Tales of the Valentine One....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A few months ago, I got pulled over by the local PD, as I was slightly over the speed limit, maybe no more than 15 over, on a deserted backroad, I had no excuse, I WAS speeding, so I was very polite and respectful to the officer, but still, I fully expected to get a ticket, thankfully, the officer was a nice guy, and let me off with a verbal warning, thank Og

However, that little roadside “interview” got me thinking, maybe I should have a radar detector, just to help me keep an eye on my speed, I don’t deliberately speed, but this little incident reminded me that speeding tickets can happen to anyone.

So, later that week I purchased an Escort Passport 8500 X50 Red display, a store demo unit, for a reasonable price, upon researching the X50, it turns out I had purchased an “old” 2004 vintage detector, at first, I was pissed, but upon further research, it turned out that this unit was the much more desirable Version 5/S7 Horn model, widely regarded as the best X50 version, even better than the current Rev 6.x/M4 horn model

It’s said to be almost as sensitive as the Valentine One…

I have heard about the V1 for a long time, and always admired it from afar, but I couldn’t rationalize spending the $400+ for a new model, especially when I don’t deliberately speed, and besides, the X50 seemed to be incredibly sensitive, alerting me to police radar in ample time to glance at my speedometer, make sure I’m not speeding and/or reduce my speed accordingly

the X50 is a great detector, lots of customization options, and has a cool text display, but it has one major shortcoming, it doesn’t tell me where the radar is coming from, just that there is radar in the area

The Valentine One OTOH, DOES tell you where the radar is coming from, thanks to the dual antennas (front and rear), and the Bogey counter tells how many signals are being recieved, combine those features with an incredible amount of sensitivity, some may say it’s too sensitive, BAH!, Inconcievable, no such thing!

Thankfully, I was able to find a good deal on a Refurbished V1, and now am the proud owner of a Valentine One Radar Locator!

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve compared the two detectors, on alternating drives, one drive I use the X50, the next, the V1, and have come to the following conclusion;

BOTH detectors are great tools, either one would serve me well, that said, I’m going to be using the V1 as my primary detector, why?

the Bogey Counter and Arrows, to me, these are invaluable tools

in the next couple of posts, I’ll post some of my more memorable V1 encounters…

2

Encounter One, where the V1 first proved it’s worth, and more, it showed me something I had always suspected;

I was driving on one of the back roads, no less than 5 miles from home, doing the PSL, as the Eliot, Maine PD cruisers patrol this area heavily, and they’re good at their job, I respect them for that, they really know their tools and use them to their fullest potential

I’m driving down a hill, a standard two-lane backroad, heavily wooded, I’m the only car in my lane, an approaching car in the oncoming lane is decending the other side of the hill, the headlight pattern looks…familiar… kinda’ like a Ford Crown Vic…

When we’re less than 3 car lengths apart, The V1 sounds a full 9 bar Ka alert for about 3 seconds, the front arrow is lit, a classic short-range instant-on hit, luckilly I’m doing the PSL, as NO detector would have given me adequate warning, the V1 then goes dark

we pass ways, I glance in my rear-view mirror, to check for brake lights (what can I say, I’m paranoid), the officer does not brake, but…

the V1 emits another 9 bar Ka alert, both front AND rear arrows are lit, but the back arrow is flashing indicating the stronger threat, for another 3 seconds, then goes dark again…

the cruiser shot me with his rear radar gun as he was driving away, to make sure I wasn’t accelerating away at higher than PSL, sneaky, Mr Officer, very sneaky, nobody would suspect a receding cruiser firing off an IO shot out of the back radar gun now, would they…

I’ve always suspected this behavior from officers running radar, after all, they have fron and rear mounted radar guns for a reason, but until I got my V1, I wouldn’t have ever been able to prove it

If I was running my X50, I would have chalked up the second alert as backscatter from the cruiser’s front gun, as I’m paranoid, I wouldn’t dream of accelerating away from a cruiser at higher than the PSL, at least until it was out of visual range, but a less-paranoid driver might have been tempted to give it a little “kick” to get clear of the receeding cruiser, and would be at risk for being tagged in the process…

3

Encounter Two;
Had a fun detection, heading into work, I got my usual false at the motel right by the Rte 1 Bypass exit off the Portsmouth traffic circle, the Bogey Counter usually locks 2-3 Bogeys, K-band false, 3 dots of strength, the arrows rapidly go front-center-back as I pass the motel

today, the V1 locked 4 sources, all K band, the arrows went front-center-back…back<flashing>, the Bogey counter counted down to one bogey, at a strength of four to five dots

I glanced in my RVM, and lo and behold, about 4 cars back was the unmistakeable profile of a Crown Vic, in what looked like Sheriff colors, it wasn’t an unmarked cruiser, nor a Statie, nor a Civvie-owned used police cruiser, but it definitely appeared to be the source of the alert, considering that it took a right at the next intersection and the alert vanished at that point

