The Most Impressive Radar Detector Ever

The Escort Radar (formerly Cincinnati Microwave) Passport 9500i is the most advanced, best performing and most expensive radar detector to date. It is also the best I have ever used.

Background and Subjective Criteria for this Evaluation

I am not a speed demon by any means. I like a clean driving record and low insurance rates. I also like getting to my destination in one piece, yet I like some warnings when it comes to speed surveillance just because I don’t trust it. I was once ticketed by an apologetic Oregon State Police Officer who was being forced to use an old X-band radar unit which he “tested with a tuning fork” at the beginning of his shift. The unit had worn out a dozen patrol cars over the years, had never been in for calibration and added 22mph to everything it saw, including trees and buildings. Fighting what should have been an automatic toss from the bench of justice taught me the value of slowing down below the posted speed limit when radar is present just to compensate for sloppy maintenance of the radar units. That’s my strategy employed in evaluating a radar detector. I’m not trying to see how much I can get away with out there.

Having owned the first Escort black box detector years ago, I am pleased to see that level of quality return in this Passport. The Passport was always the junior product in the range offering performance and reliability which was never quite up to the main line detector. They sacrificed performance for size and portability. That conflict has now been resolved in the 9500i. It is a new design from the ground-up which incorporates wideband X, K, Ka and Ku band detection, incredible range, excellent false-alarm rejection, the ability to memorize known false alarm sources by specific frequency and now, the addition of GPS technology to allow a user to mark stationary non-radar locations such as traffic cameras and known speed traps.

Arizona was the first to introduce “RoboCop” (photo radar) and still makes better use of this free enforcement tool than any other place with the possible exception of the UK. Speed cameras which use Doppler sensors in the street are everywhere. Mobile radar units which use low power, high frequency Ka band radar hide in bushes. Real officers are proficient with the use of hand-held radar and now have BMW motorcycles and “Mad Max” leather outfits for chasing speeders. This is a perfect test ground for the 9500i.

Real World Street Tests of the 9500i

My first encounter was with a “speed van” or unmanned speed indication device which reminds people to slow down. Firing constant K-band, the 9500i picked this threat up a full city block before the older Passport Solo did. Impressive but that’s a high power radar unit. My next encounter was with a high frequency, low power RoboCop van. These are tricky. The Passport Solo (battery powered unit) cannot see them unless one of the buttons is pressed first, so it’s kind of a comical process of see the van, press a button, wait for it to wake up and then start beeping. If one can see the van that clearly, one might argue that the detector is superfluous anyway. Yet some hide well. The 9500i has no trouble at all picking out this high frequency Ka band radar at significant range, well before the radar can “see” an approaching car. It has even proved proficient in picking up reflected radar when the Robocop van is looking at cars on the other side of the road. The performance of the 9500i is simply stunning.

I came upon a known false alarm site where a radar door opener at a hotel always sets off detectors. The 9500i dutifully reported the signal by voice and digital display, indicating my speed briefly which it calculates from the GPS input. I pressed the mute button three times and it stored the location AND the specific band and frequency of the false alarm source. This detector can read the specific frequency so that if police radar on the same band is set up at the same location it will see two different signals and sound an alarm. It does not just blank a location or band. This is a very cool feature.

Laser is not all that common but it is used. There is one area of Phoenix where a military device of some sort will have the older Solo unit jumping off the glass with false alarms for about three miles and around corners. The 9500i is able to discriminate effectively and not go berserk in this area yet it is able to pick out actual police radar when it is present and provide a warning so far in advance that one ends up thinking, “So where the heck is it?”

The COOL features

The GPS is a unique feature. It acquires the GPS signal quickly and reports this via female voice. After that, it knows where it is. The idea behind this is so that known camera or speed trap locations can be marked. Here is one location in a 35 zone where the speed drops to 30 and where a RoboCop van can hide quite effectively behind a hedge. As I reached this spot I pressed the “Mark” button twice. The default label of “SPDTRAP” came up on the display. I pressed the mark button again and it told me by voice and test that the location had been stored.

