Beltronics 950, 980 User Manual
BEL 980 &
BEL 950
RADAR•LASER•SAFETY DETECTORS
Operating instructions for models 980 & 950
Advanced
PRO TECTION
System
TM
with Shadow Technology
®
®®®®
DIGITAL PLL SYNTHESIZED
OSCILLATOR
TM
introduction
Thank you for purchasing a bel 980 or bel 950
Radar/Laser/Safety detector with the Advanced Protec tion System
™
and Shadow Technology®II.bel 980 and bel 950 build on t he
company’s long history of technology fir sts with advancements
that usher in a new era in Radar/Laser/Safety Detection.
Remember,owning a Radar detector does not give you a license to
speed.Alerts from a Radar detector serve as an effective reminder to
check your speed.Laws vary throughout North America governing the
use of a Radar detector.It is your responsibility to follow these laws.
software upgradable – an ind ustry first
Your bel unit contains technology which provides the
highest capability to be reprogrammed as the threat of new Police
traffic Radar monitoring technologies emerge.Please ensure that
you promptly mail in the enclosed Consumer Information card.
This will ensure you are notified about new,approved traffic
monitoring techn olo g ies an d will be provided detail s of servi ce cost
and where to send your unit for software upgrade.
shadow technolog y® ii
bel 980 and bel 950 contain Sha dow Technology® II making them
undetectable to the Interceptor vg-2or any other Radar Detector
Detector (rdd).Only Shadow Technology®II has been consistently
proven undetectable to the vg-2.
selectable features
These features may be selected depending upon your driving
environment.
(See page 9 for the operation ofSelectable Features.)
City X or City All (available on bel 980only)
X/K/Ka Band onor off(available on bel 980only)
Auto-Mute onor off
Radar/Laser Digital Voice Prompts or “tones”
Safety Warning System
®
on or off
Safety Warning System
®
with Digital Voice on or off
Audio/Visual Scroll Rate (fast or slow)
table of c ont ents
Profile of Features lpage4
Description of Features
l
page5
Power-Up Test Sequence/Start-up Mode lpage5
Tutori al Modelpage 6
Set and Forget Memorylpage6
Reset to Factory Settingslpage7
Voltage Warninglpage7
drk (Brig ht/Dim/Dark) Button lpage7
aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button lpage7
cty(City/Highway) Button lpage8
Selectable Features
l
page9
Entering Selectable Features Modelpage11
Installation
l
page11
General Guidelineslpage11
Understanding Radar,Laser and sws
™
l
page14
Interpretation of Aler ts
l
page15
Radar Alerts lpage15
Instant-On/Pulsed Radar Alert lpage18
Typical False Alert (Radar) lpage18
Laser Alertslpage18
Safety Warning System®(sws™)Alertslpage19
Performance Verification
l
page
Conditions That Affect Radar Alerts lpage
Conditions That Affect Laser Alerts lpage21
Troubleshooting
l
page21
Consumer Warranty
l
page22
Service
l
page23
Warranty S ervice lpage23
Post-Warranty S er v icelpage23
Accessories
l
page23
PWR DRK AUD CTY
B
E
L
9
8
0
K
a
9
Advanced Protection System
with Shadow Technology II
7
2
4
1
9
6
3
5
8
profile of fe atures
1. pwr(Power/Start-Up Mode) Button:pressing a nd h old i ng
pwr will turn the unit on.Press the pwra second time to
scroll through the three start-up mode options:NORMAL,
MODS (Modifications),Q-START (Quick Start) plus
TUTORIAL MODE.
2 Text Message Display: communicates all mode selections
(i.e.DIM,DARK,CITY,HIGHWAY and AUTOMUTE)and
confirms Radar band and signal strength,presence of Laser
and sws™messages received.
3. drk (Bright/Dim/Dark)Button:provides br i g ht , dark and
fully adjustable dim settings of the Text Display for discreet
night travel.Audio alerts are notaffected.
4. aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button: provid es m anu a l
muting ofall Radar and sws
™
alerts.Pressing and holding the
aud button will change the audio level.
5. cty(City/Highway) Button:choose between Highway mode
or for urban/suburban travel,City X or City All modes.
6. Antenna Opening:Radar and sws
™
signals are received by
a patented diecast antenna with integrated transition to
microstrip mixer.
7. Laser Optical Sensors:collect Laser signals from in front and
behind.
8. Audio Alert Speaker: all audible alerts and Digital Voice
Mess a g es are emitted from th i s location.
9. Power Jack:using the straight or coiled cord,
bel 980 or bel 950 operate in any vehicle with a 13.8 voltdc
negative ground system (10.5 volt to 16 volt range).
Note:Model 980 is the same as Model 950 except for the
addition ofthese features:Signal Strength Digit,City All Mode,
X/K/Ka Band On/Off,9 audio level settings,Travel Case,
4' straight power cord and 2 year warranty.
description of features
Power-Up Test Sequence/Start-up Mode
Each time your detector is turned on,bel 980 or bel 950
will perform a power-up test sequence based upon the Start-Up
mode selected.There are three Start-Up modes ofoperation
plus a Tutorial mode.Release the pwr button at your ch o sen
selection.
Note—Pressing pwr at any time during start-up will bypass
the sequence.
NORMAL (Factory pre-set Mode)
Presents Audio and Text Messages for Laser,Ka,K,X and
Safety Warning System® (sws
™
). After this sequence,the
status of S elec table Features is displayed:
“CITY X” or “CITYALL”; “X/K/KA o n /o f f”; “Amute
“Amute o ff
”; “R/LVo i c e , “R/L t o n e ”;“SWS o n ”,
“SWS o f f”; “SWSv o i c e ”, “SWStone”; “SCROLfa s t ”,
“SCROLslow”. Unit is now ready for operation.
