Bel Sti-R - Radar Detector New Feature

[samq45]

I received my Sti-R a few days ago. I was messing with it last night and will be installing tonight. Pics to Follow.

I am a bit disappointed about the build quality. Over all it is not bad, but for what it costs I guess I expected a bit more. My biggest complaint is the cheap buttons for the volume, mute and mode. It looks and feels like a kids toy. You can still make out the marks where they removed pieces to clean up the plastic from the injection molding. It feels cheap when you press the buttons - Not really what I expected. If it significantly beats other detectors on Ka then I guess I do not care, but on a high end car the buttons will not blend well.

Anyways there is an additional feature in the manual that I have not seen on the Bels before. There is an option to shut off the junk radar detector filtering. I can only assume that this will increase range. I only have a K band gun and my LA, so I'll shoot it tonight and see if it alerts to stealth mode unlike my regular Sti.

[samq45]

The install was not to bad. Placed the sensor for now under my plate which is very low. I tested it on K band last night and with my LA. The STi- R does alert to stealth mode, unlike my older Sti.

I had a 2 Ka band encounters this morning - Both Stalker CO and one moving. The remote mounted alerted first on both, but only by a few seconds - range was good at about a mile or so each. On known K band falses it was a split as sometimes one would alert before the other and other times would be the other way around - was also in dense traffic at those times. The ramp up is definately better on the remote mounted, but still leaves a lot to be desired - seem like it has 3-4 rates of beeping unlike my sti which has only 2. So far I have kept the factory settings to get a feel for it and later I'll start disabling Ka segements to see if range is increased.

[RadarNutt]

Samq45,

Thanks for posting your observations and opinions.

Regarding the build quality, this is something I've been concerned about for awhile in this whole industry. It seems like most products are now made in China. At least that is my impression, but I don't know for sure as I can't read the box on every product.

I know the STi (standard version) is made in Canada. Where is the STi-R made? What's on the box?

Think maybe I'll start a new thread. It would be interesting to compile a list.

[samq45]

Ok - After about 300 miles of driving between yesterday and today, I must say I am impressed. The Sti - R certainly beats my regular Sti on K and Ka band. At times the differences are quite far. My K band experiences are related to falses. On a few K band sources near my office the remote version beat my regular by over a half mile - consistantly. Both units were in highway mode, POP off, X Off and are in Tec Mode (so I can see they are both hitting on the same Freq). Sti-R has radardetector junking off.

On 4 fixed (non-moving) Ka Band encounters the remote alerted first each time. On 2 of the encounters I was wondering when the regular Sti would chime in. On one of these enclounters the remote beat my regular by about 8-9 seconds at highway speed and on the other it was about 4-5 seconds.

So far, even with the high price and lackluster build quality I am very happy. I was quite satisified with my windshield Sti and this remote beats it with ease. Its even more impressive when you considor the remote is mounted about 4 feet below the regular Sti (just below my plate) about 9-10 inches off the ground. I wold like to see if other users are experiencing similar results with this detector (or the 9500ci when it is released).

[LPP Rep]

Originally Posted by samq45

On one of these enclounters the remote beat my regular by about 8-9 seconds at highway speed and on the other it was about 4-5 seconds.

That is a substantial difference in alert times - especially for Ka.

I'm wondering if perhaps there is something wrong with your standard STi unit. The testing results I've seen have all indicated very close alert time frames and distance between the two (STi and STi-R).

Did you purchase your STi-Driver from an authorized dealer? If not that may be the problem. There are many cheap copies floating around of Bel products.

[samq45]

I got all my detectors from Bel directly (except V1). I send them back once a year to be re-tuned (even the 980). There is a specific Tech I talk to and he takes care of my concerns. Both of my units were "hand picked" by him (at least that is what he said, could be a load of BS)

I am confident that this one is working fine and the distances are fairly good on Ka band.

This is my 2nd return of the Sti - The first one falsed on K band once I started it up. 2rd was sent back for the 33.8 fix. This regular Sti beats my Rx-65, 980 and my older V1 on Ka each and every time, but not by much.

