Vector 940 Performance

Well, I know most here are big on the top 3 or 4 but I was able to assess my new Beltronics v940 on the ridiculous Ohio Turnpike (I-80) today from Cleveland to Toledo.

3 State Troopers hunting in a fashion that reminded me oddly of trolling for walleye.

First one, picked a short K burst about 2 bars. Started the trip odometer.
about a 1.75 miles over a slight hill, the Trooper had a car pulled over to the right. I was pleased with that sensitivity.

Second, picked up a short Ka burst, again about 2 bars. Started the odometer, this time 2.2 miles over an even steeper grade. State Trooper sitting in the median turn around between the walls. I was thrilled with this Ka sensitivity.

Never did get a visual on the third Ka burst. Ohio patrol can't seem to get enough of instant on. With the exception of a Canal Fulton city LEO driving around with X band blazing. No laser at all, which suprized me after reading all of Sethy's post's about LaserFest 2006 in Ohio. Hoping to get painted on my next trip down to Akron.

The v940 was mounted center about 2 inches above the wipers.


After reading posts in this forum I almost swapped the 940 for the 995 but this puppy performs just fine. Almost never falses except in heavy commercial areas. I can definetly recommend this unit for those not wanting to shell out the heavy bucks.

Nice post, I see you are from Michigan huh? Make sure you watch out for those LEOS in Ohio. They have practically all of the speed monitoring equipment.

Thx. From Michigan yes. Travel out your way often. as well as into Indiana.

Read an interesting post about I-94 Between Marshall and Jackson, which is a frequent route of mine as well. It stated there is a POP gun out there.

If there is. I'll run into it I'm sure.

Ohio is a riot. There's always was some Cheez Whiz to follow for cannon fodder.

Good for you!! Please keep posting about your experience, we need more data than just the top 3.

Man when i had my 940 i loved it, it lacks features but for some those extra features are not worth the extra dough, i had good range with it and was pretty happy with its filtering.

Thanks for telling us about your experiances with the 940. I just purchased one about two weeks ago but haven't had any experiances with Leos to test out the performance.

No problem. This is a great forum, but only concentrates on the top 3. It's nice to hear about some mid range models as well.

So far, this v940 has shown me that it has top notch performance.

I just hardwired it in and raised it up to the left of the RVM. We'll see next week how it performs.

Ive always had good luck with Bel. I owned the original Vector back in the late 80's, and a 966W in the 90's. Both saved my butt countless times. I'm certain this v940 will do the same.

You owned the 966W eh? In the early 90s, there weren't forums like these to get info on so I read the RD review in Car & Truck or Motor Performance and at that time they rated the 966W among the best.

I got the 956W which was second line performance. It served me well on X/K 8) , since it supported all Ka bands and it's filtering wasn't quite as good it detected other RDs more than LEOs :roll: . I rarely ran into real Ka with it, Ka was not as prevalent then either.

I remember one great save with my 940, i just pulled out of a neighborhood onto a wide 4 lane road with the PSL of 40 and everyone went like 50. but anyways i pull out and am preparing to put the pedal to the medal and suddenly Ka and i loved the voice feature... but anyways i get a hit and im driving along and the LEO is at the top of this hill(he already had someone) but i think it was like .9mi over a hill

Laserhead, I have heard of that person who got Popped off of I-94. I just got hit w/ POP the other day for the 1rst time over here.

I'm not sure if it is coincidence or not that both you and he got "Popped" on the west side of the state. Was it MSP that you encountered?


I'm up in the air on whether or not to enable POP. I have to drive up to Cadillac this Tuesday.

when i had my 940 i called and ask beltronics why POP was naturally turned off and he said you will get more falses with it on, but if you are in a area with confirmed POP you would probally want it on. I have POP on with my X50 and i wouldve thought that crapras would set the POP off but really they dont seem to. I have had one POP so far and it was actually confirmed POP so i would turn it on if they use it.

I suppose I can enable POP on my ride up to Cadillac. I have reservations over all the posts I have read indicating POP mode reduces radar detection range.

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Originally Posted by LittleOverPSL

You owned the 966W eh? In the early 90s, there weren't forums like these to get info on so I read the RD review in Car & Truck or Motor Performance and at that time they rated the 966W among the best.

I got the 956W which was second line performance. It served me well on X/K 8) , since it supported all Ka bands and it's filtering wasn't quite as good it detected other RDs more than LEOs :roll: . I rarely ran into real Ka with it, Ka was not as prevalent then either.

