Thoughts on a couple of RDs

**duck** · 01-05-2007, 07:28 PM

Well, my trusty V1 showed up in the mail today. Sent it back about a week and a half ago to get the upgrade. No problems with it, just figured that the POP might be nice. In the meantime, bought a RX-65 to try it out and see how the Bel stuff worked.

Overall, I liked the Bel and it seemed to work just like it should. The techy side of me liked the tech feature, just to know what the frequencies were. Saved a couple of times in town against Ka, and the range was good. But... the one time that I was out in the rural area with a few intesecting roads and got an alert, I missed the arrows. Which road was he on? Where is he?

Also, I didn't like the brightness of the smart cord alert LED at night, or that when it was in tech mode it did not ramp up other than with the sound.

Plus, it seems like my V1 has been supercharged. It may have been a bit out of tune before after 5 years, but now it is picking up known falses father away and seems way more sensitive. Either that, or the new stealth install has biased me.

I am sending in the RX-65 for the STI, which will be a back-up for the V1 in the wife's car, or for those few Canadian trips. Should be a fun comparison once that gets here.

Now where is that new jammer that is supposed to be coming out? I've got the money waiting, leaning towards a Blinder M-40 (easy service from Roy) but not wanting to jump too soon.

**proudNMAmember** · 01-05-2007, 07:31 PM

Yeah, I am waiting to hear more about the new Blinder as well. Patience is hard some times.

**ravi** · 01-05-2007, 07:40 PM

How much did you pay for the upgrade?

**duck** · 01-05-2007, 07:42 PM

It was $75 for the upgrade, plus 2nd day shipping.

**hoosier** · 01-05-2007, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by duck

It was $75 for the upgrade, plus 2nd day shipping.

You sent in a five year old Valentine and for $75, they brought it up to the same standards and specs as a brand new one? And a new unit's warranty?

**proudNMAmember** · 01-05-2007, 08:51 PM

Not bad price!

**duck** · 01-05-2007, 09:03 PM

Yep, I figured that was a stellar deal. It might have been 4 1/2 years old actually, but somewhere around there. The one other thing I've noticed it seems to pick up more bogeys. On some falses before, it would say one or two, now on those same falses it's more like 4 or 5. So I don't know if the upgrade is that much better, or the fact that it sat in my car all year long and that I usually forgot to take it down in the summer so it baked in the sun made it slowly lose performance over time.

Anyway, between that and the new hardwire stealth install, I'm pretty happy. If I can figure out how to post pics, I'll put up the install.

**hoosier** · 01-05-2007, 09:44 PM

Originally Posted by duck

Yep, I figured that was a stellar deal. It might have been 4 1/2 years old actually, but somewhere around there. The one other thing I've noticed it seems to pick up more bogeys. On some falses before, it would say one or two, now on those same falses it's more like 4 or 5. So I don't know if the upgrade is that much better, or the fact that it sat in my car all year long and that I usually forgot to take it down in the summer so it baked in the sun made it slowly lose performance over time.

Anyway, between that and the new hardwire stealth install, I'm pretty happy. If I can figure out how to post pics, I'll put up the install.

I'll say it's a stellar deal. With anything other detector you've have sold it for $25 or $50 and then scraped up $250 or $300 to buy another brand new one. People say V1 is 'too expensive' but among the top brands, it's by far the least expensive one to own. I even got $125 off the price of a new one last year, 'upgrading' from my 1993 model. Nobody can touch that.

**V1 Dave** · 01-06-2007, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by duck

Yep, I figured that was a stellar deal. It might have been 4 1/2 years old actually, but somewhere around there. The one other thing I've noticed it seems to pick up more bogeys. On some falses before, it would say one or two, now on those same falses it's more like 4 or 5. So I don't know if the upgrade is that much better, or the fact that it sat in my car all year long and that I usually forgot to take it down in the summer so it baked in the sun made it slowly lose performance over time.

What's happening is that you are getting ghosting on K band making your bogy counter useless.
This is one of the biggest reasons many of us have tried new units and sent them back causing us to stick to a 1.7 or older version 1.8 like you turned in.
IMHO if you have an older version have a check up if you want but it is just fine until a 1.9 version comes out.
Baking in the sun does not bother it, mine has been sitting on the visor for eleven years.