Hey all, I'm in West TN, been lurking for a few years, and...

Hi everyone, I've been lurking for a few years and apparently I signed up a while ago but never activated my account. I've finally decided that I spend quite a bit of time on here, so I might as well put my $0.02 in. Here's a little background information on me:

I'm in West TN. I bought my first RD, a Whistler DE-1660 in 2000. I ran it for a few months, but due to issues with the suction cups not sticking well, I sold it and bought a Bel 980. I ran the Bel 980 from 2000 until 2008 when it kept displaying "lo-cal?" more and more frequently until I couldn't use it at all. From there, I looked on here and decided on buying a Whistler Pro-78 (Rev. C). The reason why I went with the Whistler over the Bel 955 is because I was concerned about the reliability of Belscort at the time and I wanted to try something else as well. A year ago I decided to add a Bel STi-R (38/09), then two weeks later I replaced the Whistler with a V1 (3.872). I just started dating my current girlfriend at that time and mounted the Pro-78 in her car.

Currently I'm running my STi-R with only K,5,8 on in Tech mode. I'm running my V1 with X,K,Ka (just recently decided to turn x on, almost always run in A mode and occasionally little l) with unmute at signal strength of 6, 30 seconds, and rear K on (1-up, 2-up, 3-up, 4-dn, 5-up, 6-up, 7-dn, 8-up, A-up, B-dn, C-up, D-up, E-dn, F-up, G-up, H-up, J-dn, U-up, U2-up). The V1 is mounted on the driver side visor, the STi-R is in a hole cut in grill, with the V1's CD topped with STi-R display in instrument cluster. I'll have to take some photos of the install for you guys.

Also, I ran the Pro-78 most often with X,K,Ka,Filter (mostly in city 2, but in hwy in rural areas as an easy way to turn X on/off). Since I put it in the GF's car, I changed it to Filter 2 only because I wanted to keep from falsing, though on average I only had a Ka false every few weeks.

Another thing to note, I think I bought the STi-R around November, and the K/Ka portion of the horn started to go in and out right after a few snows we had in March, so I had to sent it in. Also, the reason why I have recently turned on X band on the V1 because I'd hate to get owned on X band, and there was this one encounter I had about two years ago with the Pro 78. I had just taken it out of City 2 and put in in Hwy, and not five minutes later, I saw an OLD city cruiser running C/O X. It had been probably 3 or 4 years prior to this encounter when I had last saw X being used in my city. Anyways, I don't think it was X/K confusion because I have never seen my Whistler Confuse K and call it X, though I have seen it call X K a few times (More on this later). It was a holiday (Memorial Day IIRC) and I think they were short on cruisers and dusted off an old one.

About the Whistler X/K confusion, I think I figured out the cause. I had the STi-R on K,Ka(All),RDR off, and I was experimenting in a parking lot that was parallel to the main drag in town. Also, I was in the presence of an X band false. I noticed, while running the Whistler with X off or in City 2, when the STi-R would pick up a strange K band signal from a crappy detector, that the Whistler would pick it up too. But instead of dropping the K band signal as the driver drove away, it would incorrectly keep alerting to K band because it was in the presence of the x band false. I wish I had video of this, but I was on dial-up at the time, so I didn't bother documenting it. It was pretty consistent though, for what it's worth. The whole reason for this experiment was to determine where the falses from crappy RDs were at on the spectrum, and how often, to determine what settings I was going to use for the STi-R. This was right after I installed it, and before the urge hit me to buy a V1. I didn't expect to discover the possible reason for X/K confusion.

I guess I'll throw that out there for now. If you have any questions or comments about anything, I'll try to elaborate further.

Edit: Here's my install. http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...97-tacoma.html

Welcome. How do you like your V1?

welcome to the forum, it sounds like you've played with some different detectors

Are they using speed drones in your area as I see your using K-band muting?


I had X off here also but recently turned it back on as my travels have changed and see OSP to be surprised they are still running it!

