Friend found dad's STi in basement.

[maskellxx]

So we decided to test her out. We were going to the mall anyway so we strapper her in and away we went.
So we thought it might be fron the 80's. But after looking at this post, no way.
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...8f7eebfc59e1e6

Ill get a pic of it soon for you.
But we were getting Ka from cows, K from trees.. sometimes not going off at walgreens and such. He kept bragging how his dad said it was "so sensitive" and I was really looking forward to it beating my x50's ass.. but nope. Not close.
So in regards to the other post's I see about old RD's, nope, not beating mine.
So anyway he's at best buy right now I believe getting himself an x50. :P

[AirMoore]

So in regards to the other post's I see about old RD's, nope, not beating mine.

Be careful what you say, I have 2 of those Escorts on the right there in the link to 'laserblasters' thread... (There are 2 in the picture and I also own two), and on K band, they are in the X50 territory. (Well one seems to have fallen out of tune very slightly.)

Not bad for 25year old equipment.

[maskellxx]

So in regards to the other post's I see about old RD's, nope, not beating mine.

Be careful what you say, I have 2 of those Escorts on the right there in the link to 'laserblasters' thread... (There are 2 in the picture and I also own two), and on K band, they are in the X50 territory. (Well one seems to have fallen out of tune very slightly.)

Not bad for 25year old equipment.

Oops probly right, should have rephrased that. Well for the one we used anyway. I am sure there are some good old RD's that perform just as well as the new stuff. I saw a nice early warning video that wasn't half bad the other day.

[proudNMAmember]

I have that Whistler Spectrum and the RoadPatrol xk rd. Both of these "oldies" pick up many cellphones I have tested on x band.

[GTO_04]

So we decided to test her out. We were going to the mall anyway so we strapper her in and away we went.
So we thought it might be fron the 80's. But after looking at this post, no way.
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...8f7eebfc59e1e6

Ill get a pic of it soon for you.
But we were getting Ka from cows, K from trees.. sometimes not going off at walgreens and such. He kept bragging how his dad said it was "so sensitive" and I was really looking forward to it beating my x50's ass.. but nope. Not close.
So in regards to the other post's I see about old RD's, nope, not beating mine.
So anyway he's at best buy right now I believe getting himself an x50. :P

From your description I'm betting it's a 745 STi, maybe a 645 STi. The Ka from cows was the tipoff LOL! Those things falsed like crazy on Ka band, much more than any modern RD. And the modern ones are much more sensitive on all the bands. Back then BEL just replaced bad RDs, they did not repair them. I must have replaced that thing at least 10 times. When the warranty ran out (2 years back then) I traded it in on a 980, which was much better.

It was the awful performance of the 745 that drove me to spend $400 on the V1.

GTO_04

[maskellxx]

CORRECT YOU ARE!



We decided to have a test. On the first plug in, my x50 got nothing. Then it began to get a high Ka signal. Then more random Ka's.
His was giving us Ka's and K's as usual every few seconds. And mine would be quiet. It was hilarious. We just had to unplug the STi after a few minutes. Now when we looked on the box it said something about 1982.. But I'm gonna guess this thing is from like 94 or something? Anyone know exactly? So about older detectors being better. NOT this one.
I kinda wish we got a real threat so we could see what would happen.. but mine would probly just pick up the leaky sti

[laserblaster]

It will be from 1990 at least because it has laser detection, which laser guns were introduced early 1990's, and detectors didnt have laser detectors before this.

[Computerjlt]

thats cool; you should send it to the guys of lidar to test out next time they do a comparo

[GTO_04]

I know my old RDs! Plus, I owned, many, many early 645/745 Sti RDs, courtesy of BEL's 2 year warranty. The 645 was very leaky! And if you get the opportunity to test it against police radar, you find that the X50 will spank it on all bands! The 645 was one of BELs earlier attempts at Superwide Ka, and it had much reduced sensitivity to X and K compared to earlier BELs.

I finally wound up with a good 645, but it was stolen! BEL followed with the 745 series, but they were even worse! The 845/855 Series were not very good either. It isn't until they got to the 970/980 series that they really improved. This was in the early to mid 90s BTW.

During this time experimenting with the BELs, I got frustrated with their performance and got my first V1. Until the 980 came along, it wasn't even close the V1 was so dominating. And I still have one of my original V1 1.7 units and it works great today.

So yes, the 645 shows that older isn't always better. It would be interesting to see how big the difference is between the 645 and then X50, though I expect it will be huge.

I would send that 645 to BEL and tell them to fix it! They will probably replace it with a lower line model for $85, or they may offer you some trade in value for it on something else. You could call on their 800 number and inquire also.

GTO_04