USA Detectors

[cess]

With a trip to the USA approaching, their prices for detectors look tempting. Can anyone recommend a USA product which works OK in the UK?
Cheers

[pies]

Valatine one

Bel 990

[dreadnought]

I use a BEL990i and wouldn't swap it for anything. In my experience the Valentine One performs no better and costs quite a bit more. Expect to pay about $325 in the States for the 990i.

dreadnought

[DRG]

I got a Valentine One a few days ago - superb performer lets you know EVERY source of radar around.

IMO I think the V1's advantage is that it gives you all the information as to what type of radar is about including traffic signal / auto door openers / gatso's / etc. and their position relative to your vehicle. It does take a little interpretting though.

I tested mine through TWELVE gatso's over the weekend and only one was active (they were not inductive loop gatso's) and it literrally pinpointed its location - switching from front - side - behind...Well I thought it was cool :iamageek:

You can pick them up on eBay for about £350.

see www.valentine1.com for a full demo

>> Edited by DRG on Monday 28th April 13:03

[cess]

Thanks for the info guys, at least I know what to look for now. The people I'm visiting have a Cobra - and at $104 it looks the bees bo....cks - anybody tried it?
www.cobra.com/index.php?page=shop/flypage&product_id=237&id=1#4a4800851f5c4b6f090963f21de34f3f.jpg

[DRG]

Just my $0.02 but the cobra never seems to do well in detector tests..?

[pies]

Cobra

[cazzo]

Check out www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/frames.htm
this site has tests etc of most detectors/jammers etc.

[bogie]

As per Dreadnoughts post - get a BEL or a Valentine ...but bear in mind they are no good against Truvelo or Specs (more and more of these around now) you'll need a GPS based device for those...and not much good against laser, - you'll need diffusers for those

[cess]

Thanks a lot for all the help - wondered why Cobra was soooooo cheap!

[icamm]

I've not got one myself but the reports on the Valentine 1 give it the best results over the Bell purely because it tells you the location of the "trap". So you tell whether it's on you road or not. Also whether there are more than one source. EG: it can tell you that there are two sources one ahead of you and one to the side etc.

I think the only thing to watch out for is that UK Police don't use some of the radar bands they use in the US so alot of the UK sold models have these bands switched off by default. So US settings can give more false alarms.

[DRG]

The problem with radar detectors is that they detect radar from all sources not just speed guns. The main culprits are automatic door openers in shops which use x band and k band and traffic signal detectors. All of which will set off an alert. Some models do have a logic mode to filter out low strength signals or even turn off these bands. However I get a full strength K band signal passing the local Renault garage! This is fine as you just ignore it as you know that it is the garage...until the devious BiB set up a gun nearby and thinking that it is the door opener ignore it and get NIPped.

With a V1 it tells you the number and types of radar around so in this case you would get two signals on the counter instead of the normal single signal.

The biggest weakness in these devices are the false alarms, the reason I bought a V1 is that it gives you the information you need to work out the level of threat posed. In a rural B-road setting this is largely academic as there shouldn't be any other sources of radar, so if you get a hit - brake