Toyspeed.org.nz Message Board

Model : Valentine 1 Version 1.8 (latest)

How much you paid: $600 2nd hand

Whether it's let you down: Never yet

What the range is like: Umm for Ka and normal radar from police cars 2km plus, my best effort was on the Orari straights 3.8km out was 1st warning . Police using Laser on the other hand can only get you around 100-200m away, V1 normally warns about 600 to 800m out.

Do ya like it?: I love it, its easily the best avaliable

Feel free to give it a mark outta 10: 10/10

i HAD a ESCORT 8500 which was pretty good, bought it for $550 got stolen on wed though which suxs.
Range would say around 800 - 900m
not as good as the valentine 1 though
no false alarms as you can turn the X and K band off and they are not used in NZ
never picked a laser so dont know if it worked
It never let me down
i would give it about a 8/10
Saved me heaps of fines (about $600) though espeically when going on long trips.
I LOVED It, stupid thieves.

I did a lot of research a few months ago regarding radar detectors and the model I ended up purchasing was the Beltronics 995 for $450 from a guy off trademe brand new which was a damn good price back then.
The reviews I had read put this radar on top of the food chain along with the Escort and V1 but was also Bels latest model and the cheapest of the best, the 995 is basically the same as the RX65 pro except for a couple of added features and a flashy case which 99% people would never use.
I didn't want an Escort either because it was an extra $100 over the Bel and plus I don't like the fact it's display is angled towards the driver of a left hand drive car whereas the Bel is perfectly symetrical. Since I bought the Bel I've had a play with the Escort and found them to be be bigger and of a slightly older design as far a knobs and buttons go but the software is identical proving that they are essentially the same thing on the inside.
When I first installed mine I left all the settings as default for about a week and found it very irritating around town as I was getting false alarms almost every 500m when driving through Penrose on the way to work every day, I promptly deleted X & K bands as advised to me by the seller and left only Ka & laser operational and now I don't receive any false alarms so make sure whatever you do buy a radar which is band selectable, any decent model will have this on it anyway.
The detection of Ka band police radars is excellent, especially in a straight line and always gives you plenty of warning although I have yet to be lasered by the five-0
Having said all this, an attentive and responsible driver wouldn't really need one of these in most circumstances as I havn't really needed to adjust my speed when it has gone off as of yet especially this time of year when NZ's busy one lane highways prevent you from doing much over 100Km/h

I've borrowed a V1 several times for trips up north and you can't go wrong with them. Buy from the US and save plenty $ though.

I have a uniden sws2500nz which is the base model.
Quite cheap at $250 new sometimes.
Works real well but you have to listen to it and know what beeps mean what. Has picked up patrol cars up to 1km away at times.
1st beep and i dont even lift off, 2nd beep and you check your speed, third beep time to slow down.

In saying that, took the bosses car to CHCH one time.
He has exact same model as me, but it never picked up anything at all, was actually quite useless.

Matt

cheese wrote:last year i had a unidenGPSNZ9000?. forget the model number. retailed at around a grand but i picked it up for bout $300
very cool gps features, digital speedo readout, has all the suburbs in NZ programmed in with how far away they are and ETAs etc has all the fixed speed cameras programmed in which is handy in areas which ya dont know.

BUt as far as an actual radar went, it was a piece of sh*t to be honest.
detected patrol cars when they were right next to you. detected the lasers when you in their range, didnt even pick up mobile cameras.

sold it for $500 a few months later..

so all in all it was a fun toy with the gps and sh*t but i didnt really have any confidence with it when it came to the detection side, but i guess thats what you expect from a uniden.

yup i have that model to and agree, its a usless when it comes to its detection, but yeah gps and speed is about the only good things with it,
my old uniden was way better

Voodoo wrote:yup i have that model to and agree, its a usless when it comes to its detection, but yeah gps and speed is about the only good things with it,
my old uniden was way better

sucks for a unit that started retailing at over a grand. you'd expect much more.

no one get one!

I don;t have a good one, and the one I have is some years old so it's crap. But I'm hoping to get a Valentine 1.

so the Bel 995 and RX65 are practicly the same??

up date on my Whislter: measured out the range at 700 metres on a flat straight road

Sanxta wrote:up date on my Whislter: measured out the range at 700 metres on a flat straight road

Was it enough time to slow down before the police radar locked your speed?

I've got a Uniden SWS2500NZ, got it for $110 off trademe, they only retail for $199 now. What I've noticed since owning it, is cops are hard to find! The few times I've come across them it's given me reasonable warning although I don't speed often, but it only needs to save ya at 15-20k's over the limit once and it's already paid for itself.

JT wrote:

Sanxta wrote:up date on my Whislter: measured out the range at 700 metres on a flat straight road

Was it enough time to slow down before the police radar locked your speed?

I've got a Uniden SWS2500NZ, got it for $110 off trademe, they only retail for $199 now. What I've noticed since owning it, is cops are hard to find! The few times I've come across them it's given me reasonable warning although I don't speed often, but it only needs to save ya at 15-20k's over the limit once and it's already paid for itself.

wasn't actually speeding at the time. apparently the current Ka radars have a mobile range of 500 metres and a stationary range of 750. so yeah, if he was moving it would have been good notice, otherwise I was screwed . . . he had already pulled over someone anyway.

Banga69 wrote:so the Bel 995 and RX65 are practicly the same??

As far as I can tell and from what I have researched yes, I own the 995 and it's an excellent radar.

so which radar detector is actually good... what about dem ones which can b stored in ur grille... are they good and can they dectect from behind incase a sneaky coppa rolls up behind you?

i believe the ones that go in ya grill etc are radar jammers arnt they??

as far as detecors go i dont need one as im now an old fart LOL
na i never use them as i have lost my licence once already (woulda helped then ) and i stick to the speed limit these days as they (cops) are getting bad. but i guess there just doing there job tho. unlike the clowns that hide