Encounter Three;
On the drive home from the PetQuarters (getting supplies and a couple shrimp for my heavily-planted 20 gallon Long aquarium), I started getting the usual falses, typically 3-5 bogeys, a mix of X and K, front, side and rear arrows constantly pointing to the strongest threat

tonight, the alerts were different, because along with the beeps and braps of X and K, there was also the “Bra-Brap” of Ka and the front arrow was flashing, indicating greater threat ahead, and there were now 6 bogeys

I passed the Dunkin Donuts and the Asian grocer, Vi insisting that Ka was ahead…
in the parking lot of the out-of-business Portsmouth KFC were two Portsmouth cruisers, one facing the KFC, one facing traffic, both with just their parking lights on, the traffic-facing cruiser more than likely still had his front radar gun on, transmitting Ka across the road, perpendicular to me, the V1 first detected off-axis Ka from a good 1/8 mile away, they were clearly just chatting.

sure enough, as I passed the cruisers, the arrows went from flashing forward, to flashing side, then flashing behind, and continued to flash behind for at least a quarter mile, at least until I decended a small hill

Not bad, detecting an off-axis Ka for a good 1/4 mile with the rear antenna

the shopping district in Portsmouth NH is a true test of detector filtering, as both sides of the road are lined with shops and minimalls, almost all of them with at least one automatic door opener system, heck, the Marshall’s Mall minimall complex is a source for 7-8 hits on the Bogey counter alone, and the Fox Run Minimall complex spikes the counter at 9 bogeys at times

And tonight, yet another encounter, similar to my first encounter, almost identical…

Driving home on the same tree-lined two-lane road as Encounter One, 10:00 PM, inky black sky, the only light from my headlights, being absorbed by the sopping wet pavement

“BrapBrap”… the V1 emitted a single Ka alert**, the Ahead arrow lit, signal strength of one, Bogey Counter reading one Bogey Ahead and then went dark…

I recognized the pattern, and prepared myself for the expected outcome, a quick glance at my speedometer showed me that I was 5 under the posted speed limit, I was safe, I started counting down the seconds, as I saw the glow of headlights top the crest of the hill ahead of me…

The headlights top the hill, and have the expected look of a Ford Police Interceptor…

BRAPBRAPBRAPBRAPBRAPBRAP!

The V1 came to life, with a full 9 dot Ka signal strength, one Bogey on the counter, the officer kept the radar running as our cars passed in opposite directions, as the cruiser passed me, the arrows went Beside then Behind, and went quiet a second later…

I began counting again, by the second second, as expected…

BRAPBRAPBRAPBRAPBRAPBRAP!
9 dots of Ka, Rear arrow lit, as he “tagged” me again with his rear-facing radar gun…

I guess he was expecting me to drop the hammer and accelerate away from him, thankfully, I knew better, thanks to my handy little Valentine One!

**Ka alert tones ARE NOT false alerts, if any detector emits a Ka alert even a momentary alert, PAY ATTENTION, as police radar is in the area, the single or double alert tone with 1-2 dots of signal strength is a classic example of Instant On radar ahead of you, you’re getting the reflection/scatter of the beam hitting the car ahead of you

4

Well, just be careful, because the V1 can’t give you any warning when they’re using laser.

5

Questions from one who lives where such devices are illegal (not that it stopped a few of the people I knew in electronics school): By ‘bogey’ do you mean a separate signal source? Is there a data protocol similar to that for GPS where you could plot these sources’ locations in realtime on a map display? Do door-openers really use radar? Are lidar-detectors also permitted where you are?

6

Most radar detectors have no directional capability at all - they just beep when they get a signal from anywhere. The V1 is special in that it can identify signals as “in front”, “behind”, and “on the side” - but it is nowhere near precise enough to plot on a map.

Door openers do use radar, yes. Laser detectors are legal in 49 states (the V1 is a laser detector as well) - but they’re basically useless, because all they can do is alert you that a cop has lasered you.

Laser jammers are more useful, and legal as well, but not in all states.

