Quote Originally Posted by pronacyk
So, it was pretty much what I had thought all along. The 995 is slightly more sensitive than the 78, but more noisy through shopping areas due to better off-axis detection.
My S7 v4.5 has AutoScan, it works fairly well. If you have that on yours, you can try testing that mode too.

3. Tech mode. I don't use it much (since I'm so used to Whistler's numerical signal strength indicators that I really haven't developed a good feel of exactly how strong a signal is through frequency of beeps), however, it is wonderful for a rough approximation of number of bogeys (by counting the number of different frequencies).
Watch out for the dreaded Bel audio ramp up. It's definitely something Bel needs to work on. That's why I keep my tech mode usage for academic purposes only.

1. Every single alert for me so far has started and ended at 2 bars. Is this due to the detector being out of tune or is it the firmware?
Think of strength graph position as a text character, so Ka is 2 characters while X/K are 1. The Bel firmware just 'filled in' a single dot for the second character when the band identifier was a single character. They've fixed this in v6.3.

3. Bracket and weight. The mounting bracket is made from some pretty thin sheet metal. The 995 is extremely heavy compared to my 78 (maybe even twice as heavy). This is perhaps due to the type of material used in the horn. I'm worried that with the combination of such a soft bracket, a heavy detector, and Michigan roads (excessive vibration), both the bracket and the detector will take a pretty good beating.
I think you'll be fine.

As for reliability issues, it's been doing well so far so I doubt it's one of the more frail units. If you indeed were interested in keepign a back up, then I'd sell the Pro-73 and keep the Pro-78 & V995.