The instant on and new techniques are definatly becoming more and more commonplace. Whether or not you can defeat them really depends on how much traffic is in front of you and how active the trooper is.

On my trips into Georgia, I frequently see police using Instant on Radar. My radar detector will bleep, then go silent. then a little bit later it will go bleep again. I'll slow down for 3 or 4 minutes and sure enough, 2-4 miles down the road there will be a trooper on the side of the road, selectively checking people.

The troopers in GA are also very good at looking like door openers. they will camp near a truck stop and use X and K. I can see that though because the Passport 8500 tracks multiple targets very well in advanced mode, so I can tell if they be 5-0 hiding there hehe.

Actually, the perfect detector would be one that combines the multiple target tracking of the passport 8500 with the directional tracking of the Valentine-1. That would be one bad detector.

 

My Valentine tracks up to 9 different signals. The directional arrows will indicate where the biggest threat is coming from.

 

Valentine one works just as they claim. Check out their website. Don't listen to that crap about instant on. Yes you can get stung by it, but I pick up instant on radar every other day while driving and always with enough time to slow down. Unless your dirving all alone with no one else in sight, the V1 will do an excellent job of warning you about instant on, as long as you know how to read it.

 

Yup. The difference is that the passport 8500 provides a spectrum display of the targets. That is, it displays an individual strength meter for each target. Once you learn to interpret the display, you can use it to find cops hiding near door openers and stuff. It is not logical to assume that the strongest target is always the bogey.

What I was refering to when I said a combination would be cool was an 3-D all points addressable display, where you could not only see where each target is in relation to the vehicle, but the individual strength of each target. That would rock.

 

i think i am leaning towards Valentine 1... although 400 scorillas is kind of pushing it (www.valentine1.com) it seems that knowing the general direction of the radar/laser would be helpfull


but.. would i be wrong in saying that both the ESCORT 8500 and Valetine 1 are equally effective in detecting radar/laser? and that the only difference between the two is the directional indicators?


hmm

 

Did you check out http://www.speedzones.com/? A couple of places including these guys and http://www.radartest.com have put these babies through their paces. Mike Valentine whines like a little bitch about testing methodologies whenever his part doesn't win, so If you want to be part of the Valentine crowd you will have to belive that those tests are not valid and just ignore them.

If I were to summarize it into bullet points it would be these (leaving out the bel 980 only because I have not used it. I have experience with the other two):

Passport 8500:
better Ka detection
Multi-target spectrum display
100.00 cheaper (the main selling point for this part. better ka for less money)

Valentine-1:
Direction Finder (The main selling point now that two other parts can do Ka better)
Optional remote display is 'tres cool.
You get a radar detector with a cult following.

Edit: Either way you won't go wrong. They are both great units.

 

i found a dealer in SoCAL that sells SR1 kits for around 500 not counting installation....

think this is a good deal?

 

Rather than trying to detect radar there are radar jammers that contiuously send a jamming signal to both radar and laser beams.you can check them out atwww.radar-laser-jammers.com they will even reimburse you if you get a ticket while using one of there products.www.radarbusters.com is also a very informative site.