Hey, just follow the police cruiser. He is undoubtedly going 80 in a 55 zone. Around here that is the case, anyway. I find it hard to take traffic laws seriously when the police always go over the speed limit and tailgate anyone in front of them, even on exit ramps.
I like escort myself because they have lots of false positive avoidance build in. Valentine seems to basically say it’ll alert for any signal, and you figure it out. Only positive to it I can see is the arrows, I wonder why no one else has done that yet? You’d think we’d be getting past any patents by now.
I loved my 9500ix - but I upgraded to a Max. Which is even more sensitive when it works. That being the operative thing - I’ve had to send it in twice for repair since I got it - never had to do anything for the 9500ix. I’m also still disappointed the detector tools doesn’t let you set the preferences like you could for the 9500ix - why would you get rid of a great feature like that? The LCD can give more info, but it’s harder to see in daylight and more light spilling out at night.
Maybe the Max II is better, but I’m not ready to spend another $500+ to find out. I wish they’d just upgraded the guts for the 9500ix but kept everything else the same…
Anyway - maybe I just got a lemon also - and it’s expert mode which displays more than one signal at a time is easier to view on the LCD.
They work well for me living out the the country - the cops also seem to mostly just leave their radar going so I know they’re there.
TL;DR: if you don’t want lots of fp, get escort - and get 9500ix for reliability.
My 9500ix has been rock solid and hands down the best detector I have ever owned. Nothing will defend you against laser except a laser jammer or good eyesight. Laser is “line of sight” so they have to see you to clock you. Unless they are hidden in the bushes you can usually spot a police car parked and shooting LIDAR before they can nab you. I find that 98% of enforcement is still done with radar and the 9500ix is a rock star for detecting real radar threats. It is also extremely quiet when other radar signals that are NOT police radar are present.
Just don’t take your detector to Virginia. If the police find it, they will confiscate it and give you a ticket whether it is on or not.
They are prohibited in D.C. as well. And most of Canada prohibits use AND possession of radar detectors.
I mentioned VA and not DC because they will confiscate your detector in VA. I’m not sure about DC.
Massachusetts has prohibited them too.
I did, however, find the post interesting. Accident avoidance systems are a fairly new and still rare thing on the roadways. It’ll be interesting to see if these systems begin to be a problem for radar detectors. Especially as they evolve the capability of the vehicles to communicate with one another. And yes, that IS on the horizon.
Massachusetts, like many states, does not allow detectors on commercial vehicles but they are legal for passenger cars.
Reminds me of a story. I was running around the 70 mph speed limit heading East on I-90 in
SE MN with my 96 Cavalier when a Lincoln with an Illinois plate passed me at a great speed. I stepped on the gas to follow his lead and got it up to 106 MPH when the speed limiter kicked in and so I could go no faster. Then the radar detector went off and so I slowed back to a safe speed. There were hills so I could not see what was happening. Over the next hill I saw the Lincoln with attending cop. Fun stuff!
Apparently I was misinformed. I checked, and there are apparently only two states that prohibit radar detectors in private vehicles, Virginia and Washington DC. Connecticut had a restriction, but repealed it in 1992.
Now if I can only figure out why all the reference materials call Washington DC a “state”…
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Bought a Uniden radar detector several years ago after owning the original, very large Escort radar detector and later the first Passport (very small) detector that cost us around 300 bucks in the 1970s as I recall. I sold the Escort to get the smaller Passport which surprisingly was a better detector. It became obsolete due to the introduction of K band and later, laser detection. The Uniden was supposed to be good for X band, K band and laser. It, unfortunately also detected the sunset late in the day so I got my money back. It’s hard to believe that the makers allowed that thing out of the door. Possibly they have done better by now.
I’ve owned the original Escort and later a passport. Still have them around somewhere. I pretty much quit using them once the 55 mph silliness was repealed and laser came into use.
I still think every Congressmen and Senators that voted for that stupidity should have been forced to drive across Texas at 55 mph, on I-10, in the summer, with no AC. That would have changed their minds. Would’ve taken 2 full days.
I agree Mustangman. OK (at least in the western half) is pretty much flat with straight roads. It’s about 200 miles across the OK Panhandle with very few turns in it and no scenery to speak of.
Driving that at 65-70 MPH is maddening enough; much less at 55.
200 miles of OK would be a soft gentle 4 hour, 55 mph breeze compared to 830 miles or so from Beaumont to El Paso. Averaging 50 mph (NO speeding, gas stops and bio-breaks) that is a hot nasty, boring 16.5 travel hours. The nice, straight, safe roads would be pretty convincing. That trip is now reduced to 11.5 hours per Google Maps to one good, hard day’s drive.
Back in the 80’s, I did the Texarkana to El Paso run with my Escort and binoculars for my shot-gun riding wife as spotter. At times running 120 mph for 5-15 minutes at a time on dead-straight 2 lanes with nothing for miles. Slowed for oncoming traffic (LOTS of Texans drove white cop-car-looking Caprices in those days). I didn’t want to upset Grandma with a 175 mph approaching speed. Made good time but it still took 1.5 days. 80 mph on the interstate would have been quicker and safer, as it is now.