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Geez, you're a hell of nice guy. Ripping of the police is one thing, but ripping off innocent strangers is worse than what the cops do. I'm glad I can't call you one of my friends. I'd be afraid my "new" V1 would become an "old" V1 the first time I wasn't paying attention.
johnQPublic, I think that was the total time on I4 from Orlando to Daytona exit. I was going very fast. My other friend was right behind me and he did the same too.
It was theft. If you are still denying it, then you haven't learned anything yet. What difference does it make how "long ago" it was? Are you trying to say you wouldn't do it now?
How do you feel about people who steal from you? They're just getting a free "upgrade", courtesy of you. Why shouldn't I feel entitled to a percentage of the money you make? You got plenty. I need some. Seems fair to me. You'll never miss it. I'll just take a little. It'll be fine. Trust me.
A friend of mine that does a lot of high-speed driving to the left coast - recommended that I didn't need the best - I probably won't be out on the interstate a lot. He recommended a battery powered unit for convenience.
Any comments? I'd like the V1 - but don't like the idea of string wires all over the place.
You can install a V1 with the wires nicely hidden. Even if you don't, there's only one power cord (same as with any other detector).
Battery-powered units are weak even with fresh batteries, and especially when the batteries get weak.
Or is stealing from you a whole different ball game?
All I have a problem with is the business of rationalizing it. Doin it is one problem. Sayin it's OK because they can afford it or because it was a long time ago or because everybody does it is a separate problem.
That's all I'm sayin. Never intended to make a big deal of it.
Anyhow, here's my question. Does anyone know if there's any problem using it in a convertible? I'd assume not, but you know what they say about _assume_ing.... As soon as I get a "no, convertibles don't make a difference", I'm going to FINALLY buy my first dectector...
Only things I hate about V1 is when I drove at night, I had to "guess" which was the right band LED. Now I have learned the location of the correspondent LEDs so I can recognize it quickly at night. Also when I mute the alert by pushing the button and the tone drop down to the preset mute level. I can still hear the weak beeping sound if I don't have the radio on, kinda annoying sometimes. They need to make it completely mute as one of the function (just a suggestion.) Other than these I don't have any problem with my V1 at all.
And "No, convertibles don't make a difference." IMHO.
Anyone heard of/can recommend this thing?
They have a web site. Check em out.
I encountered a deadly radar today. It was one of the Ka-band hand-held unit. I was driving by a school zone and the cop just raised his arm and zapped me with the radar in 1 sec. Good thing I was doing the speed limit for the school zone at 20mph. I smiled at him and continued driving. But that was pretty scary though. Imagine a different scenario where you are going fast and the cop zaps you just like that. My V1 will not save me at all! Argh! It is getting more difficult to speed now and not to get caught . . .
For starters, I love this thing. Very informative, very sensitive, and a blast to play with. Didn't have a problem with muting the volume. I did have a problem with detection to the rear, but we were pulling a metal trailer so I'm sure it wasn't the detector's fault.
No tickets. I love this thing. I have to sell it because my regular ride is a convertible, and I live in VA so using it is extremely dicey. Sigh.
Speaking of which, does anyone out there live in Atlanta? What is up with the overpasses? Every time I drove under one, the X band would go nuts, and nary a cop in sight. I suspect it is the traffic signals that they use, but I'm not sure.
Anyhow, I can definitely recommend them.
>What is up with the overpasses?
Orange County, CA overpasses make my Valentine freak out as well. I didn't see this behavior when I lived in Virginia. Very odd.
particularly the South, to park the vehicle running radar on an overpass. By the time you see him in your rear view mirror, it's way to late.
The apprehending officer is either on the entrance ramp, or on the side of the road further down. Radio is much faster than you are...
Unless the police ALWAYS park on the same overpasses, and they are always using X-band radar, that isn't the explanation. Also, I take the exit by one of these overpasses: no police cars underneath or up above. Now, I suppose that it is possible for them to have planted permanent X-band transmitters to scare speeders with detectors, but that might be a little far fetched.
Poman, you think Ka hand-held is bad, wait till they zap u w/ a laser! The detector going off is sort of like a preparatory measure to remind you to start coming up with excuses now as to why you were doing triple digits in a 55.
I placed an order for a V-1 today, but realized that their rear antenna may not be effective since my rear window is tinted (32%). Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks.
--Lee
Intuitively - I would think that a detector mounted in the bumper is worse than one mounted on the windshield. In hilly country - you might loose a second or two.
