Beltronics BEL990 International User manual

BEL 990 International

RADAR •LASER •SAFETY DETECTOR

Operating instructions for model 990

Advanced

PROTECTION

System

with Shadow Technology®

®®®®

DIGITAL PLL SYNTHESIZED

OSCILLATOR

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).OnlyShadowTechnology

®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 ghz100 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 (fast or slow)

–





table of contents

Profile of Features

page 4

Description of Features

page 5

Power-Up Test Sequence/Start-up Mode

page 5

Tutor i al Mo de

page 6

Set and Forget Memory

page 6

Reset to Factory Settings

page 7

Vo lt a ge Wa r n i n g

page 7

drk (Bright/Dim/Dark) Button

page 7

aud (Auto-Mute/Volume Control) Button

page 7

cty (City/Highway) Button

page 8

International Frequencies

page 9

What are International Frequencies?

page 9

Engaging International Frequencies

page 10

Selectable Features

page 10

Entering Selectable Features Mode

page 12

Installation

page 13

General Guidelines

page 13

Understanding Radar, Laser and sws™

page 15

Interpretation of Alerts

page 17

Radar Alerts

page 17

Instant-On/Pulsed Radar Alert

page 19

Typical False Alert (Radar)

page 19

Laser Alerts

page 20

Safety Warning System®(sws™)Alerts

page 20

Performance Verification

page 

Conditions That Affect Radar Alerts

page 

Conditions That Affect Laser Alerts

page 22

Troubleshooting

page 23

Consumer Warranty

page 24

Service

page 25

War rant y S er v ice

page 25

Post-Warranty Service

page 25

Specifications

page 26

Accessories

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.

2Text 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.



PWR DRK AUD CTY

International

K a 9

Advanced Protection System

with Shadow Technology II

BEL 990



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”.Threesamplesws™

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 ex it Tut or ial Mo de , press t he 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.

Vo lt a g e Wa r n i n g

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 )

Volu me Cont ro l

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 de te r m in 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 ghz) 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 ghz100 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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