|
I have the Valentine 1, and absolutely love it.
I use it in the "small L" mode, I think it's the Logic mode.
The thing about the Valentine 1 that I like is it makes different sounds depending on the band of Radar being detected, so it is VERY simple to know whether or not it is a false alarm. Where I live in Florida, the Police only use Ka band radar or laser. So unless I hear the telltale sound of a double-chirp (signaling Ka) or the Laser warning, I know it's a false. And the arrows also help out a lot with determining the threat. False alarms tend to jump around on the arrows, and throw multiple bogey counts. True police radar is very directional, and the bogey counts are consistent.
The way I see it, the Valentine 1 is like a nice piece of vintage analog electronics. It's very good at detecting radar signals, but it takes a skilled user to understand what the device is telling you. At first, you think the device is speaking a foreign language.... but eventually you learn how it works and can understand it from the first chirp, and tell instantly whether the threat is real or not.
I have not used the Escort before, so I cannot make a legitimate comparison.
One question I have, however.... how do the GPS points of interest like red-light cameras get updated to the database? Is it like Trapster, where users in the community post the traps and others rate them?
I ask because I have tried using Trapster, but the problem with it is that the community members are all idiots and don't know what a red-light camera actually looks like. They have posted a million red-light cameras in my hometown, when our community does not have a single one. We have the traffic monitoring cameras at the top of our intersections, but those are not for issuing tickets.
Does Escort suffer from the same problem? i.e. a database maintained by unqualified dingbats?
|