New Long Range Remote Coming: DSP Net Radar

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  • June 28, 2017

  • June 28, 2017

  • 2 mins to read

So the cat has been let out of the bag. 🙂 For those of you guys who are loving the new high performance Uniden R1 and R3 but prefer remote mount detectors, Net Radar is currently developing an updated remote RD that is promising to offer long range performance and effective BSM filtering like the R1/R3 and it’ll plug it into your AntiLaser Priority laser jammer system to give you an integrated remote radar/laser setup.

Here’s a sneak peek at the internals of a development copy of the new DSP Net Radar (originally posted here).

DSP Net Radar internals

Internals of a development copy of the DSP Net Radar

Now this radar detector is still being developed and no word yet on exact pricing or release date since it’s still early on in the process. Also, for those of you guys who already have the current (and excellent) Net Radar antenna, when the new one comes out, you’ll be able to move it to the back, add the new one to the front, and use both together to get arrows. (or you could use two new ones as well). Either way, this should be a good option for both current and new Net Radar owners and it’s expected to be a solid contender for the best remote mount radar detector!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/new-long-range-remote-coming-dsp-net-radar/

Is Vortex Radar Biased or Sponsored by any Radar Detector Manufacturers?

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  • June 27, 2017

  • June 27, 2017

  • 16 mins to read

Vortex Radar headshotOccasionally, despite my focus on being an objective and unbiased tester, I’ll hear someone suggest that I must be paid or sponsored by manufacturers, I’m biased for one reason or another, or something along those lines. Honestly I find that fear totally understandable because that stuff happens among reviewers. As a matter of fact, those sorts of issues are why I got into testing in the first place. When I first got into radar detectors years ago, some of the primary sources of radar detector tests and reviews were from salesman pushing the products they sold while unfairly downplaying the products they couldn’t make money on as well as testers who were unwittingly putting out bad data simply because they didn’t know how to properly test radar detectors. There were some good testers out there too, but how could I know the difference? I just wanted to know the truth, for myself, about how detectors perform and which one is best for my own needs, so I just started testing them out to see what worked best for me and sharing my experiences along the way. I want to know which detectors offer the highest levels of protection.

One thing I love about radar detector testing is that anyone can go and independently test and verify claims for themselves. I do that, along with many other radar detector enthusiasts on RDF. I also highly encourage you to conduct your own testing as well, sharing your videos and results with the community. You’ll learn a ton yourself and it benefits others as well.

I’m also a huge believer in transparency. Now that I make a living off of testing and reviewing radar detectors (I didn’t when I first started out and that wasn’t my goal getting into this), I think it’s important for you to know how I do this, what my financial incentives are, as well as my own personal preferences and biases regarding radar detectors and how that factors into my recommendations and videos.

and finally, for the record, no I’m not sponsored by any manufacturer and I don’t work for any manufacturer. I do help test and develop radar detectors for many different manufacturers, but I’m not sponsored by any and actively turn down any such requests when they arise.

My goal is to provide the very best objective and unbiased radar detector information, no matter of if I get paid or not, no matter what brand name is written on the detector. If it’s awesome, I’ll tell you. If it sucks, I’ll tell you. If I’m being compensated in any way such as getting a free detector or making a percentage of the sale, I’ll tell you. You deserve to know.

Ultimately I just want to know the truth, that’s my number one priority, and that’s what I’m here to share with you.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/is-vortex-radar-biased-or-sponsored-by-radar-detector-manufacturers/

How Many Bands Can a Cobra Radar Detector Detect?

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  • June 26, 2017

  • June 26, 2017

  • 7 mins to read

One day some years ago, I was walking around the automotive section of Best Buy. (This was way back before I got into radar detectors.) I was checking out the different models they had on display, mostly different Cobra brand radar detectors, and wondering what the differences were between models. Some were more expensive. Some claimed to detect more bands than others. How many bands of detection did I need? With nothing else to go on, I figured that the best ones were the ones that detected the most amount of bands and had the highest price tags.