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I still have the 966W. And it still works after hundreds of "drops" from the windshield on those hot summer days when the cups give way. I get a little miffed when I hear that Bel's quality blows. Maybe now it does, but based on the abuse my 966W took and it still fires up, I'm Bel all the way for now.
The 966W was over kill when I bought it. never ran into Ka back then, but boy did it save me with K band.

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Originally Posted by Laserhead

The 966W was over kill when I bought it. never ran into Ka back then, but boy did it save me with K band.

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Amen to that. I prolly should pull out my 956W from the bottom of a box and see how it compares to my new 995.

I have a retired Bel 940. I bought it on clearance and it worked great for the money. It had good range but the filtering was a little weak.

I really like the way the old Bel's automute feature worked with the initial alert and then a "geiger" clicking sound. I hate the current automute that totally shuts off the audio. I never use it on my X50. (I'm not sure if the RX65 also does this because I've never used it.)

Well......took my cruise up to Cadillac, Mi today to test out my v940 mounted up high to the left of the RVM. The v940 must have a newly engineered LEO repulser mode because I did not see a single one the whole 3.5 hrs.

Hopefully on the way home tomorrow. :lol:

I bought a brand new Bel Vector 940 yesterday and it got it's first save this morning.

I really like the range on this unit. I was on a long hilly stretch when a Ka alert came on with two bars on the indicator. Very faint. That first "whiff" is what saved me. The instant I got that "whiff" I slowed down by 10mph and looked at my odometer. By the time I saw the Leo I had gone 1.5 miles and he was travelling towards me. There were not many cars on the road and this was in a rural Texas area.

So, I'd have to say that the 940 did very well on it's first trial.

Lumberjack93

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Originally Posted by Lumberjack93

I bought a brand new Bel Vector 940 yesterday and it got it's first save this morning.

I really like the range on this unit. I was on a long hilly stretch when a Ka alert came on with two bars on the indicator. Very faint. That first "whiff" is what saved me. The instant I got that "whiff" I slowed down by 10mph and looked at my odometer. By the time I saw the Leo I had gone 1.5 miles and he was travelling towards me. There were not many cars on the road and this was in a rural Texas area.

So, I'd have to say that the 940 did very well on it's first trial.

Lumberjack93

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Nice to hear there is another 940 user out there. Havent had any encounters since my hits on the Ohio Turnpike last month.
Wish I had more evaluation time.

I have noticed the falses on the 940 leave a bit to be desired but it isnt intolerable. I'm please with the $150 I spent so far.

I'm heading to Akron, Ohio on Monday so I'm sure the Ohio Turnpike will once again provide for some interesting entertainment.

Bel v940version 4.5 !!
For the money, it's really hard to beat. My very first detector and I am
very much impressed!! I think it's basically the same as the v995.
I also have a v995. I will use my v995 more in the coming weeks to
really decide.

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Originally Posted by Laserhead

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lumberjack93

I bought a brand new Bel Vector 940 yesterday and it got it's first save this morning.

I really like the range on this unit. I was on a long hilly stretch when a Ka alert came on with two bars on the indicator. Very faint. That first "whiff" is what saved me. The instant I got that "whiff" I slowed down by 10mph and looked at my odometer. By the time I saw the Leo I had gone 1.5 miles and he was travelling towards me. There were not many cars on the road and this was in a rural Texas area.

So, I'd have to say that the 940 did very well on it's first trial.

Lumberjack93

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I drive 65 miles (one way) to work each day and travel through 3 counties. One of them is Harris County in Houston, TX. I come across Leos and radar encounters (many of them) each day.

I'll keep you posted on the 940. It's got it's work cut out for it :D

LJ93


Nice to hear there is another 940 user out there. Havent had any encounters since my hits on the Ohio Turnpike last month.
Wish I had more evaluation time.

I have noticed the falses on the 940 leave a bit to be desired but it isnt intolerable. I'm please with the $150 I spent so far.

I'm heading to Akron, Ohio on Monday so I'm sure the Ohio Turnpike will once again provide for some interesting entertainment.

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I have it and love it!!! It works great just hate the x band falses.

Well the v940 can detect a frontend lidar hit from just below the RVM.

Traveling east on the Ohio Turnpike about 20 miles west of Cleveland when I was coming around a left hand bend when I got a visual on a white frontend sticking out from the median barricade.

About 400-500 ft out, the second I saw his passenger window, the v940 alerted "Laser" for about 3 seconds one time. I would have of course been nailed if I had not seen him first as I had about 5 seconds after spotting his frontend to drop from 75 to the PSL of 65 before being painted.

I was pleased to see the v940 can pick up a direct frontend lidar strike from a semi high position. I have no idea if it could detect scatter from a hit on a rabbit as I did not have one in close proximity at the time. You cannot day dream on the turnpike, you must be scanning ahead visually at all times.

