How to Set Up & Configure the Escort Redline EX

Would you like to program your Redline EX for maximum performance while also cutting down on the false alerts? Let’s take a look at the different settings and options available with the new Escort Redline EX. You can take a look at everything in the Redline EX Quick Reference Guide. Here let’s go ahead programming the different settings in more detail to both explain and show you what they do.

Now you can adjust these options either through your detector (press and hold the “Mark” and “Sens” buttons to get into the menu) or you can simply use the Escort Live app which is much easier. The order of the menu options is different between the detector and the app, some options are only available through the app, and some options are only available in the detector. (I’ll point out the differences when applicable.) We’ll run through the order of the options as they show up in the app.

If you’d like to watch me walk you through the detector’s settings, here’s the video walkthrough.

Radar Detector Settings

Sensitivity: Allows you to adjust the sensitivity of X band and K band to reduce false alerts or get better performance.

• Highway: Full performance on all radar bands
• Auto: Reduced sensitivity on X and K band below 50 mph
• AutoNoX: Same as Auto, but disables X band too (helpful if you want to quickly switch between X band on and off, if you drive in and out of OH or NJ, for example)
• AutoLoK: Same as Auto, but reduces K band even further. Be careful as performance takes a huge hit, but it can help quiet your detector down even further and could be a good option if K band isn’t used much where you drive.

Brightness: Adjust the brightness of the display. I recommend Auto so it gets brighter in the daytime and dimmer at night. Also adjustable using the “BRT” button on the front of the detector.

Pilot Mode: Enable or disable the flashing bar of lights above the word “Auto” or “Highway” on the display.

Meter Mode: Change what information is displayed on screen when you get an alert.

• Standard: Displays the band and signal strength of the primary radar signal.
• Spec Display: Same as Standard, but adds a frequency display above the signal strength.
• Expert Meter: Shows you multiple signals including band and signal strength, but not frequency. (The frequency of the primary signal can still be seen on your phone via Escort Live.)
• Simple: Doesn’t display info about the radar signal. It simply displays “Caution” when traveling below the cruise alert low speed muting threshold or “Slow down” when traveling above it.

Auto Mute: Alert at full volume for a few seconds and then reduce the volume down to a lower level. You can choose how quiet you want it to drop to.

Audio Tones: Choose the traditional Escort alert tones or more mild tones that sound like a doorbell.

ZR3 Mode (Escort Live only): If you have your Redline EX hooked up to Escort’s laser jammers, you can control whether they are jamming (Shift), detecting only (Receive Only), or disabled altogether (Off). If not using Escort’s jammers, set to Off.

Voice: Announces which radar band (ie. “K band” or “Ka band”) you’re detecting in addition to the alert tones.

Auto Power: If your detector is plugged into a power source that doesn’t turn off with your car, your Redline could eventually kill your car battery if you’re parked for a long time. This tells the detector to automatically shut off after a selected period of time.

Units: Choose miles or kilometers for distance and speed.

GPS Filter: Enable or disable the GPS related features altogether.

Auto Learn: The Redline can automatically learn and filter out stationary false alerts on X and K band after you pass them repeatedly. If you disable this, you can still manually lock out signals by triple pressing the “Mute” button when detecting a false alert.

Alert Lamp: Enable or disable the alert lamp LED above the detector’s primary display.

Cruise Alert: Low speed muting. When you detect any radar or laser signal, the detector will double beep and then go quiet.

Note: If you’re both running Escort Live and have the cruise alert feature enabled in your detector, your cruise alert setting will be ignored and replaced by the speed limit of the road you’re on. I’ve found Escort’s Live’s speed limit to typically be pretty accurate where I drive, but it doesn’t know the speed limit for all roads. Keep in mind it also doesn’t take into account temporary drops in speed limit due to construction zones or school zones so it’s possible to have your detector muting itself while you’re going above the speed limit.

Over Speed Alert: Alert you if you’re traveling over a preset speed. Helpful to remind you if you’re speeding.

Display Color: Choose what color display you want. Options include Red, Amber, Blue, and Green. This also applies to the backlight buttons. This applies to your alert lamp LED above the display too if the alert lamp is set to “On,” but not if the alert lamp is set to “band.”

Speed on Display: Choose if your detector displays your speed on screen. If you disable this, your detector will display your vehicle’s voltage on screen instead.

User Mode: Novice mode allows you to customize basic options such as the units and display color while keeping the other settings at the factory defaults. Advanced mode allows you to customize all the options of your detector including all the different radar settings.

Band Settings

Laser: Enable/disable laser detection.

POP: Enable/disable Ka band POP detection. Off is generally recommended for better performance and reduced false alerts.

Ka Band: If turned on, the detector sweeps all of Ka band, 33.400 – 36.000 GHz. If disabled, you can now use Ka band segmentation.

