[M4ord]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

From the minimal research that I have done, before receiving my R7, it appears that segments are used to exclude portions of the band not applicable to your area, this limiting false alarms. And speeding up the radar scanning process. Is that your understanding?

And it appears it can be done through Uniden R Series Tool in expert mode?

Does it apply to K-band, as well as Ka-band?

My assumption is that the default setting is no segmentation.

You are spot on with all your assumptions. There is a K band segmentation but its limited to Extended, Wide or Narrow. I run mine in narrow to cut down on K false positives but with the combo settings of quiet ride and narrow segmentation on K band I find it really cuts down false positives. For example I get maybe one false K band alert an hour for a automatic door opener, so its not annoying like some other radar detectors from previous generations.

All the settings I understand can be modified either through the buttons on the device or the app that connects via bluetooth.

[Dyeraudio]

I drive 100 miles a day roundtrip for work..all highway.....I run Waze on Apple Car Play and also run a Radenso Pro M detector. I used to do 45K a year just for work and not 1 ticket. Unidens are great but I don't care for the bigger size.

[Equilibrandt]

They're only going to save you if the cops are blasting radar.

That being said, +1 for the Uniden R7/8/9s plus a Blendmount, which I have in all my cars. Cops here in SoCal seem to sit on the roadside or offramp with their nose and tail radar blasting full time.

It's really just a mental gymnastic: if you're on a canyon road or you're on a road with no other cars, you significantly reduce your detection capabilities. I find canyons can sometimes still bounce signal and give me a chirp, depending on the valley size.

I don't even plug mine in on some of my longer drives, where I'm one of a few cars on the road, as more often than not, cops won't be blasting full radar in that instance; they'll chirp their gun or nose when they see headlights, and by then, your radar detector won't help. You only win if your detector catches sniffs of radar from the car ahead of you getting illuminated.

One of the scariest noises I've ever heard from my Unidens? The laser-detection chirp, which is different than the Ka band whine. You're dead meat if your detector's getting hit by a pencil beam laser as they try to strike your license plate for a return.

As for radar optimization, I used VortexRadar's guide on what's active in your area. I have X and K completely off (too many blind-spot detectors and automatic doors set it off), and Ka band significantly truncated to give my receiver faster sweeps of the applicable Ka band. As said before, the smaller the frequency bandwidth that your detector has to sweep, the greater the detection capabilites (and sometimes, receiver sensitivity/detection range!). I tune mine by plugging it into the computer (RJ to USB), and enable bands as I go to other states.

[DrVenture]

Set my new R7 up out of the box for the proper segmentation and added all known blind-spot frequencies as exclusions(?). Now I am selectively muting individual locations for automatic doors. I'll let the auto-mute do its thing, I suppose. We'll see how it goes.

This is clearly far more nuanced than the 9500ix, as far as silencing false alerts.

[Mech Spec]

Did you start by loading vortex's settings?

Thats what I use and didnt need to change anything else. Dont pick up any non radar sources that I know of.

[DrVenture]

No, I used the latest firmware and manually tweaked according to a guide/list that I found on forums.

I'll look into that too. Thanks. Is it a settings file that you load, or a list that is manually entered?

[Mech Spec]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

No, I used the latest firmware and manually tweaked according to a guide/list that I found on forums.

I'll look into that too. Thanks. Is it a settings file that you load, or a list that is manually entered?

I loaded the settings file.

[stbm5]

i use waze plus the escort. both save me on a regular basis. the escort redline max saved me three times in the last week. i really dont think theres that much of a difference between the premium detectors. but if i could only use one thing it would be waze - but i dont drive a lot at night.

[Silence*]

Picked up an R7 two weeks ago and aside from updating the firmware and playing with a few basic setting's, I just let it run out the box to see how it does. Now that I've lived with it a while I'm going to start fine tuning it based off Vortex's settings, but really the only thing I can complain about so far is the automatic doors setting it off in parking lots and not having the auto mute set quiet enough. Otherwise its been a great unit, much quieter in town than my old 360 ever was - if I didn't have the scanning bar running the first time I used it I would have thought it was broken!

I haven't had a chance to try it on the highway, but the range in town on the freeways is impressive even in city mode. In the picture below I was about 1000 feet away from a cop that was running radar and had pulled someone over already (faint blue light in between the two cars on the right), but I had about 2.5Km (1.5 miles) of warning they were ahead of me by this point. Overall I'm very happy with it and I kinda regret not buying one sooner, but live and learn right?

[pdxgardener]

FWIW, Apple Maps has been good to me. I use it for basically every trip on alert only mode. I can't remember the last time it missed a cop (that might also be an iPhone density thing).