This was my first lidar encounter with the v940.

I got 3 saves from my trusty little 940 today.

I've also been getting some really good pics.

I'm going to start a thread and post up some action shots of my 940.

Later,

LJ93

I just picked up the 940 yesterday. I live in an area known for cruising and street racing, and I usually see at least a few cops every day, but for some reason I haven't seen (or detected) any in the last day. I've been picking up a lot of K Band (from automatic doors at the shops) but that's about it so far.

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Originally Posted by T-Will

I just picked up the 940 yesterday. I live in an area known for cruising and street racing, and I usually see at least a few cops every day, but for some reason I haven't seen (or detected) any in the last day. I've been picking up a lot of K Band (from automatic doors at the shops) but that's about it so far.

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You're from Sacramento Ca I see. Your biggest worry will be KA my friend. Laser also , but more KA.

Ace

Thanks for the tip, how concerned should I be about POP? I've enabled it and haven't received any alarms for it yet.

Drink a soda pop for POP not a threat at all!

Best to disable POP as it can cause more harm than good. More false alerts than you need.

Ace

Maybe I'm confused, but I thought POP is the type of radar they have mounted on the dash and behind them to get a reading on your speed as they follow you. Is that actually Ka?

That or VASCAR which no RD can detect because there is nothing to detect. It is almost like pacing in a way so watch out!

Ace

I'm live her in Sacramento as well. They only use Ka but I heard there are just starting to use laser down here. the only pop alerts I get are RD that leak. I have never seen a K band go off here either.

In Rancho Cordova I hear all the bike cops are using laser. My detector gave me a laser warning today but I didn't see any cops, can laser ever be a false detection?

Also, the other day I got a Ka warning and the bike cop had pulled someone over about 1/4 mile down the street going the opposite direction.

Then tonight I got a Ka detection, I looked around and saw a car behind me, didn't think it was a cop. Then when I got to the stoplight I could see that it was a cop behind me, not sure where he came from.

So far I'm pretty happy with the 940! :)

I've never got a laser hit on my Rd here in Sacramento.

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Originally Posted by niran916

I've never got a laser hit on my Rd here in Sacramento.

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In due time my friend, in due time ;)

Ace

I was heading east on 50 headed up towards El Dorado Hills, I got a light Ka warning so I slowed down, about 3 miles down the freeway was the cop who had someone else pulled over going the other direction. So far I'm really happy with this detector.

Laserhead, which way did you take to go up to Cadillac? Curious?

Ya, I know I will sooner or later. I just hope they take there time to upgrade.

Vector 940


Had this detector for 5 years now. Very good unit!! It is extremly sensitive to all bands as radar roy says blistering sensitivity to all radar bands!! LOL!! x,k,ka It got great range over hills and around curves sometimes even through or around brick buildings!!! Awsome horn design! umm I have tested the sensitivity on mine to my sti they picked up k band falses at the same points they even matched one another in sensitivity!! The only problem i have with my vector 940 is the inability to turn off x band...and that after owning the detector for less than 6 months the audio went out completely this seems to be a belscort flaw as my x-50 did the same and had the same problem so be carefull not to crank the volume up on belscorts too much if your deaf like me from being in the army...now there is a city or i think city mode which is nice, a auto scan which is a hellashious filtering mechonisim on the vector 940 i actually turned on autoscan one night and drove right past rite aid which NMAMember knows how bad that area is when it comes to k band falsing...TO receive no k band false but pick up a Leo 2 miles up the road after junking out rite aid!! So this is a very great detector as some of the users said it is just lacking some of the neat features the biggest is being able to turn of x band and other bands that aren't needed..no spec or frequency display... other than that it is all around a stellar preformer in my book!! It always saved me, countless times as the user described over hills miles away!! Umm I haven't gotten to do much laser testing on this device yet, i think i will get around to it for all of you and post the results asap with my prolaser2!!!



AlPiNe~

Does the older version of the 940 have different features than the newer version? I'm not familiar with the "auto scan" mode, every time I pass a grocery store I get the K warning, it would be nice to be able to turn this off. Also, in City mode, X band is at least silenced, can't turn it off completely, but at least it doesn't startle you. :)

One other thing My fellow michigander THere at good old U of M which i like that college... Anyhow The vector 940 does not have pop detection!! So i wouldn't highly reccomend looking for a pop radar trap as it doesn't have pop detection 67ms or 16ms watch .....yourself.... like I said some of the nice features and new new technology wasn't embedded in this lil baby it still is a killer detector and was definetly rockin back in its hay day though..



AlPiNe~