Beltronics BEL990 Operating Instructions Manual

BEL 990 International

RADAR

•

LASER

•

SAFETY DETECTOR

Operating instructions for model 990

Advanced

PROTECTION

System

TM

with Shadow Technology

®

®®®®

DIGITAL PLL SYNTHESIZED

OSCILLATOR

TM

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World’s First
International Frequency
Radar/Laser/Safety Detector



introduction

Thank you for purchasing a bel 990 International Radar/Laser/
Safety detector with the Advanced Protection System™and
Shadow Technology®II. bel 990 International is the world’s first
Radar/Laser/Safety detector which detects International Radar
frequencies, making it the choice for those looking for protection
where ever they travel.

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 the world governing the use
of a Radar detector. It is your responsibility to follow these laws.

software upgradable – an industry first

bel 990 International 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 send in your Consumer Information card. This will
ensure you are notified about new, approved traffic monitoring
technologies and will be provided the details of service cost and
where to send your unit for software upgrade.

shadow technology® ii

bel 990 International contains Shadow Technology® II making it
undetectable to the Interceptor vg-2 or any other Radar Detector

Detector (rdd).Only Shadow Technology®has been consistently
proven undetectable to the vg-2.

selectable features

These featues may be selected depending upon your driving
environment. (See page 10 for the operation of Selectable

Features.)

 City X or City All
 X/K/Ka Band on or off
 Auto-Mute on or off
 Ka Narrow (34.3 ghz 100 mhz/Super Wideband Ka
 Radar/Laser Digital Voice Prompts or “beeps”
 Safety Warning System

®

on or off

 Safety Warning System

®

with Digital Voice on or off

 Audio/Visual Scroll Rate (fas t or slow)

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table of contents

Profile of Features lpage 4
Description of Features

l

page 5

Power-Up Test Sequence/Start-up Mode lpage 5
Tutor i a l Modelpage 6
Set and Forget Memorylpage 6
Reset to Factory Settings

l

page 7

Voltage Wa rning

l

page 7

drk (Bright/Dim/Dark) Button

l

page 7

aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button lpage 7
cty (City/Highway) Button

l

page 8

International Frequencies

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page 9

What are International Frequencies?

l

page 9

Engaging International Frequencieslpage 10

Selectable Features

l

page 10

Entering Selectable Features Modelpage 12

Installation

l

page 13

General Guidelineslpage 13

Understanding Radar, Laser and sws

™

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page 15

Interpretation of Alerts

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page 17

Radar Alerts lpage 17
Instant-On/Pulsed Radar Alert lpage 19
Typical False Alert (Radar) lpage 19
Laser Alertslpage 20
Safety Warning System®(sws™) Alertslpage 20

Performance Verification

l

page 

Conditions That Affect Radar Alerts lpage 
Conditions That Affect Laser Alerts lpage 22

Tr ou b l e sh o o t i n g

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page 23

Consumer Warranty

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page 24

Service

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page 25

Warranty Service lpage 25
Post-Warranty Servicelpage 25

Specifications

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page 26

Accessories

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page 26

profile of features

1. pwr (Power/Start-Up Mode) Button: pressing and holding

pwr briefly will turn the unit on. Continuing to press the pwr

button will scroll through the three start-up mode options:

NORMAL, MODS (Modificaitons), 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 bright, dark and

fully adjustable dim settings of the Text Display for discreet
night travel. Audio alerts are not affected.

4. aud (Audio Mute/Volume Control) Button: provides manual

muting of all 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.

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PWR DRK AUD CTY

International

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Advanced Protection System

with Shadow Technology

II

BEL 990

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7. Laser Optical Sensors: collect Laser signals from in front

and behind.

8. Audio Alert Speaker: all audible alerts and Digital Voice

Messages are emitted from this location.

