Northwest Members - Trying out my new radar detector...

I got the 9500i and can say I guess I got my money's worth. :)

Over the nice long weekend we were able to try it out going back and forth between the wife's parents place which is a hour drive each way with some back roads and some hwy driving. I had the cruise set at 70 mph the whole distance there and only got a bleep from the real deal when I came up behind one on the back roads intentionally going slow, and than as I got closer he slowed even more waiting for me to pass. I could have even told you when he turned on the radar! :secret2:

We also drove from their place 30 min away to see Pirates of the Carribean three and on the way back it gave me a pretty good warning about one up ahead of me about 1 1/2 miles going the same direction. He pulled over at one point I think to setup to try to get us but didn't get setup soon enough.

Funny thing with one of these, until you have one, you never realize how often they never really don't drive around with their radar on. Out of the ten or so I went by in the week since I have had it now, only three actually had it on, two of them were actually looking for speeders parked to the side.

I am tempted now to order up a V1 for the GTP to see what the difference is between them. The memory location for the bogus signals from grocery stores works great, and the true speed from the GPS signal also, I think this gives it the upper hand on the V1, will see in a month or two though I suppose! ;)

Funny thing with one of these, until you have one, you never realize how often they never really don't drive around with their radar on. Out of the ten or so I went by in the week since I have had it now, only three actually had it on, two of them were actually looking for speeders parked to the side.


I have noticed that most of the city LEO's carry the KA radar, I have never been hit with Laser by a city LEO. They do on occasion forget to turn it off and the KA band bounces off of every thing and can travel for miles :jest:. My 8500 picks up KA really good probably to good. The staters carry both Ka and Laser/LIDAR. Getting Zapped by laser is no fun pretty much nothing you can do except pull your hand out of the cookie jar.


Sometimes if I have time and I find a radar trap I usually double back and test out my detector :jest:

Kind of a cool site if you want to know the frequent places to look..
http://www.speedtrapped.com/state/washington-speed-traps.cfm

I have not had much of a chance to boast about My 9500I but I pulled out a 8500 to put it in. The 8500 that I LOVED!) went in the Wife car. She is very happy to have it back ;)

The GPS is dead on and I have it set to shop MPH at all times and Detailed tracking of hits

Saying I love it just does not feel like enough :D

The ones I ran into this weekend were all Ka band. Today on the way to work with the wife she was driving and it went off for Ka and she thought it was bogus, she couldn't see anything, a few miles down the road we saw someone getting pulled over going the other direction. If she wanted to she would have had plenty of time to make a complete normal stop there was enough warning. :eek2:

I just started marking some places, my thing is that sometimes they go off and sometimes they don't. I am paranoid I am going to mark a radar guns signal and have it ignore and get hit later down the road. Will start marking some spots and see how it works, always seems to be the same band at the same strength, which makes me thinks it be a bogus one.

They are sweet! I haven't driven without a Passport for 20+ years. I still have my first one. It's actually made of metal. The 9500i I am ordering soon will be my 5th one in that timespan.

The local po-po's to my area all drive around with their units on 75% of the time. Most are K and Ka.

I've only seen Staters and County Mounties with Laser.

I've got a V1 that's been reliable over 5 years. The arrow feature is my favorite part, knowing what direction to look for the heat! I got the remote display so I'm the only one that knows something's going on. It's real nice having the information from a radar detector no matter what brand. :smokin2:

I've got a V1 that's been reliable over 5 years. The arrow feature is my favorite part, knowing what direction to look for the heat! I got the remote display so I'm the only one that knows something's going on. It's real nice having the information from a radar detector no matter what brand. :smokin2:

With the arrows on the V1 I have seen that the up and down are molded together. Does only one half of the arrow light up at a time? I will admit that is one thing I do wish the 9500i had so I could look around and know where the signal is coming from instead of guessing. :)

Seems like more of the "instant on" types around Wyoming both State and local.

With the arrows on the V1 I have seen that the up and down are molded together. Does only one half of the arrow light up at a time? I will admit that is one thing I do wish the 9500i had so I could look around and know where the signal is coming from instead of guessing. :)

Yes the up/down lights are independent. Up is ahead and down is behind. :D

Yes the up/down lights are independent. Up is ahead and down is behind. :D

haha I figured that much as far as direction! :D

Wife asked me once when I showed it to her "so does the whole arrow light up, if it does that is dumb" So it got me thinking about it also seeing as how I could see it beind the whole thing lit up but didn't expect people would talk it up if that were the case! :jest:

To be honest I could care less where it is coming from ;)

I have been running detectors for over 20 years now. its not where the signal is coming from as much as what you do with the info you are givein :D

To be honest I could care less where it is coming from ;)

I have been running detectors for over 20 years now. its not where the signal is coming from as much as what you do with the info you are givein :D

Thats no joke! For the longest time I kept getting hit with Ka down this certian Hwy and It would only happen when I would get on it. I finally decided to go look for it :jest: . A residential street runs right next to this highway, so I doubled back and guess what I found sitting on the side of the road. Kind of funny now that I think about it. He herd me get on it, turned his radar on, listen to me let off then resumed eating his ham samwitch :jest:.

I never call b.s when my detector picks up Ka I always slow down. K band on the other hand is gonna get me in trouble. I need a 9500i :devil: