Just returned from this years Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and had an opportunity to interview John Larson, the president of Escort Radar.

During this 8 minute video, John addresses many of the questions our radar detector community have been asking and discussed some of the new products that they are coming out with this year such as:

• The release of an Escort Live model for their remote mounted radar detectors
• Speculation about a front and rear antenna radar detector now that Valentine One’s patent has expired
• Escort’s new remote mounted radar detector called “Smart Radar”
• And John’s “State of the Union” of the radar detector industry

Imagine owning a car so unique, so special that SEMA decided to give you one of the premier parking spots to show off your ride, right at the front door of the Las Vegas convention center.

This is exactly what has happened to a good friend of mine, Jim Cozzolino.

Jim owns this 1991 FXMD FX TA 1 Wide body NSX that is powered by a custom 3.3, forced induction FXMD FX 500 turbo charged engine.

Jim and his NSX has been featured in various competitions including the Castrol Top Car Challenge, Modified Magazine Tuner Shootout, Super Lap Burnouts and is a regular at NASA-AZ TTU and UMS time attack competitions.

Oh and one more thing, just so when Jim is out on one of his weekend cruises around Phoenix Jim has one of our Escort 9500ix radar detectors installed on the dash and a set of Blinder laser jammers installed in the grill.

Congratulations Jim and on your ride back home, please fly drive safe.

SEMA, short for Specialty Equipment Market Associations, is the world’s largest automotive trade show in the world and this year Escort Live stole the show!

Escort Live was awarded the Best New Mobile Electronics product for 2011 and the POP Mechanics Award as well!

Tomorrow at 3:00 pm Pacific we will be hosting a Live broadcast from SEMA that you can watch at your home or office as Escort unveils this amazing new product.

http://www.radardetector.org/escort-live/

This year there were several exciting new product announcements at the SEMA 2010 show such as:

• The public debut the Passport IQ and Escort’s Solo 3 radar detectors
• Laser Interceptor finally putting to rest the rumor about eye safety on their laser jammer
• And Laser Mask’s new diode based laser jammer.

In my review of the Passport IQ I called it a “game changer” in the fact it is the only high performance radar detector that combines full GPS capabilities along with blue tooth technologies. You can read my full review here.

In the coming week’s Escort will be releasing their new cordless model radar detector, the Solo S3 which will be replacing the current Solo S2.

In meeting with Ron Gividen from Escort at SEMA he provided a rundown of the features of both these units.

Ever since the release of the Laser Interceptor there has been allot of misinformation concerning the issues of eye safety with their laser jammer. So at the SEMA show Cliff Crane from Laser Interceptor allowed me to review a recent testing report by an independent testing company which basically gave Laser Interceptor a clean bill of health and is in full compliance with FDA regulations in this regard.

Laser Mask made their first SEMA appearance with their new diode based laser jammer.

I tested a prototype of this unit several months and I have to admit I was very surprised at its performance for being such a small unit.

Melvin Lee provides a rundown of three different  Laser Mask units that his company currently has under development.

The Passport IQ from Escort is a game changer….

When I was first introduced to the Passport IQ last at Escort’s headquarters last month I was so impressed that the first words out of my mouth was, “this is a game changer…” Escort has integrated the very best in radar detection technology into a fully functional GPS.

What Escort has done with the Passport IQ is basically create a device that includes a high performance radar detector that is on par to their Escort 9500ix, with a full color five inch display GPS while also offering optional bluetooth capabilities for hands free calling, live traffic reporting and also designing the unit so it can integrate with other services that are planned for the future.

For the past four weeks I have had the honor of being one of the first to do an independent review of the Passport IQ prior to the unit becoming available to the general public, here are my findings;

Radar Detection Performance:

How Escort was able to integrate a radar detector into the body of a GPS while still being able to offer a high sensitivity and performance in radar/laser detection is a story onto itself, as this was one of the most difficult engineering feats I’m sure the Escort engineers have ever faced.

During the past several weeks I have tested the Passport IQ against our own arsenal of radar and lidar guns in a controlled environment while also logging over 1200 miles in real world driving throughout the southwest.

