Review Beltronics STi R Remote – Part Three
Bel STi R Driver Experience Review
Last week we had our first opportunity putting the Bel STI-r through its paces during a 1200 mile road trip through Arizona, Nevada and California in our 2005 Columbia Freightliner.
During this trip we also had the dash mounted STi installed in the cab, affixed to the sun visor approximately four feet higher than the remote mounted antenna mounted in the front grill.
Both units were programmed to the Highway sensitivity setting with X band on.
As we were leaving Wickenburg, we passed by the K band speed trailer that we have been using for our “Under $200.00 Radar Detector Review”. Both STi units alerted simultaneously approximately 3500 feet away which triple the range that we experienced with most of the detectors costing less than $200.00 in our review.
On Interstate 17 heading toward Flagstaff, the remote STi alerted Ka band with a few short chrips, while the visor mounted STi detector remained silent. Most experienced radar detector owners will recognize such an alert as an indication that instant on radar maybe in use, so we slowed down and kept an eye out for Smoky.
After traveling another quarter mile both STi units alerted Ka with a few short chirps as we cleared an embankment in the median.
The next half mile both detectors remained silent and I was starting to feel that the prior alerts may have been false alerts. However just as I was starting to accelerate both STi units went full alert Ka as I eyeballed a southbound Arizona Highway Patrol unit heading my direction.
Entering Flagstaff, we experienced a few X band alerts from what we expect were automatic door openers. However I feel that these X band false alerts were far less then we would experience with a lower end detector that didn’t have the filtering capabilities of the STi.
Just west of Flagstaff, the STi-r display alerted us to a connection problem with our remote mounted antenna. I pulled into a truck stop in Belmont, raised the hood and found that the connector plug on the cable extension became disconnected. We reconnected the antenna, fueled up and headed west toward Kingman.
Just east of Williams the remote STi unit alerted to constant on Ka band a few moments prior to the visor mounted unit. A mile further west after both detectors displays were at full alert we observed another Arizona DPS unit parked in the median facing our direction.
We continued west on I-40 and just outside of Kingman the display again alerted us to a wiring problem with our remote antenna.
Once in Kingman we found that the connection plug had again loosened. This time however we wrapped the connector plug with electrical tape to prevent this mishap from occurring again. From Kingman we headed north on SR 93 to Hoover Dam.
Just south of the Dam both the STi units alerted simultaneously to a constant on K band signal. A mile further down the road, we observed a Federal Bureau of Reclamation patrol car parked in fifteen mile an hour speed zone.
We called it a night after arriving in Las Vegas; however we continued our road trip later in the week traveling an additional 900 miles through Nevada, California and Arizona.
During the entire trip the STI-r’s long range performance was stellar; giving us advanced warning of impending threats while remaining stealth to all radar detector detectors and to the eye!
I found the STi Remote was very easy to program for advanced functions such as band select and expert mode. One of the new programmable features found in the STi-Remote is the segmentation of the Ka band into 10 portions allowing the user to select the Ka band frequencies for scanning.
I also found that the remote powered external speaker was more than ample in providing audible alerts that could be heard over the roar of the turbocharged diesel engine, the chatter on the CB radio, and over the full volume of the trucks stereo.
With my experience as a certified commercial vehicle enforcement officer and as a certified police radar instructor for over twenty years, coupled with my ten years of experience in the speed counter measure industry I can say without doubt that the STI-r is the ONLY CHOICE that professional owner operator has if they want their radar detector to be stealth to the eye and to all law enforcement detection equipment.
Radar Roy’s Rating – Five Badges
8 Responses to “Review Beltronics STi R Remote – Part Three”
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Great stuff Roy good to see you be the first one to review this great RD. I can not wait for Escort’s remote wonder if it will be like this one
This thing sounds beastly Roy, and I’m sure it’s going to be very valuable to people in VA or over seas.
The STI r is going to be a great thing for Virginia. Right now I am fortunate enought to be able to stealth my detector thru the tint on my vehicle (black car, black tint, black/gray interior) that I use it for radar detection. I can’t wait to get my hands on that unit here in VB. No more tricks.
I have a dedicated run between texas & california,and all i can say is that the sti is the best investment,I’ved made.
Do not buy this piece of SHIT. It is made in Canada Ontario province somewhere in the suburbs of Toronto. You go with this unit mounted on your windshield and Ontario province police will confiscated unit. On top of it they will give you traffic violation summoned to her Majesty court. With about $250 fine. This is why you should not buy any of the escorts or passports unless manufacture will replace the unit or refund the money
what do you reccomend is the best place to mount a detector where it is hidden the most but still functional? Where i live they are illegal i want a sti-r im just afraid to mount it in a blunt spot
Rah, consider getting a baseball cap and covering up the detector or getting a sun visor holder to place the detector into
i'm gona get a redline, its new and probably has better filtering. And many video's show it has stronger sensitivity for about a second or two