well, my X50 was actually AT Escort last week as it shipped Friday to come back to me... (regarding the weird laser alert i get when the wife's Ody's transmission downshifts 2 gears-- this has come up in another thread... they are fixing it under warranty.)... so i took this as an opportunity to call them and check on it, AND ask about the POP mode sensitivity issue.

i was told this -- roughly repeated, but not word for word.
the bigger antenna and upgraded software increases sensitivity of the unit on all bands. by turning off POP you loose POP warnings, which is a loss of the unit's abilities, but doesn't not affect 'traditional' warnings or their upgraded sensitivity.


and agreed, the SWS seems to be left out of the literature for the X50 as well. i'm still not 100% sure what it would have even done... i never had an SWS alert from my 8500.

has anyone ever had an SWS alert at all??

 

The trooper was perpendicular to the highway. Since I could not see him until I passed, I couldn't tell if he was shooting over his hood or out of his window.

The sensitivity level of both detectors were about the same. Since both alarms sounded around the same time, I couldn't tell you if one was a 1/10 th of a second faster than the other.

Again, both detectors went off way too late. In the scenario I described, if I relied on either one, I would have been busted. The arrows on the V1 would have made no difference. Unless you like know what side of the highway the trooper will be writing your speeding ticket on.

 

well, what made me ask how he was positioned is related to how radar works...

if he was shooting from a dash mounted setup (positioned wrong or just watching traffic w/ the radar on), then you would have gotten almost no warning. the detector would have lit up as you passed even with him. simultaneously though, his readings would have been useless. radar relies on a doppler shift for detection, and the more you get off center from the target, the greater the error of detection.

now, if he was using 'instant on' out of the window w/ a handheld? you were fried.

 

When using the V1 with the remote display, where should you mount the V1 itself to take advantage of it's front and rear sensors? Wouldn't it need to be mounted in plain view anyway, unless you take a chance and disassemble the unit?

 

Same question...

 

yup... you don't want to hide it. the radar antennas will 'see' through plastics and the top, but not metal. the laser requires visible line of sight.

just think of the sensors as eyes, and try to position them for max viewing area and distance (keeping in mind that radar is seeing through non-metallics in the car). i like to keep my 8500 just to the left of the rear view mirror. it's a high position w/ a large field of view. also, being close to my head, i can hear alerts better w/ the top down.


hope this helps.

 

Just another example as to how good the range on the X50 is, I got onto the state road going into town here last week and shortly there after I started getting Ka warnings in 2-3 bar intensities. This road is straight and flat for the entire 13 mile trip into town. The alerts continued for miles and I began to think the cop was coming up behind me. Looking in my rearview, I could not make out a patrol car anywhere behind me. There were 1 or 2 cars behind me, but they were so far away they were pretty much dots in my rearview. Finally, about 7 miles after I started getting alerts, the intensity started increasing. A then started making out flashing lights on the other side of the highway. Lots of them. I finally got up to them and it wound up being 4 or 5 patrol cars in some kind of a bust. They had the occupants out of the car and a tow truck was just showing up to tow the car away. Obviously, there were a few patrol cars with their Ka radars blasting away down the road. So, basically I picked up their radar about 10 miles away.

 

I have read that the Bel Pro RX65 is the new king.



http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9090

Excerpts

Valentine 1
"Valentine and their V1 seem locked in a time warp. Even the owner manual reflects 1980s thinking...Small wonder that Valentine

 

if i recall correctly (and i can't check here at work b/c radartest.com is blocked), radartest.com is that site ran by the Valentine hater and has been clearly and consistently shown to be VERY biased.

and the Bel and X50 should be pretty much identical.... considering Escort Radar bought Bel out a while ago and they have been documented to now be virtually the same internally.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/200...iz_escort.html
article dated December 2003

 

I have heard that about radartest.com. But i still feel at $222 on ebay, the Bel is a great value vs the $400 V1. Unless I get a used V1.