In a nut shell, I would rate the performance and sensitivity of the Passport IQ on par with the Escort 9500ix and slightly below that of an Escort 9500ci.

In every instance during our real world driving test, the Passport IQ alerted almost at the same exact time as the Escort 9500ix. One particular alert that stood out was an instance of an Arizona Highway Patrolman operating a Ka gun in instant mode several miles in front of us.

Both units began chirping for a few seconds then stopped and then a few moments later they both began alerting again for a few seconds and stopped. I suspected from the nature of this alert that there was an officer up ahead operating his radar gun in the instant on mode by only activating his radar gun when he had his victims within range.

A few miles later my hunch proved correct as again both units went to full alert as I spotted the highway patrolman hidden in the median.

Photo Enforcement Capabilities:

This I would certainly say is one of the strongest points for the IQ as Arizona is littered with those photo enforcement cameras that snap your photo and send you a ticket in the mail.

One thing that stood out to me during my review that the Passport IQ only alerted to cameras that were in my direction that I was traveling, case in point Chino Arizona.

The Chino Police Department has several fixed photo speed enforcement cameras on each side of the highway at different locations. The Passport IQ only alerted to those cameras that were on the same side of the road that I was approaching and ignored those on the other side of the road that were not a threat.

What also impressed me was that the type of photo enforcement camera was also displayed on the GPS screen with its exact location; example red light for red light cameras and photo camera for fixed photo radar locations.

GPS Features:

I’ve owned several dash GPS units from Garmin and Tom Tom and one of my chief complaints with all of them has been that annoying “nag screen” that always pops up when you turn the device on. This “nag screen” will also pop up the first time you use the Passport IQ but what is nice there is an option from that point forward to deactivate it, which I have done.

The large five inch full color screen is very easy to read even in bright sunlight and the unit is very easy to program and will get you to the address or location you want to go to.

Overall Impressions:

Mounting: The suction cup mounting system that is offered with the IQ is very stable and capable of holding the unit in place on your windshield.

Menu System: There are three separate menu systems for the IQ making programming a snap. Simply touch and navigate though it’s simple and easy to follow menu system to program the advanced features of the radar/laser detector.Map features view maps and current location

-          Go To touch and go to create a route, get directions or find thousands of points of interest.

Driver Information: To Have this much data at your fingertips on a five inch screen is amazing!

-          Current vehicle speed and posted speed limit; Useful to know if you’re exceeding the posted speed limit in real time.

-          Mark Location; Is there a certain location that you would like to mark such as a speed trap in your area? Just press a button, the location is marked for future reference.

-          Current Location and Route of Travel; Stay on course to your destination with easy to follow voice and visual prompts.

-          Photo Enforcement; Alerts you of approaching photo enforcement cameras in advance.

-          Radar and Laser Alerts; Displayed with a bright red LED with numeric frequency of the threat displayed on the five inch screen. You can also select the type of audio alert from tone alert to full voice alerts.

Additional Features:

Optional blue tooth capabilities for hands free calling and live traffic reporting will be offered for the Passport IQ sometime during the 1^st half of 2011.

Potential Issues:

Guys, if you think that you can keep this detector all to yourself you are WRONG! Even though my wife is married to the “Radar Roy” she hates having a radar detector mounted on the dash of her SUV and hates all those annoying false alerts those other radar detectors have. So once she saw the Passport IQ her first question was where is mine?

Another issue is having the cord dangling down from your windshield into your cigarette lighter. Those of you that already own another Escort/Beltronics product who have hard wired your detector will be happy to know that the Passport IQ also uses the familiar RJ-11 power plug. Those of you that have never hardwired a radar detector and are interested in learning how, I would recommend that you watch our video on YouTube on how to direct wire your radar detector.

Overall Findings:

The Passport IQ is truly a game changer for the radar detector industry in that it combines a high performance radar detector, a GPS and more into one unit that easily mounts to your windshield.