If you look online, you’ll see Cobra still advertising their detectors (particularly the older ones) as being able to detect lots of different bands, maybe 9 bands, 12 bands, 14 bands, 15 bands, etc.

What the heck is a “band” though? Is a model that more bands going to do a better job of protecting you? Why don’t other brands of radar detectors also advertise being able to detect so many bands? Why isn’t Cobra advertising how many bands their newer detectors can pick up? Let’s take a look at what all this means.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/how-many-bands-can-a-cobra-detect/

How to Conduct Long Range Radar Detector Testing Properly

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  • June 23, 2017

  • June 23, 2017

  • 18 mins to read

Radar detector test: 33.8 Sample Test Results

IMHO, testing radar detectors to see how they perform is a fantastic thing to do. You learn SO much, the results you share are incredibly beneficial to others, not to mention we need lots of different testers using different terrains, different test courses, and different detectors all working together to help us put together the big picture in a way that no single test could tell us. There’s many different types of tests you could do and I’d actively encourage people conduct their own tests because of how incredibly beneficial it is to not only the community, but to the testers themselves. Here’s some of the biggest benefits I’ve found to doing radar detector testing:

  • You can find out which radar detectors offer the best performance and longest detection distances
  • You can see how much terrain such as hills, curves, trees, and straightaways impact detection range
  • You can see how much different settings and filters impact the performance of your detector
  • You can see how much advanced warning the radar detector provides before the radar gun can pick up your vehicle’s speed
  • You learn SO much about radar in general when you get behind the radar gun
  • You provide incredibly valuable information to others

Now the thing is, while radar detector testing is tremendously useful, it’s also very very easy to make mistakes in a way that would totally invalidate your results, produce inaccurate results, and would completely mislead anyone reading the results. In fact some mistakes are so common (running two radar detectors next to each other at the same time is the biggest one. Never do this!!) that almost everyone makes the same mistakes when first starting out so I’d like to cover both the do’s and don’ts of how to conduct a radar detector test properly.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/how-to-conduct-long-range-radar-detector-testing-properly/

Uniden R3 vs. Escort Max360: Which Radar Detector Is Best?

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  • June 22, 2017

  • June 22, 2017

  • 19 mins to read

The Uniden R3 and the Escort Max360 are both fully featured top of the line radar detectors and lots of people have been asking which one is better and which one they should get. Honestly this has been a little tough to answer because while they have a lot of similarities, there’s also some important differences, so different detectors may appeal to different people. Let’s dive into things and figure out which one would be better for you.

Updated: November 2017

Escort Max360 vs. Uniden R3 radar detector comparison and review

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/uniden-r3-vs-escort-max360-which-radar-detector-is-best/

Where & How to Mount your Radar Detector for the Best Performance

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  • June 21, 2017

  • June 21, 2017

  • 16 mins to read

Where should you mount your radar detector on your windshield and how does that impact your radar detector’s performance? Should you mount it high or low? Should you skip over using suction cups altogether and hang it under your rear view mirror? Does a tint strip or do those black dots at the top of your windshield impact performance? Instead of mounting onto your windshield, should you opt for custom installed remote mount detector that’s installed somewhere in your grill instead? There’s a couple things to considering if you’re wondering where to mount your radar detector. Let’s take a look at the best places to mount a radar detector and the pros and cons of each mounting location.

Where to mount your radar detector on your windshield

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/where-and-how-to-mount-your-radar-detector-for-the-best-performance/

The Benefits of GPS in a Radar Detector

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  • June 20, 2017

  • June 20, 2017

  • 15 mins to read

Many higher end radar detectors include a GPS chip in the detector. Some detectors even come in two separate models, one with GPS and another without. Some detectors lack a GPS chip built-in, but they offer Bluetooth capability so you can pair it with your phone, run an app, and use your phone’s GPS to add the same functionality. Should you get a detector with GPS? What are the benefits of GPS? Would your driving require a GPS chip or would you be just fine with a more basic and less expensive detector? Let’s take a look at the benefits of having a GPS chip in your radar detector so that you can decide which route is best for you.

