Review Cobra XRS 9430 Radar Detector
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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