Note:C ity X,City All and X/K/Ka On/offdo not appear o n mode l 950
MODS (Modifications Mode)
Presents Audio and Text Messages for Laser ,Ka,K,X and Safety
Warning System® (sw s
™
),followed by the presenta tion o fSelectable
Features as cho sen by the user.Unit is ready for opera tion.
on ,
Q-START (Quick-Start Mode)
Unit will bypass any form ofa power-up test sequence and
will display “
CITY”or“HIGHWAY”depending upon the mode
previously selected.Unit is ready for operation.
TUTORIAL MODE
The Tutorial Mode allows you to become more familiar with
all audible and visual alerts.The message “TUTORIAL”
appears in the display followed by the audio and corresponding
Text Message for “LASER”,“Ka AUDIO”,“K AUDIO”,“X
AUDIO”,sample Radar alert (K band signal ramping from
weak to strong) and “SAFETY WARNING SYSTEM SAMPLE
ALERTS”.Three samplesws
™
messages are then presented in
the display along with the correspondingDigit al Voice Mess a g e:
Sample 1 “
ACCIDENT AHEAD”
Sample 2 “HIGHWAY WORKCREW AHEAD”
Sample 3 “POLICE IN PURSUIT”
While sample messages are playing you can access the
complete list of sws™messages by pressing the ctybutton to
move forward in the list.“MSG 1” will appear in the display
confirming your selection (to move backward in the list, press
the drk button).Pressing the aud button al lows you to l ist en
to the sws™message while viewing it in the display. Press the
ctybutton again to step to the next message;press the aud
button to review,and so on.This allows you to review all
60messages.
To e xit Tutori al M ode, press t he pwr butt on a nd your u ni t
will be onand ready to receive signals.
Set and Forget Memory
Any time bel 980 or bel 950 are turned offor unplugged from
the cigarette lighter socket,all feature settings you have selected
are retained in the unit’s memory.Set and Forget Memory
eliminates the need to reset your preferred feature settings
each time your unit is turned offand then back on.
Reset to Factory Settings
You can reset your unit to factory settings for Start-Up mode,
volume,drk,aud,cty and Selectable Features.To reset,press
and hold the cty button until the displayshows “
RESET”.
Two “beeps”will sound and your unit will cycle through the
Normal Start-Up Mode.
Voltage Warning
Your bel 980 or bel 950continually check your vehicle’s voltage
to ensure proper performance of your detector.The unit’s
operating range is 10.5 to 16.0 volts.Ifvoltage falls below 10.5
volts,display will show “
LOW VOLT” until condition is rectified.
drk (Bright/Dim/Dark) Button
The drk button allows selection ofa bright,fully adjustable
dim mode or dark mode.The unit is factory preset to full
bright d i spl ay.To engage dim mode,press and hold the drk
button.The display will cycle through various levels ofdim
illumination.Release the button at your chosen level.To
engage dark mode,press the drkbutton a second time.A
single “beep”coupled with the brief illumination of“DARK”
on the display confirms your selection.You’ll notice an “H”
(Highway mode) or “C” (City mo de) remains dim to confirm
your unit is receiving power.To return to a full bright setting,
press the drk button a third time;two “beeps”confirm this
selection.Use ofthe drkbutton does not affect audio alerts.
Important—ifyou press the the drkbutton and do not receive
audible confirmation,the audio level has been set too low.
aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button
Manual Muting ofAudio Alerts (Radar and sws
™
)
WhetherAuto-Muteis selected on or offin Sele ctable
Features,the audio alerts can be completely muted by
pressing the aud button during an alert.The display will
briefly sh ow “
Qu i e t .” No audible alert will be heard for
approximately 12 seconds.Ifthe signal is still present after 12
seconds,the unit will remain in manual mute mode.
Note—because Laser alerts are not lengthy or sustained,
muting is not required (see page )
Volume Cont rol
Press and hold the aud button to engage the volume control.
The Audio level has 9 settings for bel 980 and 5 settings for
bel 950.Release the aud button when you have reached your
desired audio setting.
cty (City/Highway) Button
The cty mode has been designed to effectively reduce
unwanted audio alerts caused by intrusion alarms,door
openers,and other devices which share X band with police
Radar—without reducing sensitivity. Sig nals from non-police
Radar sources are frequently encountered in urban and suburban areas,making use ofthis mode ideal in these areas.
Pressing the cty but t on once engages the cty mode which is
confirmed by “
CITY”in the display coupled with a single audio
“beep”. Pressing the ctybutton a second time returns you to
highway mode;“HI GHWAY”will appear in the display coupled
with two“beeps”.Once engaged,weak X band signals
encounteredwill produce no audible alert until the signal
strength reaches a preset level.However, v isual alerts are
processed the instant an X band signal is detected,keeping
you quietly informed.Since most “false” X band sig nals are
weak,the use ofthe cty mode allows you to drive out of their
range before they reach the preset level and trigger a full
audio alert.In contrast, sig nals from X band traffic Radar are
generally stronger and will exceed the preset level,causing a
full X bandaudio alert.Activating the ctymode will not
change Super Wideband Ka,K or instant-on X band Radar
alert patterns.
Note—the cty mode does not change the presentation of aler t s
for Laser or sws
™
.
City All (bel 980 only)
City All mode is a Selectable Feature ofthe bel 980 (see
Selectable Featurespage 9).This feature provides an alternate
Loading...