Uniden R3 & Uniden R1

Uniden R3 (left) and Uniden R1 (right)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/the-benefits-of-gps-in-a-radar-detector/

Escort Max Ci 360 vs. DragonEye Compact: Test Results

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  • June 20, 2017

  • June 20, 2017

  • 14 mins to read

Escort Max Ci 360 vs. DragonEye header photo

Update 7/13/17: Escort has released firmware version 1.1 which should help address the issues jamming the newest guns discussed in this article. Updated testing is showing that the ShifterMax can now detect and jam some new DragonEye guns it couldn’t before, but not very reliably.

Original Post:

Escort has released their latest integrated remote mount radar detector and laser jammers, the Max Ci and Max Ci 360. They’re the successors to the 9500ci and offer all the same benefits with even better BSM filtering, the ability to add a rear radar detector antenna to give you arrows, and they come with new laser jammers that Escort is calling their “ShifterMax” sensors. I don’t have a Max Ci on hand myself yet personally, but I will soon and am looking forward to it because the radar detector is looking very promising in initial testing. The laser jammer side is looking good against traditional guns, but against the latest DragonEye guns with more advanced anti-jamming capabilities, Escort has repeatedly claimed that their new ShifterMax jammers can jam those guns, but testing has consistently been showing us otherwise. This has been a hot topic lately so I’d like to compile and share some of the testing and videos with you so that you can see as well.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/escort-max-ci-360-vs-dragoneye-compact-test-results/

Blackvue DR650S-2CH Dashcam Review

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  • June 19, 2017

  • June 19, 2017

  • 20 mins to read
Blackvue DR650S-2CH Dashcam Review

Blackvue DR650S-2CH

I’ve been testing a bunch of dashcams over the past few years in search of the ultimate dashcam and for the past 7 months I’ve been running the Blackvue DR650S-2CH full time in my car. I’m really liking it as an all-around good dashcam, jam packed with useful features. It’s like the Max360 of dashcams in that it’s got all the bells and whistles. There’s other dashcams that are superior in certain areas and there are a few things about this camera that I wish were improved, but the reason I like this camera is that it records both in front of me and behind for complete protection, the video quality is reasonably good, the camera is stealthy and black so it doesn’t stand out to other people outside my car, and it can automatically switch between driving mode and parking mode without me having to putz around with settings so it’s always there running in the background, watching my back.. which is exactly what I want a dashcam for. In short, it’s a fully-featured and well-rounded dashcam. Let’s dive into this Blackvue DR650S-2CH review.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/blackvue-dr650s-2ch-dashcam-review/

How to Program and Set Up Your Uniden R1 and Uniden R3 Radar Detector

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  • June 16, 2017

  • June 16, 2017

  • 29 mins to read

Uniden R3If you have a Uniden R1 or Uniden R3, you can change the settings to give yourself better performance, filter out more false alerts, change the display color to match your vehicle’s interior, and basically tweak it to what you prefer.

Now there’s no universal “best” settings for everyone of course since what’s best depends on where you drive and even your own personal preferences. That’s why they gave us options. 🙂

Purchase a Uniden R1 here.

Purchase a Uniden R3 here.

You can download the R1 manual or the R3 manual and read over the details. Rather than just duplicating the manual here (which is a bit dated now), in this article I want to go into a bit more explanation so you can better understand the benefits of the different settings, their pros and cons, and which one you should choose. Then at the very end, I’ll share with you the settings that I run. 🙂

This guide is current as of firmware 1.59 and will be updated as new firmware updates are released. (Last updated November 2022.)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.vortexradar.com/2017/06/how-to-program-and-set-up-your-uniden-r1-and-r3/

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