Choosing The Right Radar Detector

Page 8 - Performance Is King

Bells and Whistles Don't Matter

It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles it has, or how stylish it is if a radar detector doesn't perform, it's not worth owning.

Many radar detectors are loaded with popular features, they look good on your dash and they are user friendly. Unfortunately, most of these units perform poorly at Ka-band and laser detection. Look closely at a detector's specification before your buy!

Before buying a radar detector, you must discover: the distance at which it can sense a signal generated by a law enforcement device. Its ability to ignore non-law enforcement signals like those generated by garage door openers.

False alerts: #1 complaint

Poor false alerts control is the #1 complaint that I hear from radar detector users!

A cheap radar detector will alert you to everything from the closest grocery store door opener, to the vehicle with a cheap radar detector.You can avoid this common headache by getting a higher end detector such as the Escort 9500ix, or the Escort 9500ci which both use their GPS filtering capabilities to filter out 99% of the comon false alert locations.

Many users of radar detectors complain about false alerts occurring when driving in urban areas. To appease these users, numerous companies have gone out of their way to limit their product's sensitivity in City Mode.

Since most speed traps are confined to short-range catches, this is an acceptable compromise.

Superior Protection

To maintain range, the best detectors (like the Escort 9500ix, Escort 8500 X50, Bel RX65, Bel STi, Valentine One and Escort 9500ci use specialized software to interpret and reject false alerts.

If you want the most from a radar detector, these are the units to buy. (Note: Review a radar detector's City Mode specifications. Ineffective radar detectors will have half the range as their superior competitors.)

Ka-Band Sensitivity a must!

Stalker Radar (Applied Concepts Inc.) is now the largest radar gun maker in the world. They pioneered digital Ka radar guns in early 1991.

Today approximately 65% of all new radar guns sales are Ka band, 15% K band and 5% X band. As this is the most difficult band for radar detectors to detect, cheaper radar detectors (and even some more expensive models) do a poor job at detecting this band.

This is because X and K-band have a much narrower bandwidth (X band is a mere 50 megahertz wide and K band is only 200 MHz wide). At 2600 MHz wide, Ka band is 1200 times broader than X band!

This wider bandwidth requires a detector to spend valuable time scanning back and forth to detect. This results in lower sensitivity and less range before your detector delivers a warning.

The best radar detectors made today for Ka band is the Escort 9500ix, the Escort 8500 X50, the Bel STi, the Bel RX65, the Bel STI-r, the 9500ci, the Bel GX65 and the Valentine One.

Escort's Solo 2 cordless radar detector is the best cordless detector made today to detect this band. However because it is cordless, Ka range is less than the corded units. (range will not improve even if you do plug in a cordless radar detector, as the circuit board is designed to operate on batteries and cordless radar detectors are no match for corded).

You get what you pay for!

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Review Whistler XTR-695