The next day as I approached this location again, at a half mile range I heard, “Approaching your marked location”. The display then began ticking off distance in 100-foot increments until at 200 feet it said, “You have reached your marked location”. As I passed that location, it ticked off increasing distance until I was half a mile away. At speeds of 50mph and above, these warnings will come at full one-mile range. Great! But what happens if there is actually a RoboCop van parked there. I did not have to wait long to find out. The next day as I approached that location, I got the half mile proximity warning. Nice. When the display read 1200 feet, I got a verbal “Ka band”, the legend “Ka” on the display, a raspy “brap” sound and then an indication of my speed. This all happened in about one second. The sound repeated and became faster. The display changed to a bar graph signal strength indicator and I let my car drop down to 25mpg or 5 below the limit. The driver of a pickup truck right on my bumper leaned on his horn at about the moment we both saw the photo radar van. He backed off and waved a sort of apology to me which I saw in my mirror. The live radar signal took precedence over the marked location that time and the warning was ample and there is no way the 9500i could fail to get a driver’s attention. It did that in a concise manner which was not distracting but allowed me to respond appropriately to the presence of the photo radar van.

The only difficulty I have encountered has been with multiple fixed cameras which are too close together. The 9500i has a half mile warning window and if cameras are half a block apart as they are in one area of town, it is impossible to set two distinct warnings. To deal with this I set one marked location halfway between the two so I always get a good warning as I approach either one.

On Interstate 8 between Phoenix and San Diego there are several known speed traps which I marked going one way and the 9500i reminded me of them on the return trip. I received very few false alarms on that 800 mile drive but I found that the 9500i was able to pick up police radar being triggered ahead of me as well as police radar in “idle” mode where the unit is kept “warmed up” but only emitting a very weak signal until it is triggered. This unit performed better in this role than any detector I have ever used. The false alarms are so few that when it makes noise, a driver is well advised to pay attention.

What Comes In The Box

The Passport 9500i is supplied with a coiled “smart” cord with built-in mute button which can also be used to store false alert locations with three presses just like the button on the unit. The smart cord plugs into the side of the 9500i via an RJ11 telephone-type fitting. A windshield, suction cup bracket is also provided and this fit is good and a major improvement over the bouncing Passport Solo, get it is effectively the same bracket and will fit all Escort products. The instruction manual is concise and easy to understand. I suggest making a few test runs with the unit and the manual on the seat so if you get confused you can pull off the road safely and re-read some of the procedures until they become second nature.

Final Impressions and Notes

The Passport 9500i is as it claims “intelligent”. I cannot find any manufacturer claim for the product which is incorrect or overblown. This unit performs as the maker claims. It provides effective warning range, rejects false alarms very well and uses GPS to allow the user to mark known non-radar “threat” locations. It just works.

I said earlier that I drive the speed limit. I really do. Maybe on a steep grade I will let speed rise 2-3mph before tapping the brake but I’m no Speed Racer. The reason is fairly simple. There are police officers in my family. I am well aware of the technology which is available to catch speeders and I know the habitual speeders do get caught. That’s just a fact. We could discuss the hidden political agendas of traffic ticketing, the money that comes in from fines and the use of contractors for RoboCop operations who get a percentage all day but what really matters is that speed limits are there for a reason. Even if we disagree with speed signs in a given area, they are the law and the law is being enforced. From the sharp-angle, high speed rate of closure radars which can pick off one car going the opposite way in a divided highway at a closing speed of 170mph (and once you see this in action you won’t forget it) to airplanes using timing devices to photo radar, there is considerable technology out there watching us as we drive. Not all of it emits radiation which can be detected. Police officers are well-trained and dedicated and if you think not, just wait until you see the California Highway Patrol pull over ten cars at once based on data received from a single-engine airplane flying overhead. In that situation, this high tech detector won’t do a bit of good but may make an officer grin from ear to ear.

Speed limits are there for a reason and that is to create some form of order on the roads and keep us all as safe as possible out there. I suggest using a device like the 9500i not as a means of trying to drive 95 in a 70 zone but to be a better and more cautious driver who is more aware of the road, road conditions and other vehicles. In that regard, I feel it is worth its price. If it causes you to slow down and avoid a ticket, it is more or less paid for at that point. If it causes you to slow down and that saves your life and the lives of others, it’s truly priceless. This is an excellent product of this type and it is worth the price for all it does. If you want a great radar detector, this is the one to buy. As my family members in uniform would likely say, “Drive safely”.