Sti-R has been better on K and Stalker Ka the majority of the time. I have most Ka bands disabled now. The Tech I spoke to said under certain circimstances K and Ka reception on the Sti - R could be significantly better than the STI-R - especially with junk detector filtering off. Also there are some off axis K alerts I get just on the remote, but at the same time nothing on the STi.

To what testing are you referring - Multinova in other countries? I have seen few direct tests against Ka bands used in the USA - Do you know where I can find them?

[samq45]

Just was curious to see if anyone else has an STi-r yet and what their experience is.

After another week of comparing it to my regular Sti it seems the off axis and over the hill detection is better with the remote - both with K and Ka band. In those situations the remote alerts first. When the radar is more direct or straight on, the remote alerts first most of the time but the Sti is not usually far behind and sometimes they alert at the same time. I have had 4 or so other encounters where both detectors would alert to a K false and then the remote would pick up a Ka hit 4-5 seconds before the STi would. Going past a grocery store and then by a police station, with the cars parked about 75 degrees to the road.

Laser might also be a bit better on the remote as it falses as I go by the airport, same spot every day - but this is simply a guess. I would also suspect that the mounting location provides better chances for a direct hit detection but might or might not be well suited for picking up scatter. I suppose if you went with the theory that the laser scatter from under the car being targeted could be easier to detect from a lower vantage point, then the location could be better for scatter detection. I am not sure, but not concerned either, with the parking aids assisting with this task.

I have tried turning Ka superwide on and off, but without a stable Ka band source to test it against it is not possible at all to tell the difference.

I am thinking of buying a stalker gun from the auction if the price is decent.

Anyone else have good experiences so far with the STi-R?

[lugnuts]

I wonder if using 2 detectors at the same time is affecting the range?

have you tried using the STI-R in your car with a friend using the STI-D in their car to see the differences?

I wonder if the results would be different or the same?

[samq45]

Originally Posted by lugnuts

I wonder if using 2 detectors at the same time is affecting the range?

This is certainly possible. I have tried shutting one off and it does not seem to make a difference on K band falses. I also drove with the STi for 2 years and it falses in the same spots as it alwas did. The remote now falses in new spots and falses earlier on the old spots. If they are interfering with each other I cannot notice it.

[RadarNutt]

Originally Posted by samq45

After another week of comparing it to my regular Sti it seems the off axis and over the hill detection is better with the remote - both with K and Ka band. In those situations the remote alerts first. When the radar is more direct or straight on, the remote alerts first most of the time but the Sti is not usually far behind and sometimes they alert at the same time. I have had 4 or so other encounters where both detectors would alert to a K false and then the remote would pick up a Ka hit 4-5 seconds before the STi would. Going past a grocery store and then by a police station, with the cars parked about 75 degrees to the road.

This is very interesting. It seems to me that the difference between a STi-R and STi-D is going to depend partly on the variables of any given specific vehicle setup - e.g. where/how are each mounted? Are there any properties of the windshield which might reduce radar reception (i.e. some windshields will partially block radar due to how they are made; some window tints also reduce radar reception)?

Overall, it seems to me that you ought to get better reception from a remote mounted unit provided that the sensors are not installed behind metal parts of the car. But then again on the other hand mounting higher is supposed to be better for radar reception. Perhaps remote mounting trumps the height of position, based on what you've described.

I would different folks will get slightly different experiences based on their particular car and mounting position of the STi-R. Still, this is very interesting and I look forward to reading others' experiences.

Originally Posted by samq45

I have tried turning Ka superwide on and off, but without a stable Ka band source to test it against it is not possible at all to tell the difference.

Why would you want to do that? It seems to me that you would block out reception of all the U.S. based Ka bands. Isn't that right (someone who knows for sure please chime in)? My recollection is that the Ka used in the U.S. is 33.4-36.0 Ghz (or more specifically freqs of 33.8 / 34.7 / 35.5).