occasions, into Ventura county. Are the settings that I found in the sticky sufficient for this area?

Any advice/help would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance... looking forward to chatting.

-Steve

Welcome! You will find a lot of useful information here and there are many folks here that are very willing to help you out with info on your settings adjustment. I am a recent V1 owner as well and love it. What is it about a radar detector that makes a person love it? Maybe it is the secure feeling when using it. I don't know but I love my V1, highly recommend you keep that unit! :D

another welcome.

Consider my story back in october 1997 and valentine one.

I was, a poor college student, and forked out $400 for a valentine one. I bought it after reading an unbiased review about it in a car magazine - Car and driver. After seeing how superior it was to its competitors, I had to have it.

I used it for a month. I had a couple big trips in there, but ended up turning it back because I needed the money.

A few months later I started up a co-op job and got some more cash. I couldnt stop thinking about that little device and quickly bought another one (identical to the one I traded in). I kept the same unit for 12 years before upgrading to a v1.8 3.872. Twice during that time, my old v1.7 had some issues with excessive false alarms and v1 fixed it free (outside of warranty).

I did get 2 speeding tickets with it during those 12 years. One was by airplane (no help there) and the other was on a day I had taken it down (didnt want it stolen in a bad neighborhood) and forgot to reattach it.


A month is not enough time to fully evaluate it. Only after having the detector for about 3 months did I realize how useful it really was. I will never forget how much of a game-changer it was the first summer I had it when radar was everywhere. Summer 1998. Back when they used very powerful radars. A cop could light up his radar almost anywhere in town at night and I could pick it up while sitting in my driveway.

However, now that radar's been dialed back to about 5-10 mW power (vs. 50 mW before) you realize the value of the valentine one more and more to pick up those weak signals.

It is the best detector out there. As long as you dont live in VA/Canada and need your detector to be Spectre proof, this is the detector for you. It scans the fastest. Other detectors scan slow and can miss I/O Ka. Dont believe the biased reviews by craig peterson and other reviewers who will bash it because they sell competitor products and not it. Its not better than the latest made-in-china detectors from its competition.

The one thing it lacks is GPS-filter of false alarms. However, if you travel the same route, it becomes a non-issue as you know where the falses are.

While it is certainly possible for a cop to surprise you with I/O , it has only happened a handful of times. If you are quick on the brakes, you may luck out and get slowed down before your vehicle is in the correct line-of-sight for a radar lock.

Cant live without it. The newest V1.8 3.872 (and the newer software spec version they are working on) is the best all-around one they have ever made period.

a radar detector is always a good thing to have around, you never know when you're going to be making a long trip. I say hold onto it, even if you don't use it, it is a great thing to keep with ya.

Thanks for the reply guys. Im definitely leaning towards keeping it. I guess it pays for itself after 1 save.

I wan't to give it a real "test drive", but I've been getting a lot of false alarms on K-Band. I was curious if you think the settings from the V1 forum's sticky would be best for my area? From what I have gathered, cops pretty much only use Ka and L around here and do not use POP (don't fully understand what that is, but I have also read that it affects reaction times)? Anyone in the Socal/westside area have any advice regarding this?

Thanks again for the advice!

.

Welcome!


Are you talking about the 30 second K-band auto mute settings?

I tried setting my V1 up this way, and it indeed is quiet around the city. You can still visually see the alerts on the unit and decide what to do with the threats.

I ended up putting mine back to factory settings(Minus POP and X) and just using the standard logic mode, and I felt that worked OK. Mine will only false about two or three times on the route that I drive everyday in the city, and the falses I do get, do not bother me too bad. I would like to know instantly if there was something that could potentially be a threat.

I would say if you are comfortable watching the alerts on your V1 without an audible notification, then by all means I would use the 30 Second K band mute. You get to know where the false alerts are, and will know quickly if something is out of place.


I would definitely keep the radar detector. LEOs are out to get you, and I will never drive without one.

Thanks guys. It sounds like I should try setting up the K auto-mute settings. I figure I can keep l or L mode on around here, and then put it into A mode when traveling on the highways (with x-band muted). Does that sound like a good plan? Also, I keep reading about POP reducing sensitivity for instant on. Do I need to be concerned about that? Will jumping back into A mode when I am on the highways help with that issue? Thanks again for all the great advice... I'm throughly enjoying my time on this site!

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Originally Posted by Cyberstven

Thanks for the reply guys. Im definitely leaning towards keeping it. I guess it pays for itself after 1 save.

I wan't to give it a real "test drive", but I've been getting a lot of false alarms on K-Band. I was curious if you think the settings from the V1 forum's sticky would be best for my area? From what I have gathered, cops pretty much only use Ka and L around here and do not use POP (don't fully understand what that is, but I have also read that it affects reaction times)? Anyone in the Socal/westside area have any advice regarding this?

Thanks again for the advice!

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Hmmm. Is it k band that seems to be instant on? On highways or main roads only? If so, it could be traffic monitoring k band drones. Tsr. Ohio has these on highways, and their purpose is to provide traffic flow info in realtime that you can get online and checkout. Look for solar powered cylinders attached to the road signs.

Anyways, if this what it is then email valentine reseach about your complaint. They may have a fix upgrade that wont affect k band performance (no need for k band automute or any setting that could negatively affect v1 response to instant on k band).

Welcome.Yes good to have a good RD with you.