Dooce

I'm also looking to buy. I haven't had one for 10 years or more, so all this is pretty new to me.

But I am very curious about the rave comments here for the Valentine One, yet a popular radar test site (http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9090) gives top honors to the Bel rx65. I'd like to hear what you friends think of that test author's comments, where about the V1 he says,
"The Valentine One is a highly sensitive radar detector--good enough that I declared it the winner of my 2000 Automobile Magazine shootout--but it's no longer top dog by default. The world has changed since it was designed in 1991. The Apple IIsi also was hot stuff that year but Apple knew better than to continue selling the same box. They replaced it with smaller, faster, better models packed with advanced features.

"Valentine and their V1 seem locked in a time warp. Even the owner manual reflects 1980s thinking, replete with wildly outdated statements such as "X-band [is] most common for moving and stationary [radar]." Huh? 47 of the 50 state highway patrols abandoned it years ago."

Whiterock1

My patent attorney friend screwed up. He was researching Escort, not Valentine. Your tax dollars at work... Although he said, maybe in defense of his error, that he thinks the Mike Valentine patent could be successfully challenged, but that is too technical for my money to go into here. However, a second antenna, pointed to the front, with a reflector housed above the unit would do the same job as V1's rear facer--and is NOT protected by Valentine's patent...in case one of our techies wants to come up with something new...

The Bel (same thing as the Escort, basically) STI has two antennae housings and 2 LNAs--they do not say which way they point. Many detectors have rear LASER "antennae," but I haven't found any one who claims a rear antenna for radar. It seems the clear rear vision is for laser pickup. Although I still seem to recall the old Passport having a rear antenna, from facts in evidence you are correct. Thanks for the correction to my post.

BTW, if you drive in VA, the Valentine's rear antenna will make it 4 times easier to pick up on a Spectre II radar detector detector from the rear. Something to keep in mind. Nothing is free...

louloumax

i believe both companies offer a 30 day trial period. buy both and hook the up side by side and drive the hell out of your ride for a month. send one back and report your conclusions. a real life test would certainly interest me. i do agree that the valentine owner's manuel is about useless. when i first got mine, it took me a month to figure out what all the bells and whistles meant and signified. BTW,. their service dept is A-1. i once sent it back for intermitent signal problem. they sent it back with a new power cord--said the wire was frayed. no charge and they wil upgrade it (for a price) when new tech comes out. the last upgrade was ''unnecessary unless i was a fanatic'' (i paraphrase) according to them--no need to spend the money. that's unusual for any company to turn down $$!!

Brentvino169

Radartest.com is run by a guy named Craig Peterson who works for Bel and Escort so he bashes the V1 every chance he gets. He got busted trying to sabotage the Guysoflidar.com 2007 radar detector test and he will probably have to part with a couple thousand dollars on top of the $1000 radar gun that he hid under camoflauge on top of a mountain to throw off the testing.

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtop...biassed+biased

http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=23628

http://www.guysoflidar.com/march-2007/sabotage.html

Brentvino169

The STi has two front facing radar antennas, one detects X and one detects K and Ka.