Valentine One Radar Detector

Over the past twenty plus years I've bought two of these for myself (one was stolen from my car) and one for my son as a high school graduation gift (to protect him from radar traps on his 1,800 mile trip each way to and from college, especially on the interstate through the south where northerners travelling between the northeast and Florida seem to be a prime revenue source for state police). The Valentine One Radar Detector is without a doubt the best radar detector on the market, and over the twenty plus years that I have purchased Valentine One's they have been upgraded to address improvements in the radar and laser threats that it is protecting us against. I would describe it as military grade; oftentimes the car magazines running radar/laser detector tests will simply compare all of the other units being tested to the Valentine One Radar Detector as the gold standard to see how close they can come to the standard set by the Valentine One.The Valentine One tells you where the radar is (front, back, side), how many radar units there are in the area, and the relative strength of the radar (helpful in determining how close the radar is). It has visual and audio warnings signals (visually with arrows blinking at variably faster rates of speed as one gets closer to the radar source, and with a LED radar signal strength meter which increases as one gets closer to the radar source; audio with different tones of audio signals, different volumes of audio signals, and variably different rates of speed of audio signals as one gets closer to the radar source). The detector also alerts you to what type of radar or laser it is detecting (every type of radar and laser used by civilian police agencies are detected), as well as how many radars are being detected! Happily there is a volume control, as well as a separate control which reduces the volume but doesn't fully shut it off when radar is detected so that one doesn't have to listen to the full volume of audio alarms but can still listen for tell-tale changes in the audio alerts which might indicate additional radar units being detected and added to the mix.This radar detector is so sensitive and precise that there are times on the interstate when it will go off and one will slow down and drive for as much as a mile (or more) after it goes off without seeing the radar unit; just as one is ready to start speeding up in the belief that it was a false alarm ... suddenly there's the radar! This has happened more times than I can remember, and usually happens with instant-on radar units, which are detected in short bursts as the police officer uses a trigger to quickly turn the unit on and off as new targets come into his field of view, as compared to a unit which is being left on continuously and whose location and distance is relatively easy to identify with the Valentine One (continuous radar signals happen with much less frequency nowadays, it was common in the past).It all seems confusing at first (and it is -- at first), but once one gets used to the rich and expansive type, quality and number of indicators and warnings that the unit provides one finds oneself enveloped in a blanket of anti-radar security which allows one to drive without expending much mental energy on deciphering what and where the radar and laser issues are and how serious they are.An interesting aspect of the Valentine One Radar Detector is how it is able to detect the number of different radar and laser units that it is detecting at the same time. Oftentimes automatic doors at supermarkets and alarm systems at banks will set off a radar detector, and after awhile one begins to ignore the warnings in those places. Knowledgeable police will oftentimes set up a speed trap near one of these permanent radar detector triggers, knowing that people have grown accustomed to their radar detectors going off when they are passing the local supermarket, and issue a quantity of tickets to regulars whose radar detectors can't detect the presence of another radar source. The Valentine One counts the number of separate radar sources when it detects them; if you know that there are always two radar sources setting off your radar detector at the corner of South and Main Streets near the supermarket, and today your Valentine One tells you that there are three radar sources, you know that something has changed and there may be a police radar unit set up in addition to the supermarket's automatic doors!One additional observation that I will share from having used the Valentine One Radar Detector for over twenty years: even if you get caught you have a very good chance of getting a ticket for a speed much, much lower than you were driving at with the Valentine One. Over the years I had discovered that if the Valentine One suddenly goes off in a way that indicates that there is an instant-on radar unit in the immediate area (with experience you will learn when the radar being detected is an immediate and serious threat), if one immediately and without hesitation literally slams on the brakes to slow down super rapidly one can beat the radar unit out of as much as 20 mph off of the speed reading that it locks in to. I have asked many police officers that I know over the years about this and they all denied that it was possible. However, in the past couple of years I finally read the science behind my observations and experiences: before the radar can lock onto the speed of the car it is clocking it must read the EXACT same speed TWICE in a predetermined amount of time (something like a fraction of a second). If one is braking and decelerating extremely rapidly it frequently takes the radar unit long enough to lock onto the exact same speed twice in the required fraction of a second time span that one can shave as much as twenty miles per hour off of one's speed before the radar unit locks on -- I know, I've done it many, many times over the past two decades (I like to drive fast!). What should have been an 85 mph in a 55mph zone ticket becomes a 65 mph in a 55 mph zone ticket. Better yet, what should have been an 89mph in a 65mph zone ticket becomes no ticket at all when the radar clocks and locks onto the car at 69 mph in a 65mph zone (based on the 5mph over the posted speed limit leeway that most police officers and courts routinely allow drivers). What the police officer sees while the radar is failing to lock onto your rapidly decelerating car is either a blank read-out or a bunch of rapidly changing numbers that won't lock in for a short period of time; what the police officer ends up with is a locked in reading significantly lower than the actual speed at which one was travelling.I will comment that when the laser detector in the Valentine One alerts it, like all laser detectors, more often than not is telling you that you've been caught; because the police aim and fire their laser guns directly at one specific car there is rarely any extraneous laser beam that is able to be detected by the laser detector and if it goes off more likely than not you've been caught. On very rare occasion the police officer may miss-aim or not be fully focused on what he is doing and the laser detector may detect a random laser beam to give you a warning that laser is being used in the area, but my observation is that this happens very infrequently. On the plus side (for me), there are comparatively very few laser units (as compared to radar units) in use in my neck of the woods (northern New England).All in all, the only thing I've ever complained about regarding the Valentine One Radar Detector is the price, which tends to be on the high end. However, the savings from one speeding ticket can pay for the unit in its entirety, so if you like to drive fast it will pay for itself. Accordingly, the unit is worth every penny one has to pay for it, and much, much more. As a twenty plus year user who has purchased three units for myself and others I heartily recommend and endorse the Valentine One Radar Detector without reservation.