What are your thoughts about the Passport IQ? Please have your voice heard by leaving a comment in the comment area below.

Drive Safe and Smart….

Back when I retired from law enforcement and began my new career in the speed counter measurement industry back in 1997 Mike Valentine’s V1 was the very best radar detector on the market.

Since there has been allot of innovation in our industry and it seems that it has flew by Mike unnoticed.

Stealth to the Spectre RDD: The “famous brands” as you like Mike calls Escort and Beltronics were the first (and only company) to figure out how to defeat the Spectre RDD (radar detector detector) with their introduction of the Bel STi.

Mike did place a winning bid on Ebay for a Spectre RDD, but I can only assume it is sitting on his shelf in his lab collecting dust as his V1 can still be detected.

GPS Integration: Then the “famous brands” beat him the punch again with the integration of GPS into their radar detectors with their introduction of the Escort 9500i and the Escort 9500ix.

Long Range Sensitivity: Then last year that “famous brand” Escort company came out with their Redline radar detector which has longer range, sensitivity and filtering then the V1.

Now with 2011 a few months away Mike’s patent on the dual antenna system will expire thus turning his “extraordinary” radar detector as he calls it into ordinary.

But what really leads me to take notice of Mike’s lack of innovation these past years was this recent magazine advertisement that he ran.

It was the same ad that Mike developed over 15 years ago after attending one of Joe Sugarman’s training conferences and published way back then!

Hell, he didn’t even change the testimonials to freshen it up a bit!

Mike has become lazy driving around in his Porsche while his dusty old Spectre sits on his shelf and has reverted to running old magazine ads from 15 years ago.

Those other “famous brands” are famous because of one thing, they INNOVATE!

“Radar” Roy Reyer

The ultimate test for any laser jammer would be to install one on a large motor home or semi truck, well back in 2007 we did just that!

During the 2007 “Guys of Lidar” test we installed four Laser Interceptor laser jammer heads on my 45 foot long Freightliner motor home. To make matters even worse, you will notice during this video that I have a chrome grill along with a chrome mirrored finish storage area just above the cab of the truck.

Side bets were placed and the odds were all stacked up against my rig and the Laser Interceptor being able to have any effect at jamming.

In the first run we were targeted with the LTI UltraLyte 125 PPS laser gun.

Then on the second run we were targeted with the Pro Laser II laser gun

Then on the third run we were targeted with the Speed Laser gun.

All runs were jam to gun!

It was only during the last run where the “Guys of Lidar” pulled out all the stops and shot my rig with all three guns at the same time!

This was the only run where they were able to clock the speed of my rig as I was less than 500 feet of their location.

Back in January we installed Escort’s QI45 radar detector in our Toyota Sequoia and for the past couple months we have logged over 1200 miles and a handful of saves from police radar and laser traps.

As the QI45 is built on the Escort 8500 X50 platform we found the QI45’s overall performance to be equal to the performance and filtering capabilities of the 8500 and the Bel RX65.

As this was my wife’s car one concern that she expressed when I told her that I would be replacing her dash mounted Escort was to make sure that this detector didn’t have a lot of “chatter” otherwise she wouldn’t use it.

After a couple days driving with the QI45 she told me that the detector had already saved her from one ticket and that she liked the fact that the display module was mounted in a location that was easily accessible to her, so when it did alert, she could easily press the mute button.

We also installed the optional Shifter Pack, which provided us with frontal laser jamming capabilities.

The following is my video review of the QI 45 with the optional Shifter Pack:

In my final review of the QI45 radar detector I rate the unit with my highest rating, Five Badges!

If you’re in the market for a remote mounted radar detector and laser jammer that is easy to install and will not break your bank account, then the QI45 would be a top pick!

During my 14 year career in the speed counter measurement industry I’ve perhaps installed over 300 remote mounted radar detectors for clients on everything from cars, trucks, RV’s, motorcycles and even a few tour buses for a few notable rock and roll and country western bands.

Typical installs can take me a couple hours and more complex installs can even take days. So when I heard about the Escort Radar’s claim that the typical install for the QI45 was under 45 minutes, I was a little skeptical.

