Radars For Rent Blog

This idea is so obvious, no one thought of it until now. Uniden is launching a line of interoperable GPS devices and radar detectors. Uniden’s Trax line of GPS devices offer standard functionality, such as route guidance, text-to-speech, and either a 3.5- or 4.3-inch screen. The Trax line uses NavTeq maps, and has what Uniden says is the fastest satellite acquisition among its competitors. Uniden’s line of radar detectors is the LRD series, which detects X, K, KA, VG2, Laser, Ultralyte Laser L2, and Pro Laser 3 guns. Apparently, you will be able to plug the radar detectors into the navigation units. The GPS display will show detected radar guns complete with its approximate location in relation to the car.

We can imagine a lot of possibilities with a system like this. Each detected radar gun could be logged by the GPS device, so over time you could build up a database of speed traps. If this data could be shared on a Web site, you would end up with a pretty comprehensive database of speed traps. Maybe put into a Google map application? Kind of like the manually created Speed Trap Exchange.

What do you get when you combine the hardware reception platform of the leading radar detector model with the advanced filtering capabilities of the first GPS-incorporated radar detector—the Escort Passport 9500i—in a remote vehicle installation package? You get the Escort Passport 9500ci, of course (the “ci” stands for custom installed).  

Expected to retail at just under $2000.00, the Escort Passport 9500ci is the new flagship offering of Escort and combines the performance of their new laser jammer (laser shifter), the ZR4 (more on this later).  

Unlike the Escort Passport 9500i, the Escort Passport 9500ci uses the hardware reception platform of the Beltronics STi Driver to provide its owner with a completely stealth/undetectable radar detector which remains invisible to the likes of the SPECTRE/Stalcar Mk. III radar detector detector (RDD).  

The Escort Passport 9500ci consists of nine primary components including three laser jamming heads, a blue LED display module, and a color-coded interface module supporting modular connections to all of the Escort Passport 9500ci components to enable DIY and professional installers a much easier and streamlined installation.  

The Escort Passport 9500ci incorporates a new “intelligent” filtering mechanism called Adaptive Signal Processing (ASP) which automatically “learns” recurring fixed radar sources by GPS coordinates and will auto-mute out these learned “falses” without driver intervention while retaining reception sensitivity to any other bonafide police radar sources.  

While the hardware platform is now shared by both remote radar detectors, they will retain their individual reception personalities that have traditionally forged each brand. 

In otherwords, the Beltronics STi-R will continue to perform like a Beltronics radar detector and the Escort Passport 9500ci will continue to perform like an Escort/Passport radar detector. 

What do I mean by this?  

Having driving many miles [over many years] with the Beltronics RX-65 Pro and the Escort Passport 8500 X50, I can attest that both of these radar detectors are distinctly different, even though they too shared electronic components.  It’s interesting to note that even certain other formal review[er]s have missed these nuances in their “objective” field tests. These “subjective” differences can only be fully appreciated after extended seat-time in the real-world.

The same goes for the Passport 9500i and the Beltronics STi Driver and will most certainly go for the Escort Passport 9500ci and the Beltronics STi-R.  If basically comes down to the different philosophies of each brand.  

I personally liken the performance of Beltronics to that of BMW and of Escort to that of Mercedes—both exceptional coach builders, each however, with a distinct personality. 

I have never cared for the expression “Belscort” because I believe such [often pejorative] references to the individual Beltronics and Escort brands are not only inaccurate, but only serve to blur the distinctions which clearly exist in each.  No one in their right mind would confuse a Cadillac CTS-V with a Chevrolet Corvette Z06, even though they are both GM products and share some components. The same goes for CM (Cincinnati Microwave) and their individual Beltronics and Escort models.  

Whichever brand you ultimately choose, you can rest assured that with either one, you will be treated to the highest level of performance available from two companies which are passionately committed to “raising-the-bar” in the performance of driver safety equipment. 

I am looking forward to the time when I can share my first-hand real-world driving experiences with each of these fine products. 

While the Beltronics STi-R has been available abroad for several months now, the BEL STi-R is just now making its U.S. debut. Like its windshield-mounted counterpart the BEL STi Driver, the BEL STi-R will be undetectable by all radar detector detectors (RDDs) such as the mighty SPECTRE/Stalcar Mk. III.

