Whistler XTR 280 (Newbie Here)

[shopkins1975]

Hey everyone! I am brand new to the forum and have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's posts...

I have just recently entered the world of radar detectors, after not owning one for almost 15 years!! I went sort of neurotic and in the last two weeks have tried everything from the lowest end Cobra to the highest end Cobra, then the Whistler 220 and finally the 280. I have read lots of posts about all of these and have to agree with most of them. What I found out was that Cobra just plain sucks! The Whistler products were better, but i did not like the 220. Being as how I only had a $175 Walmart giftcard to work with, I finally settled with the XTR 280. Here are my findings:

1. The volume on mine has not been an issue....Level 7 is pretty loud, and when you get a full alert it is loud enough to hear with your windows down.

2. I love the battery feature for when I take it out of my compay car and move it to my family vehicle for trips. When it is in my car, it is running on the 12 volt power cord. When I switch it to the family car, I just put in the fully charged batteries and voila! So far, n battery power alone, the detector lasted about 15 operating hours and finally hit 20% ....time to recharge

3 Filtering is ok. Could be better

4. Range is proving to be phenomenal. # 1, i icked up a weak Ka signal and 2.7 miles later I had full alert and a police car under a bridge. Very happy!!!

I only had one little question, tonight, on my way home, I started getting a full alert (9). I could see headlights about 1 mile ahead and as the cars ahead of me moved closer to the headlights, my RD would go from 9 to "HIghway" then back to 9. Well, as the car got closer to me, I had no alerts, and all of a sudden I had full 9 again. It was a local police officer! My question is, I thought if they were using instant on, I would get a "Pulse" warning. So what was he doing? Manually switching it on and off?

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to share my thoughts and get some answers....

Thanks!

[cooljay]

You are suppose to get a "Pulse" warning or a full alert. One or the other. Let me read the manual for the XTR 280 really quick and I'll edit this post.

Edit: Was there other traffic? It is suppose to display PULSE and alert for 3 seconds then goes to the standard alert pattern. As long as it alerts to me that's good no matter if it's a full alert (9) or PULSE. Most other RDs just go to instant full alert when an instant on hit occurs. Instant-on can be deadly though and by time your RD goes off you're toast anyways unless you can catch him instant-on other traffic (rabbits).

[shopkins1975]

yeah, I had about three cars in front of me. They were spaced about 1/4 mile from each other. I could see the LEO coming down the road and my RD was quiet. Then, one by one as the cars went by, I'd get a full alert for about 4-5 seconds, then it would go quiet.

After reading my manual, it said that I should see "PULSE" when hit with instant on. If it was POP, It would be a normal alert. Either way, I was picking him up full signal from at least 1 mile away so I am pleased....

[cooljay]

Yeah that is some great range. As for the PULSE deal I'd rather have my RD give a full alert instead of saying PULSE personally as to me a full alert gets your attention more than say hearing the alert and seeing PULSE on the RD.

By chance do you know what band was being used? K or Ka? Glad to hear you are liking your whistler. A few whistler users hang around the board but not many so if you have a question feel free to post and we'll try to help out as best we can. Guess I'm becoming one of the Whistler guru's around here but I'm still new to RDs myself so I can't say that just yet :P

[shopkins1975]

I am fairly sure it was Ka. I apprecite all your help. I will keep posting as the days go by! Have fun....

[Michael B]

To be eligable for the PULSE alert, the unit must have not alerted anything for at least 20 seconde. This will set the PULSE to be active.

Once the PULSE alert is active, a level 9 must be the first signal strength received. Anything less than a 9 will result in a normal response of X, K, or Ka along with the reported signal strength of 1 thru 8.

Once an alert occurs the unit is not eligable for PULSE until the alert goes away for at least 20 seconds.

Sounds like your unit was operating properly.