QI45’s name represents Escort’s commitment to develop a radar detector that any automotive buff could install in under 45 minutes. I.e.; Quick Install 45.

During our installation we also installed Escort’s Shifter Pack during this same install.

Prior to our install we read the user manual and install manual for both units in full and laid out our plans.

We chose to us an “Add a Circuit” to the positive wiring harness so we could plug into an accessory socket in our fuse box. We chose the radio accessory as the detector would activate when we started the car and then turn off when we removed the key.

We then removed the lower portion of our Toyota’s dashboard and installed the controller module by zip tying it to a bracket under the dash.

The front of the antenna of the QI45 has laser diodes for laser detection. Therefore the front of the radar antenna should not be blocked by the grill or any other object. We chose a location in the lower drivers side grill area.

We choose the upper bumper area of our Toyota to mount the two Shifter heads. As we didn’t want to drill into the bumper or grill, we selected 3M double sided automotive tape to secure both the radar antenna and both Shifter heads.

To the rear of the QI45’s antenna, there are two jacks to plug in the Shifter heads.  This is a great feature as typically the cabling for the laser jammer s must be run through the firewall along with the radar detector cable.

Care must be taken to align the plugs to the antenna by aligning two white dots. If this is reversed you could damage your system.

A little tip; tape over the head of the RJ45 plug prior to pushing it through the firewall, this will help protect the little plastic tab on the jack.

Next we installed the display module on the lower right portion of the dashboard.

We then plugged the three RJ45 cables into the controller, screwed down our ground and turned the key.

Within moments the QI45 came to life.

We screwed on the lower portion of the dash, made last minute adjustments to the laser shifter heads and closed the hood. Total time for install, 54 minutes!

The installation of the QI45 easiest remote radar detector install that I’ve ever made and I’m certain that anyone with basic automotive repair skills can do a similar install in under an hour.

The SEMA show, held each November in Las Vegas, is one of my favorite annual automotive events as companies that specialize in speed countermeasure equipment show off their new gadgets designed to outsmart law enforcement speed enforcement technology.

Another plus is that Las Vegas is only an hour and a half flight in my Cessna 182 from our home in Arizona. So on Tuesday, opening day, my wife and I jumped into our bird and headed out.

We lifted off at 7:30 am and with the one hour time change landed at the Henderson Executive Airport at 8:00 am. We tied down the plane, got a rental car and I was at the Las Vegas Convention Center just before the nine o’clock opening.

Blinder Laser Jammers

Outside the convention center I met with Leon Gruner and his wife Bonnie of Blinder USA. Blinder manufactures a Laser Jamming device designed to jam police laser.
For those of you not familiar with police laser enforcement let me explain the technology.

Police laser is a very narrow beam of light that of course travels at the speed of light, it is INSTANT!

At 500 feet the beams width is only 18” and when police shoot your car with laser, they normally aim for a reflective area of your car like your front license plate or your headlights.

So if you only have a radar detector mounted on your dash, chances are that your detector will never activate unless it picks up “scatter” and if it does, it’s too late, the officer already has your speed.

I explain laser jamming this way, “Let’s say someone shoots your car with a 5 watt flashlight, you respond by shinning a 50 watt flashlight at them, your flashlight is more powerful and would over power the other flashlight if it had a receiver to calculate speed”

Earlier this year Blinder released their new laser jammers the M-27 and M-47. Modifications included using brighter LED lights and also an interface where you can download the latest software for any new laser guns.

Coyote Interactive Photo Enforcement Detector

A comment I heard at the SEMA show this year was that new photo enforcement cameras are spreading faster than the H1N1 virus, as many cities and states have found a quick way a new to generate money without increasing taxes.

Several years ago the stand alone GPS photo enforcement camera devices hit the market place and then two years ago radar detector manufactures included this technology into their radar detectors. These devices would warn you as you approached a fixed photo enforcement camera such as photo radar or red light cameras with an audible and visual alert.

