Yet another new buyer : )

[tyfluharty89]

Hiya folks!
This is my first, and hopefully not my last post on this fine establishment of a web forum you have going on here. I finally got around to creating my own account after reading hundreds of useful posts. Now I've come to you radar junkies to help me out with my first[successful] radar detector purchase.

[successful] means after a plethora of reviews I read, and posts on here, I purchased an 8500 x50 blue a few weeks ago. Needless to say, it was embarrassing. I don't know if I got a bad unit but I returned it within a week. It was a joke in the car because every time it would go off, there wasn't a cop in sight, even down the road a few miles, and every time it didn't go off, I'd cruise past a statey just staring me down. I realize cops don't always have their radar on, but I drove home from work one night and passed one cop sitting, and two coming the other way without a beep :cry:

But I do realize there are bad units, or maybe I'm just unlucky, but I'm willing to give these cool little devices another shot, and that's where I'm in a pickle. First I'll start with my driving conditions/location. I don't speed that much, lol. I only speed when I'm late for work, which is often, and on the Western West Virginia border. So, naturally I live on the Eastern Ohio border, and drive a solid 25 minutes of interstate (470, 70), four days a week. Like I said though, I'm not a hardcore speeder, I just occasionally like to book it for tardiness, boredom, or I'd just like to comfortably drive a good 10-15 over without a worry.

I've been strongly considering the V1. Like I said, I've read a lot, and it just seems like a solid investment, and that's a key word here. I'm willing to pay for the higher end detectors, as long as it evens out down the road. The other detector I'm considering is the 9500i, but I'd almost be ashamed to pay half a grand (I'd be compelled to get the new blue display) given my conditions. On the other hand, I don't want to buy something cheap that's not going to protect me. One thing that's throwing me off on the V1 is ironically the range. I could be completely off, but, wouldn't it be going off constantly with such an enormous range? It seems like it could be going off while I'm sitting in Dairy Queen, and the cop is in the next town over parked in a BP. Also, as a side question for the V1, does it get a lot of false alerts given its sensitivity? And finally, I'm looking at the RX65, and any of the Vector detectors. With those detectors I'm thinking, since I'm not that much of a speeder, they'd be more price/driving conditions, on par, I guess I could say.

I apologize for dragging such a simple question out to four paragraphs, heh, but I just wanted you guys to get the whole scoop. So, thanks for reading, and, help!

[Orbital75]

That's correct it's not a cop detector, their radar unit must
be on. I'm guessing you just haven't had an encounter yet.
I've had an X50 for almost 4 years and it works like a charm.

A Radar detector is just that, a Radar detector and any Radar
source within the X, K, and KA frequency bands will set them
off. The X50 is designed with some really good filtering
technology but will still false now and again Mostly on K
Band. Here is more than likely the reason your X50 is falsing.
Back in the Day X band was the big problem with detector falses
cause all self opening doors used the X band frequency's. That
wasn't to hard to over come because filters could be put in place
( City Mode ) eliminating the false. Fast forward to today
where now those door openers use K band. This opens a whole
new can of worms for detector manufatures and owners. See K band
can't really be filtered because it's on the "exact" same freq as police
radar. If you filter K band you run a Very High Risk of Missing
a True Threat..... So that is why City Mode only Filters X Band and
X Band alone.

Hope this helps.....

[hockey005]

i thought this to when i first got my v1...i saw a cop sitting there and it did not go off...i have found that a lot of cops dont even have their radar on, and when if they sit there in a hiding spot without it on they are prob. using very selective i/o. also u said u live in ohio. there is a ton of laser in ohio so you are not going to pick it up unless u are hit, with a v1 if the car in front of u is lasered there is a pretty good chance that u will pick it up tho. the problem is with laser ur done because as soon as ur hit the cops have ur speed.

[NCF-350]

One thing I'll add, is at least for me, is the V1 isnt all that chatty.
Most of the time it stays in "A" (all bogy), but when getting into the city(s), simply put it on "L" (advanced logic mode).

I like the V1 for the old school type distance performance and feel, though it has all the new stuff like POP, laser, and the ability to have a remote control panel for discrete mounting.

The V1 is blocky, squared, and awkward looking and definatlely isnt sleek or pretty, but it does what it does and that's sniff out radar to give you some advance warning.

I own V1, X-50, 8500.. and will note, the X-50 is edit friendly and alot quieter than the V1, but I favor the V1 as I like chatty. I want to know it's working and also I want to know the falses in my areas of travel... anything out of that ordinary.. is a threat.

There is an awesome mod where you can have the LED's changed to color LED's which helps greatly to identify the threat at a glance, especially at night, and would highly recommend having the color LED service done. With that said, you'd have to purchase the remote display... so for the $$... you'd have a completely outfitted descrete V1 for the same price as the 9500i blue.

My vote would be V1 and get used to the occasional false in your local area... at least it wont let you down and will definately let you know there's radar around.

just my .02

[bigalinwv]

NCF-350 is the V1 chatty or not chatty??

the V1 isnt all that chatty

but I favor the V1 as I like chatty

[decemb3r]

Although the V1 is chatty sometimes, you can use the bogey counter and the strength bar to identify if it is a false or not. Just be careful cause I passed an area with gas stations and door openers and such and ignored the K band at 3 leds and a little up the road there was a cop using I/O K.

[mikered30]

Although the V1 is chatty sometimes, you can use the bogey counter and the strength bar to identify if it is a false or not.

How do you do that?

[bigalinwv]

You can't, at best it's a guess. :?

[jdong]

Although the V1 is chatty sometimes, you can use the bogey counter and the strength bar to identify if it is a false or not.

How do you do that?

The V1 gives you finer-grained information about an encounter than just "no alert" vs "alert+strength". You get strength, direction, band of EACH alert, # of total alerts. You can use these parameters to establish a "baseline" at each false point (i.e. passing by this shopping mall shows 3 alerts, X and K), then if something else is hiding in the area afterwards, you can notice the change in alert from the baseline.

The V1 also seems to alert in a fashion closer to the brevity of the signal. "unclean" (erratic ramping, sudden on/sudden off without immediate cop sighting) signals are less likely to be police and more likely to be a false.

[NCF-350]

NCF-350 is the V1 chatty or not chatty??

the V1 isnt all that chatty

but I favor the V1 as I like chatty

Yeah, I'm pickin up what your puttin down.

By Chatty I mean it doesnt report to every little thing constantly chatty for the first comment...

But for A mode (which I pretty much leave the V1 set to), I dont mind it beepin to X band.... X band in use in my area(s) of travel, so good to leave it on. Usually "real" X threat scenario lasts alot longer and is definately a more noticeable alert when it starts rampin up (store doors usually alot weaker of signal in my area)....

Yeah,, funny... looks like a contradiction... but brain works faster than the fingers typin. :roll:

My X-50 is relatively quiet... so it doesnt report alot. I guess some would consider it not chatty when in urban/city. For me,, I like to know the V1's doin it's job and beepin at X band is fine for me (city/urban), so the occasional store door alert to me isnt that bothersome.

On the highway in my area (normally US 87 N/ 421 N to Greensboro/US1 and 15/501... the V1 is pretty quiet (highway) = non chatty.... No falses X as there's literally nothing but farm land for 50+ miles on a open 4 lane w/ PSL 55, short stint up to 65, then drops back to 55 all the way into G-Boro

Thanx for pointing that out though mikered30,,, definately needed to un-cloud the water on that... Hopefully we're as clear as mud now! ha ha ha hah.... I knew what I meant to say... just didnt come out the way I was thinkin it... that I do apologize