9. Power Jack: using the straight or coiled cord, the

bel 990 International operates in any vehicle with a 13.8 volt
dc negative ground system (10.5 volt to 16 volt range).

description of features

Power-Up Test Sequence/Start-up Mode

Each time your detector is turned on, bel 990 International
will perform a power-up test sequence based upon the start-up
mode selected. There are three start-up modes of operation
plus a Tutorial mode. Release the pwr button at your chosen
selection.

Note—Pressing pwr at any time during start-up test will bypass
the sequence.

NORMAL (Factory pre-set Mode)

Presents

START UP, followed by Audio and Text Messages for

Laser, Ka, K, X and Safety Warning System® (sws™) and the
Travel Mode selected (factory default is NAmerica). After this
sequence,the status of Selectable Features is displayed:

“

CTY X or CTYALL”; “X/K/KA BAND ON/OFF”;

“ AUTOMUTE, ON/OFF”;“VoiceON”,“V o i c e OFF”;

“KANARROW”,“KAS-WIDE”;“SWS o n ”,“SWS o f f ”;
“SWSv o i c e ”,“SWSc lic k ”; SCROLfa s t ”, SCROLslow”.
Unit is now ready for operation.

MODS (Modifications Mode)

Presents

START UP, followed by Travel Mode selected and

Selectable Features as chosen by the user. Unit is ready for
operation.



Q-START (Quick-Start Mode)

Unit will bypass any form of a power-up test sequence when
powered-up and will display

CITY or HIGHWAY depending

upon the mode retained in memory. Unit is ready for
operation.

TUTORIAL MODE

The tutorial mode allows you to become more familiar with
all audible and visual alerts. To engage this mode, press the
aud and cty buttons simultaneously when the unit is on.
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
corresponding Digital Voice Message:

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 cty button 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 allows you to
listen to the sws™message while viewing it in the display.
Press the cty button again to step to the next message; press
the aud button to review,and so on. This allows you to
review all 60 messages.

To exit Tu tori a l Mo d e , p ress t h e pwr button and your unit
will be on and ready to receive signals.

Set and Forget Memory

Any time bel 990 International is turned off or 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 off and then back on.

Reset to Factory Settings

You can reset your unit to factory settings for start-up mode,
volume, drk, aud, cty, Travel Mode and Selectable Features. To
reset,press and hold the cty button until the display shows
“

RESET”. Two “beeps” will sound and your unit will be on and

ready for operation.

Volta g e War n ing

BEL 990 International continually checks your vechicle’s voltage
to ensure proper performance of the detector.The unit’s
operating range is 10.5 to 16.0 volts.If voltage is above 10.5, the
display will flash “

HI VOLT” until condition is rectified. If voltage

falls below 10.5 volts, display will flash “LOW VOLT”until
condition is rectified.

drk (Bright/Dim/Dark) Button

The drk button allows selection of a bright, fully adjustable
dim mode or dark mode. The unit is factory preset to full
bright display. To engage dim mode, press and hold the drk
button. The display will cycle through various levels of dim
illumination. Release the button at your chosen level. To
engage dark mode, press the drk button 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 mode) 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 of the drk button does not affect audio alerts.

Important—if you press the the drk button and do not receive
audible confirmation, the audio level has been set too low.

aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button

Manual Muting of Audio Alerts (Radar and sws

™

)

Whether Auto-Mode is selected on or off in Selectable
Features the audio alerts can be completely muted by



pressing the aud button during an alert. The display will
briefly show “Quite.”No audible alert will be heard for at
approximately 20 seconds. If the signal is still present after 20
seconds, press the aud button again if you do not want to
receive any audible alerts.

Note—because Laser alerts are not lengthy or sustained, muting
is not required (see page )

Volume Co n t rol

Press and hold the aud button to engage the volume control.
The Audio level has 9 settings. 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. Signals from non-police
Radar sources are frequently encountered in urban and
suburban areas, making use of this mode ideal in these areas.

