RX65 questions - new user
Greetings everyone, I'm new here and just got my first radar detector, a Bel RX65. I was actually going to get a V895 from Radioshack, but found a great deal on the RX65 and didn't want to pass it up. Now, this being my first radar detector, I don't really know how it stacks up against anything else - but I do have a few newb questions.
1. Mounting location - I know I know, this has probably been beaten into the ground in about 100 different threads, but I have to ask anyway. My personal preference would be to mount it high, but I have to juggle between two issues here. First, I live in NW Ohio, and Ohio (as I'm sure many of you know) is completely infested with LIDAR. Even the podunk departments somehow get nice laser equipment. Mounting high = poor laser reception, correct? This makes me think I should mount low. The other issue is theft. Toledo has one of the highest auto larceny rates in the area, and a nice RD would be a good reason to break into my car. Over the years I've been the victim of three larcenies....I friggin HATE theives...obviously I'm not looking to go through that again. This makes me think I should mount high for concealment and increased radar range. That being said, I'm moving to Denver here in about a week for a job relocation, which could be temporary or permanent...not sure yet. I have no idea what Colorado State Patrol or Denver PD/surrounding area departments use, so thats another issue as well. Any suggestions on where to mount this thing? It's mounted low right now becasue I'm so damn scared of the state troopers and their LIDAR guns! (they got me two days in a row back in '04...guess I didn't learn from the first one, hm? "We don't need no stinkin cruise control!" :roll: )
2. This being my first detector, I don't know much about the features. I'm thinking that SWS is kinda useless bc it's not that common, and I've heard that turning POP mode on can just make it false more and gets annoying. Would that be correct to assume?
3. I seem to get very low K band readings around here (one bar or so in most cases) that don't fluctuate at all. I thought most of the garage doors and whatnot were on X-band...do some of them use K-band, too? I was thinking about reducing the sensitivity of the K-band a little to help reduce those falses until last night, when I got hammered by two state troopers, one using laser and one using K-band. I thought that they used Ka, but I was wrong. I think I'll leave the K-band sensitivity alone and put up with a few falses here and there, if they are in fact false readings coming from other sources.
I guess I'm just kinda trying to figure out what the ideal setup for my area is, but this is a difficult issue since I'm about to move. I could always change things later on after I get to where I'm going (driving out there, not flying), so if someone from Ohio and someone from Colorado wants to chime in with any info, that would be great :wink: .
Thanks everyone!
-JB
Re: RX65 questions - new user
Quote:
Originally Posted by J_Walters
Greetings everyone, I'm new here and just got my first radar detector, a Bel RX65. I was actually going to get a V895 from Radioshack, but found a great deal on the RX65 and didn't want to pass it up. Now, this being my first radar detector, I don't really know how it stacks up against anything else - but I do have a few newb questions.
1. Mounting location - I know I know, this has probably been beaten into the ground in about 100 different threads, but I have to ask anyway. My personal preference would be to mount it high, but I have to juggle between two issues here. First, I live in NW Ohio, and Ohio (as I'm sure many of you know) is completely infested with LIDAR. Even the podunk departments somehow get nice laser equipment. Mounting high = poor laser reception, correct? This makes me think I should mount low. The other issue is theft. Toledo has one of the highest auto larceny rates in the area, and a nice RD would be a good reason to break into my car. Over the years I've been the victim of three larcenies....I friggin HATE theives...obviously I'm not looking to go through that again. This makes me think I should mount high for concealment and increased radar range. That being said, I'm moving to Denver here in about a week for a job relocation, which could be temporary or permanent...not sure yet. I have no idea what Colorado State Patrol or Denver PD/surrounding area departments use, so thats another issue as well. Any suggestions on where to mount this thing? It's mounted low right now becasue I'm so *BEEP* scared of the state troopers and their LIDAR guns! (they got me two days in a row back in '04...guess I didn't learn from the first one, hm? "We don't need no stinkin cruise control!" :roll: )
I have picked up laser when mounted high the one time I encountered it on the highway, with good warning. Luck? Don't know. But with theft considered, I'd mount it behind your tint band and hardwire it.
2. This being my first detector, I don't know much about the features. I'm thinking that SWS is kinda useless bc it's not that common, and I've heard that turning POP mode on can just make it false more and gets annoying. Would that be correct to assume?
SWS=Useless
POP mode makes your detector more apt to false from other detectors, but it also enables it to detect POP radar. Run frequency display for a while. If you're seeing a lot of ~33.800's for Ka band in your area, might be a good idea to keep it on. Those don't nescessarily mean POP capable guns, but it means they are made by the company that manufactures POP guns.
3. I seem to get very low K band readings around here (one bar or so in most cases) that don't fluctuate at all. I thought most of the garage doors and whatnot were on X-band...do some of them use K-band, too? I was thinking about reducing the sensitivity of the K-band a little to help reduce those falses until last night, when I got hammered by two state troopers, one using laser and one using K-band. I thought that they used Ka, but I was wrong. I think I'll leave the K-band sensitivity alone and put up with a few falses here and there, if they are in fact false readings coming from other sources.
Unfortunately there is no way to reduce K sensitivity with the RX65 anyways, but many of the low signal strength K alerts you are getting are automatic door openers.
I guess I'm just kinda trying to figure out what the ideal setup for my area is, but this is a difficult issue since I'm about to move. I could always change things later on after I get to where I'm going (driving out there, not flying), so if someone from Ohio and someone from Colorado wants to chime in with any info, that would be great :wink: .
Any time you're traveling, keep everything enabled including POP. Pop mode rarely falses on the highway.
Thanks everyone!
-JB