The one major drawback with these devices was the mobile photo radar vans that are moved, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis.

Trapster then emerged on the scene, building a social network of users that would notify each other via their iPhone or Blackberry of photo enforcement locations or other high enforcement locations.

Coyote is NOW coming on the scene, merging these two technologies into one device, an interactive GPS photo enforcement detector. Coyote’s system is due to launch February of 2010.

Escort Redline Radar Detector

This summer I had the opportunity to take the Escort Redline radar detector for a 8,000 mile cross country review testing the unit against the New Jersey X band radar guns, to Sturgis South Dakota mounted on my “Stealth Hog” Harley Davidson motorcycle, and in my RV across the southwest.

The Redline was developed to take over the long range category that has been dominated by Valentine One.

During a Speed Measurement Laboratories long range test that was held this past summer the Redline outperformed every radar detector in this class.

The one thing I liked about the Redline was the units ability to sniff out the mobile Redflex Ka band mobile photo radar vans that have overtaken Arizona and a few other states.

Passport SC55 GPS Photo Enforcement Detector

Do you have a Valentine One, Escort 8500, Whistler Pro 78 or any other radar detector that you would want to integrate a GPS photo enforcement database into? If so the new Passport SC55 will allow just that.

Designed to integrate into virtually any radar detector on the market today, you simply plug the two units into each other, turning your Escort 8500 X50 into an Escort 9500ix or your RX65 into a GX65.

You instantly give your detector a brain so it can now alert to these deadly photo radar and red light cameras.

Passport QI45 Remote Mounted Radar Detector

The Escort Passport QI 45 is a new remote mounted radar detector based upon the design of the Escort 8500 X50.

Unlike more complex remote mounted radar detectors, the QI45 is very simple in its design in that it only has three modules, the antenna that is mounted in the grill, the controller that is mounted under the dash and the display that mounts on the dash.

There is only one wire that you need to feed through the firewall and install can take as little as 30 to 45 minutes!

If you want to install their laser jammer; no problem, the laser heads plug into the rear of the antenna and each head could be installed in under 5 minutes.

As a motorcyclist, I thought of how simple this set up could be to set up a remote mounted radar detector and laser jammer to your motorcycle.

Rocky Mountain Radar

What would a SEMA show be without me poking a little fun at Rocky Mountain Radar?

Well after being successful at getting Michael Churchman kicked out of Best Buy I made a promise to myself that I would lay low.

When I arrived at the SEMA show I was approached by several of the other manufacture reps that Michael Churchman was present at this year’s show and that he was asking if I was going to show up.

Mike had missed the last two years at both SEMA and CES after I sat down with him at a bar at the Stratosphere three years ago and he made the comment that he didn’t care if his C-450 radar jammer worked or not and that he didn’t have the balls enough to take me up on my $50,000 challenge.

So this year I had only planned to take a quick peek at what new devices RMR was scamming the uninformed corporate buyers with and then follow-up with our online campaign to educate these potential new clients.

I noticed that the RMR booth was still missing the Plexiglas display with the police radar gun and the little car with their radar scrambler attached. This had gone missing after I approached Rual, their head engineer, a few years back with cash in hand in challenging them to my test with TV cameras from the UPN network rolling.

During their segment, they proved that Michael’s little display was misleading and potentially defrauding the public as the Plexiglas display did not allow anyone to move the scrambler more than a few inches from the feed horn of the radar gun. In other words the RMR radar jammers would not work against any police radar gun, unless the officer was literally sitting on the hood of your car, with the feed horn of the radar gun against your windshield and the detector within two to three inches from the gun.

With our economy appearing to being on track to recovery, I was pleased to see at this year’s SEMA show that the Speed Counter measurement Industry was strong and developing new products.

Flight Home

Margie and I spent the night catching “Jersey Boys” and flew out the following morning.

A cold front came beat us to our airpark with winds gusting to 25 knots, so we had to divert to Wickenburg Airport (E25) and called a friend to pick us up.

A few hours later I returned when the winds calmed down and flew our bird back to its nest here at our home: