Back to the original topic. I've had the Passport 8500 X50 for a few years now and it works great. I did a lot of research before buying and I thing the Passport and Bel units are the best currently available. For some test results checkout:

http://www.radartest.com

They have some good tests of the various units and if I could afford it I'd get the new Passport with the GPS features. Personally I think the Valentine is a decent unit but they have been resting while the others blaze past them in capability and features. Five or six years ago Valentine was the best but now they're just middle of the pack or worse.

 

CB's will even let you know where alligators are on the road also since they can be such a pain in the south on a hot summers day...

 

Don't want to hijack, but I just had the no so pleasant experience of losing my left front wheel on the freeway today... All is ok and I got off to the side safely. A CHP motorcycle officer did stop to see if he could help, was very pleasant and called caltrans who retrieved my tire a 1/4 mile away. So I thank them for the service and concern.

 

Had that happen to me before. Not fun at all. We were going slow, 35 MPH or so, that part is the miracle.

 

This whole collecting revenue thing is HILARIOUS to me!!!!

Im 26 and got a pretty stiff ticket at 19 (dwi). You know what the worst part of it was?????? Not the suspended lic for 6mo, or the asap program, or driving school, or it being on my record for 5 years.... It was paying the ticket fines, court fees, lawyer fees, asap fees, driving school fees, DMV fees and higher insurance rates! MAN that hurt!! Do you think i wanna do that again?? HECK NO!!! lol I havent broke any sort of law SINCE! I like my money!

You broke the law, now you are in the hands of the court....period. They are going to hit you were it hurts most YOUR WALLET!!!!

I dont think its revenue collection, i think its effective punishment!!!

 

Well, it's rather hard to show proof of a personal conversation but I'll recount it anyway. Our local court clerk (a customer of mine) told me about 2 years ago that when the local PD and City Hall were having contract negotiation difficulties, the volume of citations that she received from the PD dropped drastically. She said that the officers explained to her that they were staging a revenue slowdown to show City Hall what could happen if their contract demands were not met and they were doing it by using their discretion and only ticketing serious offenses and giving out warnings whenever they could. After a contract was agreed on, citation volumes returned to previous levels.

Second "proof" that tickets can be used for revenue generation is the fact that Oklahoma state law dictates that a municipality can get no more than half of it's income from tickets. Here is an article of one town that was investigated for violating the "speed trap" law. Please note the 8'x40' speed trap sign posted by the local truck stop owner as a public service. If using tickets as a revenue generator wasn't a problem, why have a state law limiting it?

That said, I side with our LEOs as much as I can but there are still too many of them that are out there for the power trip like this Oklahoma Trooper who has been investigated for unnecessary roughness several times and LEOs like him give the rest of you public servants a bad name.

As far as revenue collections go, I choose not to contribute and generally run 5 under when towing and run the limit the rest of the time.

Back on topic, I've heard good things about the Valentine but don't personally use one of any brand. Just one more thing to temp a thief to break into my car and I don't need the damage or the hassle.

 

In the county I was in if you basicly requested a mini trial in front of the judge there was a minimum court cost regardless of your out come. I beleive the state has since changed that law but not sure.