Escort Passport 9500i vs. Valentine One. Can GPS really keep a radar detector
quiet?
Last updated 12/28/2009
Scan the 'Net and three brands repeatedly surface as front-runners in the super-premium category: Beltronics (BEL), Escort and Valentine. Valentine loyalists tout the Valentine One's sensitivity (the range at
which it can detect police radar) and
its directional arrows, claimed to be able to indicate the direction of a radar signal.
Beltronics fans point out that at least
one BEL high-end model, the BEL STi Driver, conclusively proved in one of my past tests that it has equal K-band and better overall Ka-band sensitivity than the
V1, with quite a few more features. But the BEL (Beltronics) STi Driver is a specialized piece intended for use in
Virginia, the only state to ban detector use, plus Washington, D.C., and similar no-detector regions elsewhere.
And while Cobra has introduced their
own GPS models, my test of the first to debut, the XRS R9G,
suggested that while its GPS worked acceptably well, it was a bit short on talent in detecting police radar. We'd attribute that to a faulty test unit, something we've experienced with other Cobras. To their credit, in a recent test of the Cobra XRS R10G (the XRS R9G's successor), and in another test that included the Cobra XRS 9960 dash-mount GPS model, both turned in excellent scores against
conventional radar. Unfortunately, neither proved capable of countering the latest Redflex photo radar. And all of the Cobra GPS-enabled radar detectors suffered from accuracy issues we discovered in Cobra's Aura database of camera locations. (Read more...)
This leaves Escort as the logical competitor, appropriate since in performance, the Escort Passport 9500ix appears to be aimed
squarely at the Valentine One. Instead of directional arrows it offers a host of new features, not least of which is the
application of advanced technology: GPS. Escort ads suggest modestly that using GPS to record and identify specific radar hotspots and red-light camera locations (not to
mention display your car's speed) may revolutionize the state of the art in
radar detectors. However, their biggest claim is the promise of extreme sensitivity but without the usual penalty of excessive false alarms. Perhaps; we'd
have to see.
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The Escort Passport 9500i's competition, the Valentine One, better known as the V1, is base-priced at $399 plus shipping. Ordered with optional accessories to help align its feature set with that of the $449 Escort 9500i, it cost $524 including shipping. Value shoppers can look
elsewhere; none of these detectors is sold at a discount.)
I've tested the V1 several times over the past two decades against the Escort Passport 8500 plus the
BEL RX 65 and the BEL
STi Driver models, most of which have proven capable of matching or exceeding the Valentine One's sensitivity on the two most critical bands, K
and Ka.
(We also used the V1 as a benchmark for a recent comparison test of two new $150 models, the Cobra XRS 9930 and Whistler Pro 78, one of which turned in
exceptional radar scores.) The
trio of models from Beltronics (BEL) and Escort also proved less susceptible to false alarms, but that criterion wasn't evaluated. This time it would be, since
Escort claims the Escort Passport 9500i (and Passport 9500ix) is unequaled in its super-quiet, false alarm-free behavior.
For that reason I conducted three tests over a period of several months to answer one key question: Can the GPS-enabled Escort Passport 9500i (and its electronic twin, the Escort Passport 9500ix)
better resist false alarms than the Valentine One, but without giving up any performance in the bargain?
Radar Field Tests
To find out I first ran both through the usual battery of tests at my test site outside Phoenix. This measured sensitivity.
First stop was the Curve Test Site, a particularly difficult challenge. Here the radar vehicle is parked in mid-curve, its radar aimed uphill and at a 45-degree
angle away from oncoming traffic. The police vehicle isn't visible until the
moment the radar operator has already locked-in the speed of an approaching car, at about 650 feet. With nothing to deflect the radar beam toward the
detectors' antennae, only extreme sensitivity can deliver enough warning
distance.
Both detectors delivered upward of double the range of all of the sub-$250 radar detectors I've ever tested at this
site.
Our next stop was the Straightaway/Curves test site, a no-brainer. It's a series of 3-mile-long and
almost perfectly flat straightaways linked by plunging downhill S-curves at low-water crossings where it intersects the same river several
times over the course of 10 miles. (Bridges are uncommon on secondary roads in the Southwest. Most rivers remain dry
51 weeks out of the year, leading road builders to run the pavement right through the stream beds. Wood posts marked
in inches are thoughtfully provided as depth gauges.)
In past years only big-dollar radar detectors could sniff out all of our radars from the limit of this site, some 5.3 miles
from the radar vehicle. That's changing, as seen in my recent tests of models in the $100 to $149 and $150 to $199 price
classes.
As expected, neither the Valentine One nor the Escort Passport 9500i had any trouble spotting all four radars from the maximum distance.
Urban False Alarm Test
The third test scrutinized their resistance to fixed radar sources in the city. After two weeks of effort I finally settled on an 87.4-mile-long route in metro
Phoenix. It included 35.1 miles of 6-lane urban freeway into and out of the city core,
zoned at 55 mph or 65 mph depending upon the location. Two more segments totaling 52.3 miles were comprised of city
streets in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa, Arizona, zoned variously from 30 mph to 45 mph.
We circled this loop three times before beginning the test. On lap one we drove with the Valentine One powered up
and placed in logic mode, Valentine-speak for city mode and designed to minimize falses. Each time the unit sounded an
alert, the exact location was recorded along with the frequency (or frequencies, as this unit often alerts simultaneously to
X and K band in town, despite there being only one signal present). We also noted the number of "bogeys" or total
number of radar sources the V1 displayed at each location.
