[Casper223]

I'm new here to the site, have been lurking around reading your posts and am picking up my FRS today, hopefully....

I wanted to chime in on the Radar Detector thread, hopefully to help....
My background brings me through several years as a law enforcement officer, and then onto an over the road truck driver, and radar detectors have been part of my life it seems like forever.

All the major brand detectors on the market do a fairly good job, and really depends on the bells and whistles your looking for, like options on your cars... A few of them are invisible to Police Radar, In places like Washington, and Virginia, their a must... In areas where Laser is used... requires detection to protect yourself.

Personally... I have installed, and run a V1. It's mounted to my rear view mirror with a very professional bracket made by Blend Mount. The higher you can mount the detector in your vehicle, the better off you are, the height improves reception. I chose the V1 for a few reasons.... First and foremost, The V1 has the best Laser Detection in the business, Bar-None.... The Passport Max doesn't hold a candle to Laser detection of V1, The V1 like the Passport Max has 2 Antennas, front and rear, and just a few weeks ago, while stretching it out through Mississippi, I kept getting a beep, beep, and as I looked at my detector, found the bear was coming up from behind me, although he was a few miles behind me, it took him a while to catch up, by that time I was in the right lane, moving with the flow of traffic. The arrows on the V1 are remarkable, whether meeting a bear head on, or whether he's coming up from behind, or if he's a non threat and on the side road somewhere. The V1 is also programmable, "X" band is a dinosaur, rarely in use anywhere, but causes a lot of chatter with every detector, I shut it off, problem solved... I pay attention to "K" Band, and am very cautious of "Ka" which is almost always a Bear, and the Laser is of course the objective... One reason why I passed over the Passport Max for the V1, is because the Passport, which is a GREAT detector, uses GPS, and after marking a door alarm 3 times, Mutes that alarm. Twice recently, I've met and got by a bear, who also knew sitting in those areas was easy targeting of John Q Public... I'd rather my V1 bark once to many, than Once shy.... Those tickets aren't cheap, and the insurance is ridiculous. A couple of other things I want to throw out there, is the V1 has an optional "Remote Display" let me explain, when I'm stretching it out across say Florida's I-10, and the car behind me sees the arrows and lights on my dash, e immediately knows he's safe to jump in behind me, and before long, you tend to be the rabbit with a line of cars following you.... So I run a concealed display, which causes the face of my V1 to remain blacked out but working, and on the shelf behind my steering wheel at the bottom of my speed meter is where my concealed display is mounted, and I do use Savvy also, mostly for city driving, which it keeps chatter to a minimum in the city, by beeping once at a signal below the set speed you have it set for, and by beeping again at an exceptionally strong signal, just to keep you alert. V1, also has an iPhone and a droid app for your cell phone, and through a blue tooth adapter, flashes alarms in real time over your cell phone. The base price of the V1 is a $150 less than it's strongest competition, which is the Passport Max, and I'm guessing the $150 should pay for the GPS incorporated into the max. Another Pro or Con however you view it, is the Passport Max also will blue tooth over your phone through a network which you pay for this service and I think it's $90 bucks a year, which it communicates with other detectors on this network and tracks bears in your area, speed traps etc.... Due to the cost of this Radar Detector, plus the additional $90 bucks a year for the networking, Users of the Passport have stated it hasn't caught on as well as they had hoped it would. Make no mistake about it, Passport Max is a Dang Good detector, as is the V1. The Redline on the market is also a good detector. My problem with Redline is it has been known to detect radar up to 14 miles away.... I often pick up radar in my area 3 to 7 miles off, ALWAYS.... in plenty of time to react and be behaving before meeting the actual threat. The problem with Redline, is it's barking at a signal its getting 14 miles away, your thinking it's a false alarm by the time you actually meet the threat.

Someone else also mentioned a good point about the V1, it's an investment. Every Radar detector on the market, if you read the reviews are comparing themselves to a Valentine. Valentine has set the bench mark for many years. While others are catching up, there something very important to remember. The equipment that Police are using is constantly changing. With a Valentine One, you mail the detector back to Mike Valentine, and he updates your equipment for a nominal fee and sends it back to you, with the other detectors, toss em in the garbage, their now obsolete.

Unbeatable combination is the Valentine One, and the HP 905 Laser Jammer.... Hope this helps some, or at least provides you with some ideas and choices. I enjoy your forum, Thanks for allowing me to join.