I wish I could find a good evaluation of radar detectors. I found one in the Automobile magazine site - but have not found any others. Any suggestions?
As for mounting the radar detector high vs. low, the instructions with the Valentine don't say one way or the other. I tried both during my trip and didn't notice any difference in warning time. I would much rather have the stealth install for the K40, but with the computer logic of the V1. I have an idea, but it's going to be a Rube Goldberg type of affair...
I'll say that again, slowly: Laser detectors are useless. There is not ONE detector, not even one, that can provide you with any protection against a laser gun. Period, point blank, not one of them can do it, so don't even factor this into your decision. The laser beam is simply too narrow to provide any signal if you are down the road and the cop is plinking cars in front of you. The only reason to have them is to jog your brain for excuses, because when and if that thing goes off, you ARE getting a ticket.
As far as detection goes, the higher on the car, the better, but I really think that in the real world, there's little difference between a bumper and a windshield mount. A dash mount is problematic because of the metal wipers shielding radar, and some cars have metallic window tints up top which attenuate the strength of the incoming signal, so there are problems everywhere. Additionally, rearward protection is also useless...after you've passed a cop, it doesn't matter whether you can detect him at maximum range. If he's instant-onning cars in front of you (from behind an overpass or something as they go by), you will get a reflected signal off of the back of their cars before you are into the beam yourself. While in the beam, even a detector with no "rearward" protection will provide a strong reading.
If you seriously want to avoid laser detection, you have to buy a jammer and K40 makes one of the best, along with Laser Blinder, I believe, although don't quote me on the second one.
The V1 has some interesting features, many of which are useless, like the multiple radar and directional crap. Radar has such a short range that you're out of the detection zone in the real world in a pretty short time, so who cares whether the radar is beside you or behind you? When the meter is pegged you stay slow until the signal goes away and it's quiet for a couple seconds. While this V1 stuff is maybe cool to watch, it's of little use for actually avoiding tickets which ALWAYS come from radar sources that are IN FRONT OF YOU before you enter the tracking zone. However, the V1 has top-flight range and anti-falsing, so it's still probably the best bet. I'd much rather see their technical features without all the Star Wars crapola in a more reasonably priced package. Because the Bel 855/955STI has equivalent range, it makes it tough to justify spending the additional $150.
My personal recommendation from driving with a detector for years and getting NO radar tickets in that period is buy a detector with #1 the most range and #2 good antifalsing. #2 becomes more important in urban areas. In rural areas, nothing, NOTHING can substitute for range, because the facts of speed traps these days dictate that instant-on will be used. Stationary, always-on radars are NO challenge even for a $40 detector. Your ONLY chance to avoid instant-on radar is to get a signal when it is used on a car ahead of you on the road. If there are no cars, the cars are too far ahead, or the terrain is not amenable to radar carrying a long way, you are SOL. The detector with the most range gives you the best chance because it allows detection (maybe literally only ONE beep before you hit the speed trap) for cars the furthest ahead of you, effectively extending your detection zone. Pretend that this is like submarine warfare and you'll get the picture...detector driving is a skill that you learn.
Even in submarine warfare, the more information you have, the better your decisions will be. The V1 provides more information than any other detector, and while you may choose to ignore that extra information, I for one would rather have it available.
In conclusion, I will respectfully disagree with your statement about how the direction indicators and the hit counter are "crap." I found them to be most useful.
I guess if you are speeding by Wal Mart, then you have a use for the hit counter. I've found that the vast majority of these instances of "multiple" hits or places where the auto door opener will set your detector off are in town/city and I obey the speed limits there.
In Atlanta, they have some radar-activated stop lights, instead of the magnetic detection types found in VA. Every overpass I went through, the V1 would pop up & say "bogey" and then let me know when I passed it. One particular overpass, it popped much earlier than before, and it was practically having a conniption by the time I got to the overpass. The reason was some guy had stalled and a cop was parked under the overpass, helping him / writing him up and he had left his radar on. Hit counter read "2". Much more usefull than just a light and a beep, 'cuz I was getting really used to ignoring signals from overpasses in that town.
Using a detector when you're in town and not speeding... the easy way to fix this is to shut the thing off until you hit the highway. At that point, every brand is just as effective.
Also, are there any techies out there that have a spec for the V1 interface to the remote display? I am in the works of building an mp3 player/gps unit for my car and thought having an onscreen readout would be cool. They (Valentine) were not willing to give away the spec though. Hard thing to hack too since you gotta spark the alarms.
G