I'm pretty happy with it. The best part of it to me is Ka guard and the arrows. I have never witnessed any Ka falses with it, though I occasionally do with the STi-R, so it helps to confirm if a threat is real in conjunction to the freq readout on the STi-R. I'm not thrilled about 30 seconds being the limit on K-band mute, and would rather have that option replaced with an infinite amount of time. Another thing, and I know Languy can fix it if I send it in with $$$, is the concealed display's all red LEDs. I don't have any trouble discerning X/K/Ka bands by sound, but it would be nice during multiple alerts to glance quickly at the display and see bands ID'ed by different colors.

Mine does ghost, but only when within a few hundred feet, so that doesn't really bother me.

About the rear antenna, I like being able to tell if the cop behind me going the opposite direction is using his rear radar to clock me or if he's just using it to clock other people. I've been hit at least twice in the rear from a cop that has already passed me going the opposite direction, both encounters being I/O.

When I'm in/driving my GF's car, I miss the arrows.

Oh yeah, the ramp up. What more can I say? It's great!

I don't have any speed drones in the area, but in town there are door sensors in some places. I just started playing around with the muting and little l. I thought I would see how well it worked if I turned on X band and did some K band muting. My STi-R smokes the V1, and I have the initial volume high on the STi-R, so K band muting doesn't really make my ride any quieter for the most part, if that makes sense.

Welcome it's a great site

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Originally Posted by Radio ZEK

I'm pretty happy with it. The best part of it to me is Ka guard and the arrows. I have never witnessed any Ka falses with it, though I occasionally do with the STi-R, so it helps to confirm if a threat is real in conjunction to the freq readout on the STi-R. I'm not thrilled about 30 seconds being the limit on K-band mute, and would rather have that option replaced with an infinite amount of time. Another thing, and I know Languy can fix it if I send it in with $$$, is the concealed display's all red LEDs. I don't have any trouble discerning X/K/Ka bands by sound, but it would be nice during multiple alerts to glance quickly at the display and see bands ID'ed by different colors.

Mine does ghost, but only when within a few hundred feet, so that doesn't really bother me.

About the rear antenna, I like being able to tell if the cop behind me going the opposite direction is using his rear radar to clock me or if he's just using it to clock other people. I've been hit at least twice in the rear from a cop that has already passed me going the opposite direction, both encounters being I/O.

When I'm in/driving my GF's car, I miss the arrows.

Oh yeah, the ramp up. What more can I say? It's great!

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Watch out for laser, too. I'm not sure about your area, but every time I travel through TN, I see a lot of laser being used, especially along the interstates.

Welcome to our forum.

Welcome to our most excellent forum

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Originally Posted by unmamfqlm

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Originally Posted by Radio ZEK

I'm pretty happy with it. The best part of it to me is Ka guard and the arrows. I have never witnessed any Ka falses with it, though I occasionally do with the STi-R, so it helps to confirm if a threat is real in conjunction to the freq readout on the STi-R. I'm not thrilled about 30 seconds being the limit on K-band mute, and would rather have that option replaced with an infinite amount of time. Another thing, and I know Languy can fix it if I send it in with $$$, is the concealed display's all red LEDs. I don't have any trouble discerning X/K/Ka bands by sound, but it would be nice during multiple alerts to glance quickly at the display and see bands ID'ed by different colors.

Mine does ghost, but only when within a few hundred feet, so that doesn't really bother me.

About the rear antenna, I like being able to tell if the cop behind me going the opposite direction is using his rear radar to clock me or if he's just using it to clock other people. I've been hit at least twice in the rear from a cop that has already passed me going the opposite direction, both encounters being I/O.

When I'm in/driving my GF's car, I miss the arrows.

Oh yeah, the ramp up. What more can I say? It's great!

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Watch out for laser, too. I'm not sure about your area, but every time I travel through TN, I see a lot of laser being used, especially along the interstates.

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I ran my Bel 980 for 8 years with laser on and I think it only went off once (false), but I never had my hands on a laser gun or actually saw a LEO with one pointed at me, so I can't say for sure that the laser reception even worked. I've ran it on and off on the Pro-78, STi-R, and V1, and I just got tired of Infinities, Trailblasers, and oddities in the sun and whatnot. I rarely go to Memphis or Nashville, but I do run around on I-40 quite a bit. I've never actually seen a LEO using LIDAR in real life, though I have seen many videos.