7

True with LIDAR, you’re lucky if you catch some backscatter from cars being targeted ahead, the V1 has the best LIDAR detection in the industry, but even that’s not enough if YOU happen to be the target vehicle

A “Bogey” to the V1 is any microwave radar beam within it’s sensitivity range, each beam frequency counts as a “Bogey”…

If you’re driving past a minimall complex with automatic door openers that use Radar frequencies (look for a small black box above the door frame), the V1 will see them as Bogeys as they are using radar frequencies, lets say one store has two door openers, one inside the store (10.345 GHz), one outside, (10.424 GHz), the V1 would lock those two frequencies as two seperate Bogeys and display 2 Bogeys on the BC display, and illuminate the “X” band LED

Same situation as above, but add in a police cruiser running a dual antenna Ka “Stalker” radar gun at 35.542 and 35.547 in the parking lot…

the V1 would then lock 4 Bogeys on the counter, the X band and Ka Band LED’s would be lit, and the Ka band LED would be flashing, as would the Arrow that tracks the strongest threat

Lets say the cruiser pulls out to follow you after you pass the false alarm, the Bogey counter would drop to 2, and the Behind arrow would stay lit, as would the Ka and strength LED’s

lets say, one of his buddies is coming the other way in the oncoming lane, running Constant On Ka, the Bogey counter would go back up to 3 or 4 (depending on if the oncoming cruiser was using a single or dual antenna emitter) and the Forward arrow would flash, indicating “Greater Threat Ahead”

In my area, Radar and LIDAR detection is legal, all a Radar Detector is is a radio reciever tuned to Microwave frequencies

8

Once again, the V1 lives up to it’s name as a radar locator…

I stopped off at the Crossings at Fox Run in Newington NH to pick up some Red Cherry Shrimp and hornwort for my heavily planted 20 Long aquarium, as I drove in, the V1 locked the expected 6-7 Bogeys, a mix of X and K band frequencies, and suddenly locked an eighth Bogey, the Ahead arrow flashing

Ka Band…

That’s strange, Ka band is only used by the police**…

I turned left, approaching the PetQuarters, at the second row of traffic, the “Beside” arrows and the Ka indicator were flashing, as I passed the third row of parked cars, the “Behind” arrow was flashing, I turned down that row of cars, the Beside arrows flashing, during the whole alert time, the signal strength varied from 3 to 4 dots, as I pulled into a parking spot, nose of the car towards the three rows I just passed, the Forward arrow began flashing, and the alert went to 8 dots

there, two rows back, was the unmistakeable shape of a Kittery, Maine Ford Police Interceptor, the officer had left his radar gun on while he was shopping, as I got out of the car, and headed towards the PetQuarters, I saw the officer emerge from the Staples store and walk back towards his cruiser, arms laden with office supplies

the Val One helped me pinpoint a police cruiser in a nest of false alarms, that’s just too cool :slight_smile:

(**or cheap, crappy leaky Cobra detectors, but a Ka leak on a Cobra is a 0ne to two dot alert at most, and it certainly doesn’t get stronger as you approach it)

9

Lucky. I work on an air force base where you’re not allowed to use them. The guards would ask me every day if mine was unplugged, so I eventually got sick of that and gave mine to a friend.

10

I did quite a bit of research before buying my current radar detector, a Beltronics RX65 Pro. At the time, it was quite a bit more than I expected to pay for a radar detector, but it has already paid for itself many times over. It’s often compared to the Escort Passport and the Valentine One for consumer testing purposes, and spending twice as much as an inexpensive one for one of the top 3 rated detectors manufactured has really paid off.

There’s a radar speed display sign midway through my commute. I was driving about 5 miles over the limit, and started getting the regular K band “pings”. Normally, I would have kept going at the same speed. But today, the “Threat Display” mode (that’s not available in most models) showed the expected K band, but also an unexpected Ka band*. I slowed down, and there was a cop pulling over the hill just as the display came into view.

A few miles later, I was pinging again. I saw a cop who had pulled a car over, so I moved into the left lane. As before, I started pinging on two bands, so I slowed down by about 5 mph. Turns out, there was another cop pulling radar pretty close to the same spot. If I didn’t have an advanced detector, I would have thought the cop making the traffic stop was the only one in the area, and probably would have gotten a ticket.
*The difference between the Beltronics and the Valentine is the Beltronics just shows what bands are present and the strength of each. However, Ka can usually assumed to be a cop, while K band tends to be stray signals from other devices.

**MacTech, any chance you’re planning on selling your Escort? I could use one for my motorcycle.

11

The X50 has what’s called “ExpertMode”, where it shows a bar graph for multiple radar sources and the strength of each source, it’s limited however, it can only display up to 4 separate X signals, 2 K, and 2 Ka signals, in any combination, so if you run into a “nest” of X band falses, you’ll see a max. of four graphs, even if there are more than four, and the Ka band multi-source display is less than useful in my area, as the cops all use Stalker dual-antenna Ka guns, a single cruiser will register as 2 bars of Ka, as the X50 is reading both antennas

so, in the theoretical encounter of one cruiser trailing another a few cars back, both running Ka band, the X50 will only display two graphs, when there actually four signals present

ExpertMode Pros;
shows the strength of each radar signal (within limits), the V1 just tells you there are multiple sources, not the strength of each (the V1 will flash the arrow and band LED of the biggest threat, however

