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Second blog entry for you guys.  Hopefully I'll have more time to write a more regular column.  Anyway onto one of my Christmas Gifts to myself. The Escort Passport 9500i Radar Detector. Let's start this off with my driving record.  My official record includes 2 tickets, one for an "unsafe lane change" and the other "disobeying a road sign".  This doesn't mean however that I haven't been pulled over a lot of times.  I also drive about 30-40k miles a year so I'm a bit above average in terms of miles driven each year.  I haven't been pulled over in about 2 years or so but felt that with the purchase of my 2005 Legacy GT Wagon w/5MT it was only a matter of time before I would get pulled over again.  With that said, I did my research and as most enthusiasts have said, you come down to either a Valentine 1 or an Escort.  I'm a gadget guy, and could not pass up the Escort 9500i with it's built in GPS chip.  After having it for about a week I finally got into all the features.  It has the usual X, K, KA, KU, Pop, Laser, and a few other bands that it will detect.  It also does SWS signals which some road signs emit giving messages to you in a digital readout.  Those are the "regular" features.  In addition, it has an adaptive volume control, so if your ambient interior sound is high, like if you have your stereo up or window open it will be louder than normal.  Once you get familiar with the bands and the warnings you can flip it to "expert" mode where it actually gives you the frequency of the radar in addition to the level of radar you are being hit with...