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At least with the PassPort 9500xi...it learns as you drive. Rarely do I get a false alarm on any of my normal routine driving routes. Once it detects a false alarm..it retains it in it's memory and will not alert to that particular wave again. One can also mark areas...and it also retains and warn on red light cameras.
That's pretty sweet that it can remember where false signals come from, as well as red light cameras.
I have a Valentine One...for radar it's GREAT-love how it tells me if the cop is to the front, side, or rear of my car. But instant on will get you, luckily where I live they just drive with radar on all the time so they're easy to detect. As far as Laser goes, I would not depend on a detector for that-I would get a laser shifter system to thwart laser detection because usually by the time the laser detection goes off on the detector it's too late. So a shifter would be better for laser. I try not to just openly speed unless there are cars around me to give a little "cover" making it harder for them to pick you out.
Ah, but there's the big conundrum. When you're out in the open with nobody around you is when it's the most fun to speed. I realize the risks, but most of the time, I just can't help myself and really open it up in those situations and hope for the best. And those situations have been pretty much the only times I've gotten ticketed for speeding. When there are other cars around, I never really get caught, and part of the reason for that is that I can tell there's police activity by the behavior of the drivers a bit ahead of me.
Arizona seems to be the speed trap city. Whether you are in Phx, Chandler, Gilbert or North or South parts of AZ. They are everywhere.
Personally I do not think they are a waste of money. The cops where I live try to make quota. I have seen first hand and because of my detector, the cop left me alone and went after the truck in front of me and pulled him over. I go to Cali alot and the cops/sheriff/highway patrol ect are all over. Detector helped me when traveling from AZ to Cali plenty of times.
I used to use a radar detector. I used one for about 2 years.
I stopped using it because of the false alarms. There were so many false alarms that I was ignoring it most of the time anyway. And I constantly had to try to decipher what the alarm meant, how strong it was, etc. It took a lot of the fun out of driving. I decided I'd rather chance a ticket than deal with that.
Plus they don't always work. I was riding with a buddy of mine to Boston when he got nailed with instant-on radar despite using an expensive radar detector. They were illegal in CT at the time, so he had to quickly hide it away before the cop saw it.
My last ticket was from lidar or laser, so a radar detector wouldn't have helped me with that. I have heard that laser detectors aren't that effective because the beam is much thinner, and the cops use the laser to lock in on a particular car rather than to spread out over a whole area the way radar does. So from what I understand, a laser detector offers far less warning.
I sense that radar/laser detectors are not as popular as they used to be. Or maybe it's just that the people I know are no longer using them as they did when they were younger.
The Escort 9500 is very good at filtering out false alarms by giving you the option to zero in on the specific sub-frequencies used by law enforcement. This is one shortcoming of the Valentine One, it barks at all comers and not just the bad guys. I wish you could take the best of both and combine them into one super-detector. Isn't V1's patent on the directional arrows thingy about to expire soon? If so, will anyone else implement it?
Laser Detectors are of limited value by themselves, but can be quite useful when used in conjunction with other countermeasures such as Laser Veil or a laser jammer (one that actually works, not one of those fraudulent dashboard-mounted Rocky Mountain Radar things) by giving you enough warning to get down to speed before the laser gun can lock in on a reading.
Oh, and when it comes right down to it though, for highway/interstate travel your best tool is a CB. Truckers can pick out the unmarked squad cars like it's their own mother trying to fool them with a wig, and there's constant chatter about the location of troopers all up and down the highway.
Oh, and when it comes right down to it though, for highway/interstate travel your best tool is a CB. Truckers can pick out the unmarked squad cars like it's their own mother trying to fool them with a wig, and there's constant chatter about the location of troopers all up and down the highway.
Ditto. Have had the CB on in my personal vehicle and knew where the cops were 10 miles in advance. Sure was funny seeing a ton of people flying around me then slamming on their brakes at the last second.
The Escort 9500 is very good at filtering out false alarms by giving you the option to zero in on the specific sub-frequencies used by law enforcement. This is one shortcoming of the Valentine One, it barks at all comers and not just the bad guys. I wish you could take the best of both and combine them into one super-detector. Isn't V1's patent on the directional arrows thingy about to expire soon? If so, will anyone else implement it?
Laser Detectors are of limited value by themselves, but can be quite useful when used in conjunction with other countermeasures such as Laser Veil or a laser jammer (one that actually works, not one of those fraudulent dashboard-mounted Rocky Mountain Radar things) by giving you enough warning to get down to speed before the laser gun can lock in on a reading.
I agree! A combo of these two units would be perfect!
Oh, and when it comes right down to it though, for highway/interstate travel your best tool is a CB. Truckers can pick out the unmarked squad cars like it's their own mother trying to fool them with a wig, and there's constant chatter about the location of troopers all up and down the highway.
Not legal everywhere (for passenger cars). Also for the most part they are much more obvious than discrete little detectors in the vehicle. While i'm not very up to date on CB technology the units are rather bulky and fairly noticeable external antennas are required.
This is one shortcoming of the Valentine One, it barks at all comers and not just the bad guys.
You can go into programming mode and completely cancel X-band, which no one uses anymore for speed enforcement. It eliminates 90% of false readings like banks and grocery stores.
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