Pressing the cty button once engages the cty mode which is

confirmed by “

CITY” in the display coupled with a single audio

“beep”. Pressing the cty button a second time returns you to
highway mode; “HIGHWAY” will appear in the display coupled
with two“beeps”.Once engaged, weak X band signals
encountered will produce no audible alert until the signal
strength reaches a preset level. However, visual alerts are
processed the instant an X band signal is detected, keeping
you quietly informed. Since most “false”X band signals are
weak, the use of the cty mode allows you to drive out of their
range before they reach the preset level and trigger a full
audio alert. In contrast, signals from X band traffic Radar are
generally stronger and will exceed the preset level, causing a
full X band audio alert.Activating the cty mode 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 alerts
for Laser or sws

™

.



City All

City All mode is a Selectable Feature of the bel 990 International
(see Selectable Features page 10). This feature provides an
alternate approach for improving selectivity on ALL Radar
Bands and is ideal for use in areas with a high level of
microwave transmissions which can cause falsing on all
Radar bands.

While in City All mode, bel 990 International will provide an

initial short X, K, or Super Wideband Ka alert coupled with
visual confirmation of the band detected and signal strength in
the display. No further audible alert is provided until the signal
strength reaches a preset level.When no audio alert is
provided, the visual alert keeps you quietly informed.

Note—Once “

CTY X”or “CTY ALL” is chosen in Selectable

Features the cty button must to be pressed to engage your
selection.

international frequencies

What are International Frequencies?

bel 990 International is the world’s first Radar detector
designed to operate anywhere you travel. Because different
countries use different frequencies to monitor traffic, there has
been no way of using existing technology to detect ALL the
various frequency types. That is until now. bel 990 International
is the world’s first Radar detector designed to operate anywhere
you travel.

All Radar Bands, whether used in North America or Europe,

fall under the X, K or Ka Band classification. The difference is
the operating frequency, measured in Gigahertz, which the X, K
or Ka Band signal is transmitted.Regardless of the Travel Mode
selected, bel 990 International will sound an X, K or Ka Digital
Voice Message or an X, K or Ka “tone” (whichever you have
chosen in Selectable Features) when Radar is encountered.The
Text Message Display will confirm the actual frequency detected,
depending upon the frequency type received. (see sample Text

Display readouts below.)

X BAND 10. 525 (North American signal)
X BAND 9.9 (UK signal)



Engaging International Frequencies

bel 990 International is factory preset to detect all North
American Radar frequencies (X,K, Super Wideband Ka). To
engage one of the three Travel Modes for operation outside North
America, with the unit on, press and hold the cty button until
the display scrolls through the following prompts:“

NAMERICA”,

“TRAVEL 1,” “TRAVEL 2,” and “TRAVEL 3.” To deter m i n e

which Travel mode best represents the frequencies used in the
country you will be driving, refer to the label on the bottom of
your unit. Release the cty button at your chosen selection.

Note—If you encounter excessive falsing on X, K or Ka Bands
when operating your unit in any of the travel modes,you can
engage the City All mode in Selectable Features or turn the
offending Band or Bands off in Selectable Features (see below).
If excessive falsing occurs specifically on Super Wideband Ka
(33.4 – 36.0 gh

z) you can select Ka Narrow (33.4 100 mhz) in

Selectable Features.

Disabling X, K or Ka Bands in Selectable Features will defeat
detection of ALL frequencies within the X, K or Ka Band
classification (See page 00 for a complete listing of frequencies).

selectable features

The following features may be selected depending upon your
driving environmnet and preference.

 City X or City All
 X/K/Ka Band on or off
 Auto Mute on or off
 Radar/Laser Digital Voice Prompts or “beeps”
 Ka Narrow (34.3 ghz 100 mhz)/Super Wideband Ka
 Safety Warning System® on or off
 Safety Warning System® Digital Voice on or off
 Audio/Visual Scroll Rate (fast or slow)

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