Ka Band Segments: Advanced feature to choose which frequencies on Ka band your detector does and doesn’t sweep. This can really help improve the performance of your detector at the risk of not alerting to legitimate police radar if you disable segments that police actually use in your area. (Segments 2/5/8 on is the traditional setup. Some people use 2/5/6/8 for extra protection against out of tune guns.) See here for more information about band segmentation.

• KaN1: 33.392 – 33.704 GHz (You’ll often get false alerts to nearby leaky Cobras here)
• KaN2: 33.704 – 33.896 GHz (MPH brand radar guns)
• KaN3: 33.886 – 34.198 GHz
• KaN4: 34.184 – 34.592 GHz
• KaN5: 34.592 – 34.808 GHz (Stalker brand radar guns)
• KaN6: 34.806 – 35.166 GHz (Stalkers that drift high are found here)
• KaN7: 35.143 – 35.383 GHz
• KaN8: 35.378 – 35.618 GHz (Decatur and Kustom Signals brand radar guns)
• KaN9: 35.595 – 35.835 GHz
• KaN10: 35.830 – 35.998 GHz

K Band: Enable or disable K band detection. Generally recommended to leave enabled since K band is used all across the country. (Can be disabled in CA). If you disable K Band, you’ll have options for K band segmentation.

K Band Segments: Choose small sections of K band to scan or not. This feature is designed for international users who encounter radar guns that operate on very small sections of K band. Here in the US, K band police radar guns can be anywhere within the K band range so it’s best to leave it on. Some people may want to disable certain segments to help cut back on false alarms, but this can be extremely risky since you’re cutting out legitimate radar guns too.

• KN1: 24.050 – 24.110 GHz
• KN2: 24.110 – 24.175 GHz
• KN3: 24.175 – 24.250 GHz
• KN4: 23.950 – 24.050 GHz

X Band: Enable/disable X band detection. X band is still actively used in OH and NJ, and still a few small areas around the country, but in most areas it can be safely disabled.

Strelka (available in RD only): Alert to the Strelka found in Russia. This is an international radar gun not used in the US. (Redline EX will display an “S” on screen where the band would normally be displayed.)

MultaRadar CD (available in RD only): Alert to the MRCD found around the world, including in Canada. This is an international radar gun not used in the US. (Redline EX will display an “M” on screen where the band would normally be displayed.)

MultaRadar CT (available in RD only): Alert to the MRCT. This is an international radar gun not used in the US. (Redline EX will display an “M” on screen where the band would normally be displayed.)

Gatso (available RD only): Alert to the Gatso. This is an international radar gun not used in the US. (Redline EX will display a “G” on screen where the band would normally be displayed.)

TSR: Traffic sensor rejection designed to filter out K band traffic sensors in use alongside many highways. Enable if you experience repeated blasts of K band every mile or so while driving down the highway. This is not needed for BSM filtering (as of firmware 1.3), but can help quiet the detector down on K band nonetheless.

RDR: Radar detector rejection. Enable or disable filtering of nearby poorly designed radar detectors that can lead to false alerts on your detector. Disabling this produces a dramatic improvement to performance so it is recommended to run RDR off. To filter out the false alerts that would then happen, band segmentation is helpful to cut out radar frequencies where legitimate police radar doesn’t exist and only false alerts will happen. See this article for more information.

Marker Settings

Markers: Choose if you’d like your detector to alert you to known fixed trap locations. These locations are updated through your computer via Escort Detector Tools.

• Red Light Cameras
• Speed Cameras
• Speed Traps
• Other
• Red Light Speed Cams: Redlight cameras that are specifically also speed cameras
• Air Patrol: Locations where aircraft are known to patrol

Clear Location: (available in RD only) Deletes specific GPS-based locations that the detector can alert you to. Choose what you want and press the “Sens” button to confirm.

• Marked: Clear all locations that you manually marked using the “Mark” button.
• Lockouts: Clear all stored GPS lockouts
• Defender: Clear all Defender database (RLC/speedcam) info
• Format: Clear all marked locations, lockouts, and defender database info

Recommended Settings

Finally, if you’re wondering how you should program your Redline EX, here’s a great starting point. They’re certainly not necessarily perfect for everyone in every situation (which is why we have lots of customizable options), and so you may want to customize things further like changing the display color, changing the cruise alert low speed muting threshold or overspeed alert level, enabling X band if you’re in OH or NJ, disabling K band if you drive in CA, and so on, but they’re an excellent general starting point. 🙂

Finally, if you don’t have the detector yet but you’d like to get one, here’s where to get one, depending on which country you’re in:

USA: Click here to purchase the Redline EX.

Canada: Click here to purchase the Redline EX. (Save $25 with the coupon code “VortexRadar“)