Next we repeated the circuit with the Escort 9500i set to Auto mode. I could have shut off X band, one of its several
user preferences or set it to City NoX, which dials back sensitivity while also disabling X band. Either would have given
the Escort a major advantage. But since the Valentine One has no similar user preferences, to be fair, both units were
run in their factory-default settings.
I made two laps with the Escort. On the first one I executed the identical routine as with the V1, recording the same
details of each false alarm. Here the 9500i's Tech Mode feature was invaluable in identifying the precise frequency of
each alert. On the second lap I marked each location with the brief, three-tap sequence of button-pressing, to store it in
memory. If Escort's claim of super-quiet operation was to be believed, it would ignore these radar sources on future
laps of the route.
The next day was also a weekday. Using the same vehicle and personnel and starting at the same time, we made a
fourth circuit, this with the Valentine One, and recorded its false alarms. The number and frequency of the sources were
identical to those encountered the previous day--nearly all of them radar-controlled automatic door openers--with the exception of one additional
alert, triggered by a radar detector in a passing car while en route into town on the freeway.
Next up was the Passport 9500i, its settings unchanged. After completing an identical circuit, we had a direct
comparison of their behavior in town. The scores were Valentine One: 51 total falses and 81 bogeys, Escort 9500i: 0
falses, 0 bogeys.
In the past 20 years there's been only one radar detector I've tested that was quieter in town than the Escort Passport
9500i. And that one turned out to be dead on all three bands.
Valentine uses the term "bogey" to denote a
single radar source. In theory, two sources would equal two bogeys. But
in town, the Valentine One's two antennas frequently disagree about the total, sometimes displaying 8 or 9 bogeys in reaction to a
single source. That's because the V1's front and rear antennas often receive the same signal as it reflects from
buildings, signs and other vehicles. Each antenna tries to calculate signal strength and direction. But since signal
strength changes rapidly in reaction to moving, reflective objects, namely the surrounding traffic, the directional arrows
often go nuts. At some intersections the Valentine One displayed 6, 7 and occasionally more bogeys, all because the signal was
ricocheting among buildings and vehicles.
They bogey counter proved more accurate on the open road but in town, it can be annoying. Unfortunately, this
feature can't be shut off.
Cross-Country Freeway False Alarms
The last test examined the two detectors' behavior on a freeway blast from Phoenix to Little Rock, Arkansas, all of it
on major freeways. I never operate two radar detectors in a vehicle at the same time since generally they interfere with
one another. But for a side-by-side comparison, on this trip it would be necessary. Frankly, I doubted it was possible.
Fortunately, a cooperative microwave engineer agreed to run an instrumented test of the two inside an anechoic
chamber, checking for interference. Surprisingly, it revealed that each is so well shielded that neither reacted to the
other's local oscillator. I was in luck.
Buoyed by this news, I mounted the Valentine One in mid-windshield, the optimal position if its directional arrows
are to work correctly. The Escort was windshield-mounted near the left A-pillar. The Escort 9500i was set to highway
mode, GPS enabled, and the V1 to all-bogey mode. A 100-mile test hop confirmed that there was no evidence of
cross-talk between the two. Early the following morning I was rolling eastward on I-10.
Over the next two days I encountered no fewer than 21 police radars: 10 K-band and 11 Ka-band, plus two lasers.
There were some very close calls but generally both detectors gave plenty of warning, even against the ubiquitous
instant-on radar.
The two exhibited very different behavior, however. In unfiltered highway mode (called All Bogey mode), the
Valentine One is designed to report every signal without thoroughly scrutinizing it first to weed out non-police radar
sources. As a result, during the trip it alerted to 68 X-band automatic door openers at stores adjacent to the freeway, 26
K-band openers and 17 Ka-band sources, all but two of the latter being radar detectors in other cars.
How can a Ka-band signal from a police radar gun be weeded-out from that of a nearby radar detector? Easy. With the Escort 9500i set to Spec Display
mode, the exact frequency of each signal was displayed. Knowing on which segments of Ka band police radar are to found, real police radar can be readily
identified. All of the rest can be safely ignored. To those who prefer not to flat-spot their tires by constant panic-braking, this is a huge advantage.
The total of 111 false
alarms meant enduring one of them, on average, every 9.5 minutes over the two-day trip. Aside from the annoyance factor
from the frequent false alarms, eventually they led me to doubt the V1's truthfulness.
The biggest consumer complaint about radar detectors is excessive false alarms. Valentine diehards say they're untroubled by these. But I have a
different requirement of a radar detector: Just tell me when I'm around police radar and keep quiet the rest of the time.
In contrast to the Valentine One, the Escort Passport 9500i alerted to five X-band door openers, three K-band openers and one Ka-band
spurious signal, probably a radar detector in a passing car, for a total of 9 falses. On every other occasion when the
Escort barked an alert, it was warning of police radar, not automatic door openers or other radar
detectors. Those 102 additional false alarms from the Valentine One can make it a rather tedious traveling companion for those who place a high value on a
detector's ability to remain silent.
The ultra-quiet operation of the Escort Passport 9500i, coupled with its exemplary performance and unprecedented level of sophistication, has clearly
raised the bar another notch in high-performance radar-detection technology.
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