I've never encountered (to my knowledge) LIDAR in my life, so at this point, I'm going to keep it off. If I ever do encounter it, I'll be sure to get at least a Blinder M47 and hook up with some of the Nashville group for some testing. When I am in Memphis/Nashville, I'm usually a little more cautious, for what it's worth, but we all know 70/55 is easy picking on the loop, and that's pretty much the flow of traffic when it's not congested.

If anyone knows of any confirmed laser use anywhere west of Nashville, I'd be glad to know about it.

Welcome to the forum. Why do you not have segment 2 enabled on the STi-r?

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If anyone knows of any confirmed laser use anywhere west of Nashville, I'd be glad to know about it.

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http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...5-18-10-a.html

Thanks for the welcomes everyone.

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Originally Posted by snoopyc4

Welcome to the forum. Why do you not have segment 2 enabled on the STi-r?

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If anyone knows of any confirmed laser use anywhere west of Nashville, I'd be glad to know about it.

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http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...5-18-10-a.html

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I knew someone would ask me about segment 2. :)

During that testing I did in town parallel to the main drag, I discovered that city's PD uses 34.7 and 35.5. The one my GF and I live in uses 34.7 and K band. THP use 34.7, and I think I've seen a few in the last few years using K band. Jackson/Madison Co. uses 34.7, 35.5, and K. All other places I've ran through have always been K band or 34.7. I ran Ka wide for a few months, then segmented it to 2/5/8, but I never saw 33.8. Mostly what I encounter are K and 34.7. With RDR off, I'd get 33.5-33.8 falses from crappy RD's. When segmented to 2/5/8, I'd still get a decent amount of falses in segment 2. Being that the V1 has me covered and it doesn't false, I figure if I ever encounter it the V1 will have me covered.

FWIW, I got a 35.384 false the other day. I've had maybe 3-4 on the bottom of segment 8 since in the last year.

It looks like you've been reading and using the info for a pretty good arsenal of equipment. Have you been happy with the Sti-r? I've been using one for a couple yrs in NC and find like you that the falsing shows more on 2 in tech mode. Have a V1 3.855 and will ghost but Like most I just am not bothered by that it just gives me an opportunity to check myself. I have run both units together to make check out abilities if each but use the V1 in the wifes car. Welcome aboard, the forum is a great place to share info and personal incounters and your input is going to add to the forum.:cool:

Just another thought you should if not already join "trapster" and help them with your encounters. I've found them to be helpful when travelin and in a rental without protection because I'll load a fresh trapster update on the garmin before I do the roadtrip. It's never bad to know the local hideouts when you're off your home turf.

I love the STi-R. I did get frustrated when it died, but I've gotten over that. Mine, and I know a lot of people say this, but mine is hot as a FIRECRACKER! Seriously, this thing has walked over the V1 on K, 34.7, and 35.5 in some tough scenarios. The most recent being on rolling C/O 34.7 over the hill, IIRC, the STi-R had like a 25 second @65 Mph lead over the V1, and I think the V1 alerted right at the base of the hill, and maybe 15 seconds later we meet at the apex. I don't discount that I'm running the STi-R with the equivalent Ka guard off, so I'm sure that plays a roll as well. About half of my encounters are within a few seconds of each other, and the other half the STi-R leads anywhere from 5 seconds up to 40 seconds. Also, the ramp-up is pretty darn good, it reminds me of my Bel 980 (S7) quite a bit. I was not one of the unfortunate that had to deal with the two or three stage rampup on the earlier models.

About trapster, I've never used it. I don't have a GPS or a smart phone, so I don't have the ability to run that mobile. I have looked at it from home, and it seems like it will be of limited use around this area. I'm just not sure we have a dense/active enough population to sustain it. I mainly travel in a 40 mile radius from home so I'm pretty well accustomed to my threats. I would like to try it though. I think we're taking a trip to the mountains in East TN (Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge) in my GF's car in a month or so, so maybe I can convince her to load trapster on her droid since we'll be limited to the Pro-78 in some rough terrain.