[StradaRedlands]

Radar-curious person joining the chat! Between the V1 and the R7, is one better for a newb? Download this, update that are just words to me, so is one better at a set it and forget mode? Or is there a different make/model that is better for that style of use? Or should I just stick to Waze (active user of that app) if I'm not going to put in the work of active use? Daily drive consists of back roads with minimal enforcement, coupled with very aggressive city use by mobile tax collectors, not sure what they use (Riverside County SO). Plus the semi-annual road trip in CA, AZ, and OR.

Danke!

[Mech Spec]

V1 gen 2 is great but it's for the power user. R7 is more newbie friendly.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Silence*

Picked up an R7 two weeks ago and aside from updating the firmware and playing with a few basic setting's, I just let it run out the box to see how it does. Now that I've lived with it a while I'm going to start fine tuning it based off Vortex's settings, but really the only thing I can complain about so far is the automatic doors setting it off in parking lots and not having the auto mute set quiet enough. Otherwise its been a great unit, much quieter in town than my old 360 ever was - if I didn't have the scanning bar running the first time I used it I would have thought it was broken!

I haven't had a chance to try it on the highway, but the range in town on the freeways is impressive even in city mode. In the picture below I was about 1000 feet away from a cop that was running radar and had pulled someone over already (faint blue light in between the two cars on the right), but I had about 2.5Km (1.5 miles) of warning they were ahead of me by this point. Overall I'm very happy with it and I kinda regret not buying one sooner, but live and learn right?

That looks like a serious crack in your windshield .

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by Mech Spec

V1 gen 2 is great but it's for the power user. R7 is more newbie friendly.

That's me!

[Silence*]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Radar-curious person joining the chat! Between the V1 and the R7, is one better for a newb? Download this, update that are just words to me, so is one better at a set it and forget mode? Or is there a different make/model that is better for that style of use? Or should I just stick to Waze (active user of that app) if I'm not going to put in the work of active use? Daily drive consists of back roads with minimal enforcement, coupled with very aggressive city use by mobile tax collectors, not sure what they use (Riverside County SO). Plus the semi-annual road trip in CA, AZ, and OR.

Danke!

Check out Vortex Radar's site, he goes in depth with both and has good videos/ write ups on them all. I updated and also changed my initial settings on the R7 while I had it plugged into my laptop which is nice.

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

That looks like a serious crack in your windshield .

One of two, winter was not kind to my glass this year...

[Burko]

If you're in a built up area, Waze is more reliable......

[Smooth_Operator]

Just want to chime in here re: instant on supposedly nullifying the effects of radar detectors... respectfully I think this is mostly false. of course conditions vary but in general I have had extremely good results with instant on detection and early warning with my Uniden R8. Assuming you are not the only person on the road, there is a very good chance that the officer is trying to detect other people as well. You just have to go about it in a knowledgeable and calculated way. If I get a weak Ka alert, I'm slowing down for the next 2 miles. Even if it stays for a second and then disappears. So many times I've gotten a brief weak Ka alert and then roughly a mile down the road seen an officer running I/O. Obviously, if you are the only person on the road, you need to take this into account and drive accordingly. But in most situations, as long as there's someone else in the general vicinity who the officer tries to get a reading on, you can get some early warning.

Also I have mine set up to be silent below 45 mph, that really cuts down on all the noise form the many many K band falses in this world. And yes the laser detection noise is petrifying lol

[TXSTYLE]

Just grabbed my second Uniden R7, immediately updated the Firmware (which they provide frequently) and couldn't be happier! It is an absolute Beast that does its job very well. I literally feel naked without it.
I gave my 19yr son in College, my previous R3. Which is the Best Detector for the Money, period!
He said, "Dad I don't see the Arrows like in your other Cars?"
I told him that for decades, I had to drive without Arrows. I taught me to be aware of my surroundings and to take it easy until there were no Alerts at all.
once you've driven this way, in a year or two I may upgrade you.

[DocL]

I just did my first road trip in 40yrs without a radar detector. Drove up to Orlando from Palm Beach, and all I used was Waze. Every speed trap was displayed on Waze.

I still use my V1G2 for local roads, but for highway driving a radar detector isn't really needed anymore.

[DrVenture]

I can accept that. Waze on the HWY. RD for local use. I've never found Waze useful for in town driving, as they move around too much. And, I assume, people don't bother marking them.

This R7 is very quiet, with the exception of automatic doors, which I either mark or let it do its thing. Even the alerts are less annoying than the 9500ix. Certainly the display is much more informative.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by DocL

I just did my first road trip in 40yrs without a radar detector. Drove up to Orlando from Palm Beach, and all I used was Waze. Every speed trap was displayed on Waze.

I still use my V1G2 for local roads, but for highway driving a radar detector isn't really needed anymore.

Waze is good for stationary but in NY state as an example they will drive behind you or in front of you from the opposite lane and scan. For this scenario Waze has no value. The best option is Waze + detector.

[Mech Spec]

Everything from waze pops up in Google maps now, just FYI. No need to use purple maps with bad directions.