Plenty has been written about this radar detector and for the most part they are correct. This is my opinion as a layperson i.e. non-expert.I drive a lot on the interstates and needed a reliable radar detector. I was willing to spend the extra $$ to get a high quality one after becoming really mistrustful of my Cobra detector. After reviewing and searching available online material, it was down to this (V1) and the Escort Passport Max 2. There is a fairly detailed nearly 30 minute long video review on youtube which kind of settled it for me in favor of the V1 but felt uneasy about a couple of things:1. apparently the V1 is very 'chatty' and beeps for just about every X band because it is very sensitive.2. the video review stressed the fact that to get the most out of this device, you have to tweak the settings using an Android phone. I don't have an Android phone and was concerned about having to borrow one of my friends' to do this.The Escort Passport Max 2 has GPS built it and hence can use it show speed cameras for instance. But to keep up with the updated database, you have pay a monthly subscription and I do not like that idea at all. There were a few other things I didn't like about the Escort.So I went ahead and ordered the V1- sold by Stoobies Electronics and fulfilled by Amazon so it arrived very quickly as expected.From the outer box onwards, I was impressed and reassured by the quality I saw - first in the packaging and then the detector itself. It comes with an educational manual, two kinds of power cords - one coiled, one straight, and three sets of suction cups with one already attached to the mounting clip.I first just stuck it on my windshield and used the coiled cord and drove around the town and then on the interstate with the Cobra detector also on at the same time. Since then, I have driven over a 1000 miles with this thing and I have to say, I really like it and have started to trust it.Contrary to my apprehensions, I don't find it going crazy about X band at all. In fact, in my experience it is not chatty at all. And this is out of the box, without changing any settings.This relieved my other anxiety about having to use an Android phone too since it seems to be doing just fine out of the box. You can use the control knob to change modes between All Bogyes <> Logic and <> Advanced Logic (?? not sure what the exact term is since I don't have the manual with me right now).It is very sensitive and tends to start beeping when it probably detects even faint radar signals. The range is truly impressive.I haven't had laser shot at me while using this so far so cannot say about that aspect but the above mentioned video review does say that it fares very well with lasers.Some folks have written negative reviews about the company and I cannot attest to their customer service since I haven't had to deal with them. But I did notice that the manual describes how you can make your own power cord out of a phone cord (if you needed longer length etc). That speaks well for a company that does not try to sell you unnecessarily proprietary power cords and charge you one kidney for it.Also note that the company calls this device a radar 'locator' since it is the only device in the market which actually shows you if the radar is in front of you or behind you. It also shows you if it is to your side but I think it does this by calculation between the front and rear antennas since there are no antennas on the sides.The only negative aspect is the fact that all four bands - laser, K, Ka and X are represented by a four red LEDs in a vertical row. That's fine during daytime but driving on the interstate at night means it is impossible to see which band is being detected. I am starting to learn the different audio tones however - laser is totally different, K and Ka are same or similar and X is somewhat different. I wish they would make these four LEDs different color and that would be probably the only refinement needed.Other than this, I absolutely like this radar detecter/locator. If you are looking for one in this price range, this is totally the one to get. Use it with the Waze app and you're set!UPDATE:Still working wonderfully well. Detects the "Your Speed Is" kind of radars from what seems to be 2-3 miles away (subjectively, did not actually measure the distance!!!). Also seems to pick up faint radar signals bouncing off objects and actually starts to beep when the radar is around a curve. Truly impressive.Finally did get laser shot at me the other day. The device beeped as expected but as with all lasers, it would have been too late. Fortunately, I was actually going slower than speed limit at the time :)One last thing: This device is very well complemented by the free app Waze. Together, Waze and V1 provide the best possible traffic "awareness".