Today was July 7th, 2007.
Do you know what that makes this day? 7-7-7.
So the question I had to ask myself, today, was...Did I feel lucky?
The answer was yes. Of course, this time around I had a little help. Before traveling to my usual destination of West Point in upstate New York to conduct some more testing of the Beltronics Vector 955 and the Cobra XRS 9930—both models acquired from Danny and Frank at Cricket Ventures (www.buyradardetectors.com)—I made sure this time to apply some Veil to my Silver '07 328xi sedan. This is the same vehicle I repeatedly drove through the New Jersey police laser speed traps of July 4th.
I also had help from my little friends.As it turned out, I was indeed lucky, too lucky. After putting about 400 miles on today, not one police laser trap was to be found. Actually I considered that I was unlucky as I was really locking forward to them—especially now that I had some protection.
At any rate, I managed to clock some more time with the Beltronics Vector 955, Whistler Pro-78, and the Cobra XRS 9930. These experiences will find their way into a more formal review of these radar detectors.
I managed to record an unfortunate vehicle fire that managed to shut down all north-bound lanes on I-287 outside of Parsippany New Jersey late this afternoon. It wasn't pretty, that's for sure. At least it didn't appear that anyone was hurt, which is always a good thing.
I did notice what appears to be a trend—traffic stops involving more than one patrol car. All, but one, traffic stop today that I saw had multiple cruisers behind the offending vehicle.
Although I didn't encounter any laser today, Ka (34.7Ghz) was found with great frequency, more so than even X-band. That certainly played to one of the Whistler Pro-78's strengths. The Beltronics 955 is no slouch in this department, either, to be sure.
And while the BEL V955 appears to edge out the Whistler Pro-78 with both X-band and K-band, in general, the BEL Vector 955 also appears to have a propensity to false to laser—more so than any of these others or the RX-65 Pro or the STi Driver.
Both radar detectors are terrific in their own right, though, and I feel well protected with either.
That's pretty much what I got from today and after some 400 miles, I was hoping for more red-meat.
Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
Veil Guy
©2007 Veil Corporation. All rights reserved. No part may be duplicated without expressed written permission of the author.
7 comments:
Do not worry Bob Ohio's wrath awaits you next weekend bring your A game you have been forwarned
Bring it on, Steve.
Is Sheffield Village is all ya got? ;)
Veil Guy,
While i've been procrastinating up to now, i decided to make the big move before the summer is already over. I decided on the RX65 over the V1. Based on your review, i decided that the BEL looks and feels better, while performing just as well as the V1. I also didn't like the fact that i can pay $400 for a detector, only to have the suction cups not work and be a pain the butt. I also called both BEL and V1 customer service recently to ask them about their return policies, and the several times that i called Valentine, the customer service reps weren't all that friendly, while i felt the BEL reps were much friendlier and more helpful.
Anyways, do you know of any good place to buy this retail detector for less than $329? I've checked out all the links from your site, and other forums, and it seems that everybody has the same price for it.
Hopefully I'm making a good choice with the RX65 for driving around Reading-Philly area in PA, through southern and central Jersey, up to NY. And the occasional drive in CA.
wap22,
Beltronics models are subject to a MAP policy (minimum advertised price), while you may be able to do a little better on the phone, I would only ask that you consider supporting the e-tailer's that support our efforts in providing the information that we do to help you guys be informed owners. It's these guys who really provide the value-added support that you likely won't get with someone only interested in 'racing to the bottom.'
Alright, just ordered my RX65 from Radar Busters today. I was going to order a bottle of the magic Veil potion, but with that in the cart it wouldn't let me upgrade shipping to anything besides ground, and I needed the detector before this weekend. And Radar Busters shipping is so much cheaper than shipping direct from Bel. Will get the Veil tomorrow.
From what i've read, it sounds like cops can't use POP to issue a speeding ticket. But if they do issue a ticket based on a POP reading, will it be indicated on the ticket that it was in POP mode? If it is, and even if it is not indicated, can I go to court and tell them that my radar detector detected POP mode being used and thus makes my speeding ticket invalid? Also, can you point me to a reference where it explains the difference between POP and Instant On? Thank you!
Wap22,
First, THANK YOU for supporting the vendors which support our efforts.
That is much appreciated.
For the reason you stated, I drive with POP off on all my radar detectors.
Why? Because oftentimes reception performance to conventional radar improves (as counterintuitive as it may seem) and because if you are ever issued a speeding ticket with RADAR in a circumstance in which your radar detector does not go off, you can question the officer as to what kind of gun he used and what mode. Tickets should not be issued with POP-usage, period. On our corporate site, we have a page dedicated to the subject of Police Radar and POP Radar. Here's the link:
Police RADAR/POP Radar.
Two seconds in transitioning sounds VERY short, indeed.
There is a similar project underway. If you email me, I will provide you a special link to it.
Does the 955 false to laser more because of the software not being as good as the higher end models. Or is it more sensitive to laser?
Rocky
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