Conclusive Test - V1 vs. Bel 995 - on Ka and K bands

[gdavis9999]

Yeh, I am the one that started the other thread on 15 years of V1 ownership and going to sell all my stuff on eBay, thinking the Bel 995 was just as good.

Well......... as I was boxing everything up, I took a few hours to do some final testing. It turned out to be very informative.
A LEO was using Ka in both instant and constant-on mode. He sat there for about an hour. Nice. Further down the same road is a "this is your speed" sign on K band. What a setup! It's a busy road so I did not stand out too much by making multiple passes. I made 18 passes (9 round trips). No I am not kidding. I wanted to be sure what I was seeing was repeatable (it was).

I had a V1 3.826 (POP on, Advanced Logic mode, large L) and Bel 995 4.5 (POP off, Highway mode) mounted high on the windshield, but below the tint strip. On various passes I used both units at the same time and one at a time, to rule out interference between units from their LO's. I also swapped positions. I covered all the bases to compare the units.

K band - sometimes one unit would alert slightly more than the other, but it was random. I am convinced they are just about equal.

Ka band - Sheeze! You got to be kidding. I thought the reviews said the Bel was just as sensitive. Kids, that's not the case here. In every single pass, the V1 alerted a LOT sooner than the Bel 995. The PSL was 40MPH, and at that speed the V1 would start alerting a at least 15 seconds sooner. This is critical time to slow down. This is critical sensitivity needed to detect Ka in instant-on mode being used on other targets ahead of you.

40MPH is equal to .01111 miles/sec. So, 15 seconds at this speed is 0.17 miles. That may not sound very far, but look at a clock for 15 seconds and it's a huge difference.

Has anyone else done a side-by-side comparison like this? Let me know your result.

PS, the V1 did J-out once on the LEO. Other cars were around. One of the probably had a Cobra RD. However, it had already given me plenty of notice. Not a big deal to me, it's VR way of dealing with POP. On the Bel 995, if I enable POP I get random alerts, that's a lot worse, so I keep POP off on that unit.

[GTO_04]

K band - sometimes one unit would alert slightly more than the other, but it was random. I am convinced they are just about equal.

Ka band - Sheeze! You got to be kidding. I thought the reviews said the Bel was just as sensitive. Kids, that's not the case here. In every single pass, the V1 alerted a LOT sooner than the Bel 995. The PSL was 40MPH, and at that speed the V1 would start alerting a at least 15 seconds sooner. This is critical time to slow down. This is critical sensitivity needed to detect Ka in instant-on mode being used on other targets ahead of you.

40MPH is equal to .01111 miles/sec. So, 15 seconds at this speed is 0.17 miles. That may not sound very far, but look at a clock for 15 seconds and it's a huge difference.

Has anyone else done a side-by-side comparison like this? Let me know your result.

I had a 995 and a V1 and ran them against a 33.8 GHz Python II radar. V1 (version 1.7) alerted about 20 seconds earlier.

Quite honestly my old 985 (that I was going to trade in on the 995) performed much better than the 995 and much closer to the V1 (1.7). Possibly the 985 is a factory freak and that's why I kept it.

GTO_04

[TheTexan]

I think you are mistaken the Beltronics RX65 is the one most people see as being equal to or better than the V1, unless I missed something

[jimbonzzz]

Yeh, I am the one that started the other thread on 15 years of V1 ownership and going to sell all my stuff on eBay, thinking the Bel 995 was just as good.

Well, you've come a long way since that thread. Very nice...
See: now if you said you were going to sell all of your stuff, we could definitely respect that a bit more than when you wanted to do it based on a crappy review :wink: But that might not happen now eh

[EasY E]

Nice test Go V1....oh yeah and dont upgrade yet haha

[gdavis9999]

Yeh, I am the one that started the other thread on 15 years of V1 ownership and going to sell all my stuff on eBay, thinking the Bel 995 was just as good.

Well......... as I was boxing everything up, I took a few hours to do some final testing. It turned out to be very informative.
A LEO was using Ka in both instant and constant-on mode. He sat there for about an hour. Nice. Further down the same road is a "this is your speed" sign on K band. What a setup! It's a busy road so I did not stand out too much by making multiple passes. I made 18 passes (9 round trips). No I am not kidding. I wanted to be sure what I was seeing was repeatable (it was).

I had a V1 3.826 (POP on, Advanced Logic mode, large L) and Bel 995 4.5 (POP off, Highway mode) mounted high on the windshield, but below the tint strip. On various passes I used both units at the same time and one at a time, to rule out interference between units from their LO's. I also swapped positions. I covered all the bases to compare the units.

K band - sometimes one unit would alert slightly more than the other, but it was random. I am convinced they are just about equal.

Ka band - Sheeze! You got to be kidding. I thought the reviews said the Bel was just as sensitive. Kids, that's not the case here. In every single pass, the V1 alerted a LOT sooner than the Bel 995. The PSL was 40MPH, and at that speed the V1 would start alerting a at least 15 seconds sooner. This is critical time to slow down. This is critical sensitivity needed to detect Ka in instant-on mode being used on other targets ahead of you.

40MPH is equal to .01111 miles/sec. So, 15 seconds at this speed is 0.17 miles. That may not sound very far, but look at a clock for 15 seconds and it's a huge difference.

Has anyone else done a side-by-side comparison like this? Let me know your result.

PS, the V1 did J-out once on the LEO. Other cars were around. One of the probably had a Cobra RD. However, it had already given me plenty of notice. Not a big deal to me, it's VR way of dealing with POP. On the Bel 995, if I enable POP I get random alerts, that's a lot worse, so I keep POP off on that unit.

I am pretty excited about these results and wanted to explore the J-Issue more. I went to the local PD parking lot. Found one patrol car with Ka band on. This is not uncommon in this area. As I circled around, the V1 J'ed out after approx 45 seconds of alerting (at or close to full scale). After J'ing out, it would not re-engage the target until I either did a POR (power on reset.... ie; restart the RD) or if I drove away and came back after a few minutes. I was able to repeat this 3 times. When the V1 J's out, it holds it that way until the radar signal is gone for some time. That means you could be following a LEO down the road, and if the unit J's out it will remain that way until you part ways.

I hope this information is as interesting for you and it is for me. Our city uses Ka exclusively, no other band. I volunteer for the PD so I have direct knowledge of that. So the Ka range mentioned earlier is critical. Any comments on what I see with the J-issue? I can absolutely confirm it's occuring on a valid radar gun (The Stalker DSR-2X and Stalker II is used here.... and they are also manufactured by Applied Concepts which is in this city).

[knothole]

Looking at you other thread "15 years" You now have the 3.826 V1. I too have one and been using it only 7 months so I know you have a lot more time than I do. I didn't upgrade because I have not had the "J" problem yet. It has "J ed" only 3 times but I couldn't find a LEO.

My question to you is with this test are you know keeping the V1? If so, why?

knothole

[WRC]

did you run both at the same time? but regardless good info

[gdavis9999]

Looking at you other thread "15 years" You now have the 3.826 V1. I too have one and been using it only 7 months so I know you have a lot more time than I do. I didn't upgrade because I have not had the "J" problem yet. It has "J ed" only 3 times but I couldn't find a LEO.

My question to you is with this test are you know keeping the V1? If so, why?

knothole

I have to have the best Ka sensitivity possible. Yes, that means the V1 stays, and the Bel 995 goes back to Best Buy.

[gdavis9999]

did you run both at the same time? but regardless good info

can you clarify? both RD when?