Review on Uniden R1 Extreme Detector Degree by Mike Lunde

I drive for a living, about 30-40 thousand a year. Used multiple detectors for 22 years. This R1 replaced the Escort X50 which served me well but became increasingly prone to false K-band alerts on the Autobahn. Escort doesn't offer upgrades or resale discounts (I've had 3 of them) so to hell with them - I've looked elsewhere. I like the R1 size. My old X50 was quite compact, but this one is noticeably smaller. Not much, but less is better. Comes with a sticky mug that works very well. Clear color display, bright enough for sunny days. I run at night with key lighting and screen dimming. When an alert sounds, the display lights up until the threat is gone, then turns off completely. I like it. You can choose between voice alerts and just sound, but I wasn't impressed with the voice. So I'll stick with the tones - I guess that's just old school. The menus are easily accessible and navigable, but choosing the right options can be a challenge. It will take some time and experimentation before I type it. However, the default settings seem to work pretty well. On a 70-mile moderate-traffic Interstate, the RD made only one K-band error. I'm pretty sure I've driven more than one BSM car, so it looks like the K-band filtering had an effect. I don't expect 100% failure, but it looks promising. Drove through a small town, got 3 confirmed hits. One mobile, two stationary. R1 squeaked for a sufficient amount of time. The moving car was following behind in a flat open area and Ka's warning sounded for the first time about 1 minute before I saw the visual signal. While I can't estimate the capture distance, the tail detection seems pretty good. This is salvation. The distance from stationary vehicles (both Ka) was about 1/4 mile or so both times. It was downtown, both cops had good cover between the buildings. Typical ambush traps. Both times RD gave enough warnings. I have many fake K-Bands around town and confirmed that most of them were automatic doors @ 24.1XX. I tried playing around with the options but that didn't help. There may not be a cure for this as they operate on the same frequencies as LEO. Since I drive miles most of the time on the freeway, I'm not overly concerned about a lot of clutter. UPDATE: 01/12/18 Already driven over 2500 miles, mostly freeways and dual carriageways. The Ka range seems to be as good or better than my old Passport (which was excellent). But the most important thing is the reduction of false alarms on the route. A few K-Band fakes here and there, most of which appear to be from other vehicles. Every Ka-band alert I received (it was a confirmed hit) arrived just in time for action to be taken. Since the police in my state use very little K-band, I could probably turn that band off altogether. I leave it activated for now. This RD made highway driving a lot less annoying. Around town, the K-band distortion has predictably increased, but the auto-mute makes it bearable. After turning off the X-Band, there wasn't much of a difference between city and highway modes, so outside of big cities I just leave it on the highway. I wish there were more display options and the DIM feature is a bit clunky, but I've adjusted it. Almost perfect at a reasonable price. highlighted.