What radar detector do you recommend?

I'm not advocating speeding or reckless driveing. It just seems that since the economy went to crap I am seeing more and more speed traps, ticket cameras, and zero tolerance policies every day. I don't have any desire to contribute to these revenue collectors and luckily I haven't yet. I have a TomTom GPS that does a pretty good job of allerting me to the cameras but I am starting to feel a need for more, especially at night.
I am looking at the Valentine and the Escort Passport 9500ix. Both seem really expensive but I would think you get what you pay for. The last time I had a detector was back in the eighties when I was going to college in West Texas and I would come home to Bedford on the weekends. It was a cheap 40 dollar Cobra that I ended up ignoring all the time because of all the false alerts and got dinged plenty of times by the local ticketmasters along 287 when the 55 went down to 35 at a little wide spot in the road or I had the cruise set at 60. You really don't know what a slow agonizing death feels like until you drive straight from Fort Worth to Amarillo along 287 at 55 mph for 9 hours in a Ford Courier pick up with no AC in August.
Do any of you guys use a detector regularly? What is your current experience and attitude with one? Have they become obsolete due to all the new techniques and counter measures Barney Fife is using these days?

I have four of the Valentines and won't have anything else (one for each DD)

love the number of signal counter and the front - rear

and the phone cord power cord instead of some special/expensive deal -- especially if moving between cars

when they get older, you can check the serial # on line to see if upgrades are available

if so, mail them in and you get state of the art back altho not real cheap

I had two of them have problems over the years, and sent them back for repair

since the housings were pristine shape (not dropped, abused), no charge for repairs

Watch for lit up tail lights way up ahead, that's the best cop detector.

FWIW, I got all of my speeding tickets when I had a radar detector, it was a cheap one. It might have been vehicle (civic) or age/maturity, or false sense of security, maybe the officers saw it and wanted to prove a point, I don't know. Either way I threw it away after the last ticket I got and *knock on wood* I haven't gotten one since then, 4 or 5 years or so. I still drive the same, 10 - 25 over depending.

I have gotten many regisration and inspection tickets since then though, haha.

V1

http://www.guysoflidar.com/museum/fuzzbusterii_b_2.jpg

I have the 9500i and love the GPS filtering. I travel the same roads and have programmed all of the false alarms out to where my detector only goes off when there is a cop around.

As for laser. If you hear the laser detector go off, you have been caught. There are a lot of lasers in the DFW area and you can tell it by the cops with their windows down pointing the gun out the window. Go to RadarRoy.com for the lastest testing.

V1

V1, hands down. I don't use one daily (probably should), but I sure love it on road trips.

IMO, Passport went to shit at the end of the Cincinnati Microwave (Mike Valentine) era.

nothing is foolproof

you have to watch for unusual behavior from in front (brake lights etc) and if a cop is well hidden and you are the first to encounter him, you are toast

but if a cop is doing the hidden and instant on thing and there is traffic in front of you, you will get hits -- don't ignore them

slow down for a few minutes till you are sure you are clear or you see him

can't be silly and do a bunch faster than normal flow

I watch for a rabbit (someone being silly) and trail them at a long distance, quarter mile or so

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nealb

I have four of the Valentines and won't have anything else (one for each DD)

love the number of signal counter and the front - rear

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+1. I've bought a number of them for myself and friends.

The Valentine does not have GPS for warning about static speed/redlight cameras. The Passport escort 9500xi has GPS. The TomTom I have to connect to a PC and update the traffic function often as it does not do it while connected in the car. The Passport looks as though it does it's updates on the move.

Will using the TomTom with a Valentine be as effective as the Passport?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trickyrix

IMO, Passport went to shit at the end of the Cincinnati Microwave (Mike Valentine) era.

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I am leaning towards the Passport. Can you say more about your opinion?

Another V1 vote

I have read the Valentine manual and it repeatedly makes statements such as "X-band [is] most common for moving and stationary [radar]." . Xband as far as I know has been all but abandoned except in Ohio and New Jersey. The Valentine although it looks like it continues to test out as one of the top more sensitve units it seems to lack sophistication and features of the more modern offerings from Passport. I read several reviews and comparisons that indicate that the V1 is very "chatty" with false alarms due to its sensitivity and lack of filters or GPS memory. I worry that I would start to ignore the warnings as i did my Cobra during President Reagan's terms. Has this been your experience?

One reveiwer mentioned that there is no auto mute of alarms after the threat has passed. It was said the operator has to reach over and manually turn off every alarm. Is that accurate?

The Passport does not appear to be upgradeable only replaced. The valentine offers upgrades but they appear to be very expensive but not as much as a replacement unit. Is upgradeability important enough to be considered? Is the technology advancing fast enough that 18 months or shorter would obselete a unit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nealb

I watch for a rabbit (someone being silly) and trail them at a long distance, quarter mile or so

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I like to do this on read trips, too.

Does the Escort offer a count on radar detected or front and rear? What if a cop is shooting radar in the same area as a know GPS radar will it ignore it?

I set my V1 in little logic mod.

I had set my Escort 8500 (which I've sold since the Miata is so incredibly slow lol) into "expert" mode which showed a little bar graph of each signal seen. It doesn't have directional display though.

Advanced mode (middle):
http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01...00_display.jpg

If you get the 8500 x50, 9500 or V1 you've got basically the best on the market, but none of them will help you if you drive like a jackass. The LEOs around here are mostly using K, Ka, and Lidar (aka you're f'ed). I found that the radar going off in the Evo just made me be the only guy slowing down when passing the trooper on the tollway.

I did find LEOs with X out in the sticks (OK, LA, MS, FL), so don't disable X if you're leaving the big city. For road trips a rabbit is essential. Coming back from San Antonio there are cutouts in the center wall divider on 35 and the LEOs hang out there. My rabbit got popped but I didn't and that would have been a big one. OK uses airplanes. My uncle found that one out in his 3000GT VR4 lol.

Breaker 1-9...CB's are still the bomb-diggity on the interstate. :)

https://www.beltronics.com/store/gx-65.html

I'm in the market too. I've had a BEL980 for almost 10 years now, it still works great, but all the accesories like the mount and cords are shot. I've been shopping the Escort 9500, the V1 and the BEL GX-65. I really like the arrows and counter on the V1, but have never really been bit by not having it on previous radars. Falses are a big problem with V1s (even with X-band turned off) and I've heard that the addition of POP radar software/firmware updates on the V1 have lessened their Ka/K non-POP performance.

The price of the top of the line 9500 is a good bit more than the GX-95, the BEL and Escort use essentially the same guts, but there are a few packaging differences and the BEL doesn't have the autolearn feature that KenO was worried about. With the BEL you can press a quick sequence of buttons and mark a location if you want though.

http://www.radartest.com/article_2.asp?articleid=100593

BTW, BEL has a $80 trade in program right now for any old radar you have laying around.

None. The revenuers have the edge so practice driving the speed limit. It took me a while to figure this one out but now I drive from point A to point B without the worry that comes with speeding. I'm no saint but a day at the track is a lot cheaper than a day in court.