Improvements to the Beltronics STi-R platform comes in two primary forms, segmented Ka-band reception and improved police laser (lidar) reception.Taking their Beltronics RX-65 Pro, Ka International, feature to the next performance level, the Beltronics STi-R’s user-selectable multi-segmented Ka reception should further improve Ka detecting/alerting reception quickness by allowing the user to selectively turn on/off up to 10 portions of the Ka police radar and thus, reduce the time it takes for the radar detector to fully listen/sweep this very wide Ka-band.

This capability should appeal very much to existing European users of another very popular remote radar detector in their market—the Beltronics Vector 975Rr, which also provided selective Ka reception—and since the fines and demerit points for getting caught using a radar detector in some countries abroad can be very very steep, indeed, the stealth nature of the Bel STiR provides a distinct advantage over its older cousin the Bel Vector 975R.

While our European friends will want to enable Ka 34.0Ghz and Ka 34.3Ghz reception for Gatso/Multanova radar speed traps (and externally mount the antennae vertically to maximize their reception to vertical polarized police radar), we North American drivers can selectively disable those reception bands (and externally mount the antennae horizontally) to focus only on the ones currently being used in our part of the world—namely 33.8Ghz, 34.7Ghz, and 35.5Ghz Ka.

With the ability to turn-off reception to every other Ka frequency, we drivers should achieve even higher levels of Ka reception performance while at the same time dramatically cut down on Ka-falses (from other “junk” radar detectors).

This capability has the potential to be one of the hottest features to ever appear in a radar detector and may position the Beltronics STi-R as the first universally effective radar detector in the world!

I hope Beltronics will give serious consideration to incorporating this innovative capability into their windshield-mount BEL STi Driver!Given the already astounding levels of reception performance by the Beltronics STi Driver, the performance envelope of the Beltronics STi-R promises to exceed everything we have ever seen, to date.

Laser reception should also dramatically improve over the windshield-mounted Beltronics STi Driver, if for no other reason than the proximity of the BEL STi-R’s frontal laser reception module will be closer to the primary aiming points of your vehicle—the license plate and headlights.

The Beltronics STi-R consists of five primary components—the control module, display module (red LED), the Interface module, the combined radar/laser receiver, and an amplified speaker.

At a suggested retail of $1099.95, the Beltronics STi-R may very well be the smartest investment to driver safety enhancement we can choose, for many years to come.

Being a big gadget geek, I’ve always wondered, “why not build a radar detector into a portable GPS unit?” Manufacturers seem to stuff every other gadget (music playback, photo playback, video playback, Bluetooth hands free, etc.) into portable navs, why not radar detection? Escort recently announced a radar with GPS, but guys at Uniden went the opoosite directions and announced a GPS unit that connects to a radar detector. It seems that radar detectors have an optimal shape to be able to pick up radar and laser signals best (which is why most are shaped the way they are), so one of the trade offs of trying to stuff one into a regular GPS would be the loss of functional shape. The Uniden TRAX 438 can notify you of police activity on roads nearby, will allow you to add the coordinates of speed traps, and will remind you of speed limits as you drive in addition to all the other features you typically find on a high end GPS system (traffic alert, Bluetooth hands free, text to speech navigation and 6 million POIs).

Since January I’ve been looking into the Ku-band rumor. I’ve known of only one Ku-band radar ever to appear in the States. That was a Gatso Type 09 Microspeed unit (private labeled as a Speedophot) brought here for a three-month Federal Highway Administration photo radar test along the Washington, D.C. Beltway in 1990. The unit was returned to Europe after the test concluded. (It’s also been out of production since 1988. Judging from its size–that enormous box on the rear bumper is the antenna–is this any wonder?)

According to one Web site whose operator is known for rumor-mongering, there’s a possibility that a U.S. manufacturer may introduce a Ku-band radar. From what I’ve found, there’s an equally good possibility of an asteroid hitting Topeka later this year.

Turns out that a single U.S. radar manufacturer has cobbled up a couple of Ku-band prototypes—for their Irish distributor. And there’s a good likelihood that the unit will never be produced. The chances of its being released in the U.S.: about zero.

But it’s given Cobra Electronics a 12th “band.” There are only three radar and one lidar (laser) bands in use here, a number highly unlikely ever to increase. But twelve band’s got to be better than four, right?