ExpertMode Cons;
limited number of bands it can display, if you encounter more than two distinct K or Ka sources, it will only display two signal bars
readability of ExpertMode is difficult due to the small characters and graph bars, visually cluttered, not conducive to a quick glance
V1 Pros; shows the strength and location of radar, shows the strongest threat by blinking the arrow and band indicator LED
shows how many radar sources it has locked (maximum of 9) and their location and strength

V1 cons; shows the strength of only the biggest threat, even when encountering multiple threats
some consider it’s extreme sensitivity too sensitive, and yes, it is a very “chatty” detector, if it finds a radar source within it’s frequency range, it will alert you, so that means you’re being alerted to door openers, banks, security systems, and the like, the laser sensitivity can also be falsley triggered by high-end luxury vehicles adaptive cruise controls and LED taillight clusters, to be fair, the V1 is very customizeable and can be detuned to be quieter, at the expense of sensitivity

***check your PM :wink:

12

With the V1, what would have happened would have been this;
the V1 would have triggered on the K band alert, a single Bogey, the Ahead arrow would be lit, as you approached the speed sign, the V1 would have emitted a “Dee-Deet” tone (Bogey Lock tone) and the counter would go up to 2 or 3 (depending on the type of radar gun), the Ka LED would light, and the Ahead arrow and Ka led would flash, indicating Ka as the stronger threat ahead, the signal strength meter would then show the strength of the Ka band as it’s the stronger threat
as you passed the speed sign, the Beside then the Behind arrow would light but the Ahead arrow and Ka LED would still be flashing, the X band LED would extinguish when out of range, as you pass the motorcycle cop, the arrows would go Beside then Behind as long as the radar gun was transmitting

in this case, this is what would happen;
V1 would alert to radar Ahead, Bogey Counter locking 1 (or 2 if it’s a dual-antenna Stalker gun) and the signal strength would rise as you approached the cruiser, youwould notice the V1 lock another Bogey and the Ahead arrow would flash, when you passed cop #1, the beside then behind arrows would light, but Ahead would still be lit until you passed the second cop, at which point the Behind arrow would be lit only

13

Dear Og, I LOVE my Valentine One!

Had another good detection tonight, a multi-staged detection to boot

I was driving towards home, on Rte 236 in Eliot, Maine, doing the PSL, maybe 5 under, a heavily patrolled road, I get a 4 dot mid-strength Ka alert, one Bogey, and the Ahead arrow lit, I glance at my speedo, dead on PSL, so I drop 5 MPH below the limit to give myself some safety buffer, the signal stays constant as I travel up 236, 4-5 dots, very consistent and level…

I notice a very “Police Interceptor”-ish set of taillights two cars ahead, sure enough, I’m following behind an Eliot PD cruiser running CO Ka, unusual for them as Eliot favors IO

Suddenly, my Behind arrow illuminates at 8 bars of Ka!, the Behind arrow starts flashing, the Ahead arrow still lit, I’m being shot in the back by another Eliot PD cruiser, this also stays on constant, I glance in the RVM, but see no police-ish looking vehicle behind me, there’s nobody behind me for a good eighth of a mile or so, just some big, honkin’ thyroidal SUV…

Still, there’s gotta be a cop back there somewhere, it’s too strong to be a false…

I turn onto Beech Ridge, and the alert dissapears, but I’m still paranoid and on the alert, expecting another Ka hit, still travelling right at the PSL…

after a mile or so of travel, and just as I think I’m out of danger, the V1 sounds another Ka alert…

Behind me, one bogey, about 5 dots of strength…and climbing…

Now I’m starting to get annoyed, I have done nothing wrong, I’ve been at, or 5 under PSL the entire time, I drive a Saturn Ion, a car not known for it’s performance, (not known for much at all, really), yet the Eliot PD seems to get enjoyment out of radaring me…

So, I decide to get nasty

I drop to TEN under the limit, and hold it there (PSL is 30 MPH)

Sure enough as I climb the hill to the road home and approach the second-to-last intersection, a Ford Explorer pulls up behind me, with headlights burning my retinas out, and the V1 shrieking a full 9 dot alert from Behind, and practically rides my bumper the rest of the way up the hill to the intersection…

It’s gotta be a false, after all, it’s not a Police Interceptor…
I arrive at the three way intersection and signal a left turn, the truck turns to the right…

…emblazoned with the Eliot Police Department logo in retroreflective tape…

Hmm, looks like Eliot PD got a new patrol vehicle after all

As I make my left hand turn up the road to home, as expected, the officer gives me one more blast from his rear radar gun, the V1 alerts to a 9 dot single Bogey KA alert from Behind for about 10 seconds and falls silent after we both move out of visual range

Thank you, Valentine One, and Thank You, Mike Valentine