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By Craig Peterson
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 BEL (Beltronics) STi-R Plus doesn't advertise its presence to disapproving cops or eager thieves. Standard equipment on top model includes twin front, single rear laser jammers. The radar antenna is concealed behind the front bumper cover. |
Those who consider the Escort Passport 9500ci to be the best custom-installed remote radar detectorare in for a surprise: the BEL (Beltronics) STiR-Plus is better. This begs the question: How was it possible to one-up the acknowledged segment leader? The short answer: This fight was fixed.
But before Escort Passport 9500ci loyalists rush to dash off angry e-mails, allow me to offer an explanation. First, remember that BEL is an Escort company and the two share technology. More important, keep in mind that the BEL STi-R Plus uses the same M3 platform as the Escort 9500ci. The two also are identical in appearance and nearly so in performance.
Unlike the Escort 9500ci, the BEL remote is available in two versions. The STi-R Plus ($1,599) is GPS-enabled and competes directly with the Escort 9500ci. This version comes complete with ZR4 laser shifters (jammers) to counter police laser guns. Those who prefer to use an alternate laser jamming system such as the superb Blinder M47 can choose the BEL STi-R Plus without laser shifters priced at a more wallet-friendly $1,199.
Although the Escort and BEL siblings have the same radar-detection performance and have nearly identical features, the BEL STi R Plus trumps the Escort 9500ci by offering a unique feature that's aimed squarely at the enthusiast driver: user-selectable Ka band segmentation.
Average drivers have zero interest in this ability to deactivate portions of the Ka-band frequency spectrum. But savvy drivers know that much of this real estate is devoid of police radar: the only signals in these nether regions are the local oscillators of nearby Cobra and Whistler radar detectors. By intelligently deactivating all but two or three of the 10 Ka-band frequency segments, the BEL STi R Plus will ignore all but real Ka-band police radar signals. The net reduction in false alarms is substantial, particularly when driving in unfamiliar areas where the BEL STi R Plus' automatic signal lockout feature, AutoLock—called Auto Learn by Escort—hasn't yet had a chance to lock them out. Reducing the bandwidth being scanned also sharpens response time and increases detection range.
 The BEL STi-R Plus has a unique ability that allows the driver to lock-out segments of Ka band. This virtually eliminates one of the biggest sources of Ka false alarms—those generated by other radar detectors. |
On the road, this is a huge advantage. Now instead of panic-braking in reaction to every Ka-band alert or trying to decipher a numeric frequency before reacting, the BEL STi R Plus simplifies the task: Get an alert on Ka band and it's time to stand on the brakes.
Deactivating Ka-band segments is done by entering user preferences, turning off KaSW and then scrolling through the 10 band segments. Any of these can be turned off but if you're not certain which Ka-band frequencies are used in your area, I wouldn't advise altering the factory-default settings. Turning off Segment Ka 5, for instance, would tell the radar detector to ignore all frequencies between 34.592 and 34.808 GHz. That would make it quieter but risky since the ubiquitous Stalker radar operates in the middle of that range.
There is an alternative, however. We know which radar frequencies are in use in every state and most major cities; at the customer's request we'll reprogram the Ka segments to exclude all but those currently in service, making for a dramatic decrease in Ka-band false alarms.
 Thumb-size BEL STi-R Plus control unit is backlit for easy operation at night. |
The BEL STi R is operated by a small surface-mounted control unit. It's backlit, making the important buttons easy to find and use at night. A second module with a small red LED text display shows operating mode and other vital information. Those who want an even lower-profile installation can opt for a multi-color LED, usually mounted in the instrument cluster, that replaces the display. There's a downside to the LED, however: minimal information about band ID none at all about its digital frequency. The serious driver BEL is targeting will probably elect to use the LED text display with its greater information-delivery capacity.
The BEL STi R Plus comes with a powered auxiliary speaker that's loud enough to be heard in a top-down Corvette convertible at 85 mph. This makes it a good candidate for unusually noisy cockpits.
Both versions of the BEL STi R are invisible to the Spectre (Stalcar) radar detector detector used by police to ferret out illegal radar detectors. Drivers in Virginia, in the Canadian provinces where detectors are illegal and those who drive with a Commercial Driver License (CDL) will find this immunity helpful.
The effectiveness of a GPS-enabled radar detector in protecting from red light and speed cameras is wholly dependent upon the quality of its location database. So we were gratified to find that the BEL's database (shared with the Escort 9500ci) led the pack in a recent 18-month-long comparison test of these databases, with a remarkable 95 percent accuracy rate.
In radar-detection performance the BEL STiR Plus turned in the best scores we've ever recorded, almost identical to those of the Escort Passport 9500ci and better even than the red-hot Escort RedLine, the world's best windshield-mount radar detector. In our recent test of the Escort RedLine it spotted all of our radars from 14.17 miles away, a record.
Why is this important, particularly in light of the fact that most encounters with radar take place at 1,000 feet or less? Simple: that 14-mile warning was accomplished in the pancake-flat Sonoran desert, perfect conditions for both radar and radar detection. In other testing in a more typical environ—with hills, curves and terrain present to block much of the radar signal—that distance shrank to as little as 0.7 mile.
Bargain-priced detectors that work fine under perfect conditions falter badly when these range-limiting factors are introduced. And that's why I always recommend a high-performance radar detector to anyone who can afford it. Two tickets, with the attendant fines, court costs and years of insurance surcharges, will easily cost more than the most expensive radar detector on the planet. (To learn more about the importance of long-range radar detection, check out the above video.)
In a separate test of the latest laser jammers we also verified that the BEL's ZR4 laser jammer system worked equally well, jamming some of the guns down to point-blank range and doing almost as well against most of the others.
On the road, it's almost supernaturally quiet. On daily commutes it rarely goes off and is nearly as quiet on highway trips. In all, a remarkable performance from what we christen the expert driver's tool of choice for combatting radar, lasers and red light cameras.
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