Whistler XTR-500 Radar Detector Review

Driver Experience Test
This morning the XTR-500 was next up for my low priced radar detector review. We plugged in the detector, stuck it on the windshield and headed out on our seventy five mile testing route.
The XTR-500 retails for $139.95 and is a corded all band voice radar detector.
The XTR-500 does have the blue dual periscope led lights that I have found to be a plus with several of their other models in when they alerted, they were much easier to see visually. The XTR-500 also has a red led text display with a Geiger like counter that didn’t have a tendency to wash out in sun light as several of their other models did.
The K band trailer was still around the corner from my home, so we first headed north. In previous tests, I had visually marked out locations to where various radar detectors alerted to this trailer. This morning the Whistler began chirping around 1600 feet, 200 feet earlier then the two Cobra units and a little earlier then the cordless XTR-190 from Whistler.
We then headed south on Vulture Mine Road, through the sparsely populated desert area between Interstate 10 and Wickenburg. During this leg, there are no microwave towers or other devices that would commonly activate a radar detector. During this leg the XTR-500 alerted to nineteen false alerts with the majority being X band.
As we approached I-10, we switched the unit to city II mode to reduce the X band alerts for our return home.
East on I-10 the detector alerted Ka as we approached SR85 and we observed a marked DPS unit parked in the median area facing our location approximately 1400 feet ahead.
Shortly after this encounter we pulled off the highway into a truck stop to grab a cool drink. As I got off the freeway onto the surface road, I noticed what appeared to be an approaching black and white. The detector then alerted K band while the patrol car was still over 1200 feet to my south as I watched it turn west.
Our next encounter wasn’t until we returned to Wickenburg when we received our first K alert just east of town from an approaching Wickenburg Patrol unit.
During all the encounters experienced today, I feel that the Whistler XTR-500 gave adequate warning given our speed. After reducing the setting to City Mode II the detector still registered several false K band alerts, however it was silent on the noisy X band.
The pluses is the blue periscope LED lights that makes it easier to see visually when the detector is alerting and the Geiger counter display was nice, although it appeared slow to respond in several encounters.
Radar Roy’s Badge Rating – Two Badges

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Cobra XRS-9430 Radar Detector Review

Driver Experience Test
This evening my chapter of Arizona Choirboy’s Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club had a meeting in Phoenix and since I have been fighting off a nasty cough, I decided to plug in the Cobra XRS 9430 into my truck and head off to the meeting using the route I established for my “low priced radar detector review.”
The Cobra XTS-9430 retail price is $119.95 and is a corded all band radar detector.
Again as noted in previous reviews of Cobra products, the XRS 9430 uses what I feel is somewhat deceptive advertising as they list the detector as being a 12 band radar detector as they split and call features found on other manufacturing brands as bands.
First up on my route, was the K band trailer that the Wickenburg Police Department placed on SR93 around the corner from my home.
The trailer is located approximately 1500 feet after a banking right turn at the bottom of a hill. During previous testing an Escort 9500i alerted approximately 3000 feet north of the trailer and a Cobra XRS 9830 alerted 1500 feet away.
Today the XRS 9430 alerted at the same location as the XRS 9830 alerted a day earlier at the 1500 foot mark.
As noted in earlier tests at this distance and depending upon traffic flow and speed, it is debatable if either of the Cobra units would have given me enough time to avoid the kill zone.
I headed south to Interstate 10 through a sparsely populated area on Vulture Mine Road that is void of devices that would activate a false alert on a radar detector.  During this 25 mile leg the XRS 9430 logged in over 19 false alerts.
During this next leg, I headed to the downtown Phoenix area on I-10 without having any law enforcement I encounters.
After my meeting, I headed north on I-17 to the Carefree Highway west.
Just west of the entrance of Lake Pleasant, the detector alerted Ka. In the shadows of an access road I observed a White SUV that I suspect was a MCSO Lake Patrol Deputy running constant on radar. The detector alerted at a distance of 1600 feet away and although I may have been outside the officers kill zone, if I was speeding ten miles over, I wouldn’t have had enough time to slow down.
Once inside the town limits of Wickenburg on a Saturday night, the detector alerted to several K and Ka constant on alerts.
The first was from an unmarked SUV that was approaching my direction. I was in the downtown area where the speed is reduced to only 25. The detector alerted as the SUV completed a turn and was facing directly at me at a distance of 800 feet.
The second alert was several blocks west of this first encounter where I received a K band alert and observed a marked patrol unit parked in a lot across from a convenience store at distance less than one block.
The third was another K alert west of town where a patrol car was facing away from my direction, parked in a supermarket parking lot.
In the first encounter I strongly feel that I would have been tagged by the officer if I would have been speeding. In the second encounter it was a tossup and in the last encounter it would have been a win as the officer was pointed away from my direction of travel.
I feel that the overall performance and filtering of the Cobra XRS 9430 was fair with no chief complaints.  However as noted with other detectors in this same price point because the range is so limited there are occasions where you may find yourself in a situation where a low priced radar detector will not provide the adequate range and sensitivity to warn of an approaching threat.
Radar Roy’s Badge Rating – Two Badges

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