My chance to have one of the best radar detectors on the market

Specs from the booklet!

Operating Bands
* X-band 10.525 GHz ± 25 MHz
* K-band 24.150 GHz ± 100 MHz
* Ka-band 34.700 GHz ± 1300 MHz
* Laser 904nm, 33 MHz Bandwidth

Radar Receiver / Detector Type
* Superheterodyne, GaAs FET VCO
(Gallium-Arsenide, Field Emitter Transistor, Voltage Controlled Oscillator)
* Scanning Frequency Discriminator
* Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

Laser Detection
* Quantum Limited Video Receiver
* Multiple High-Performance Laser Sensors

Display Type
* AlGaAs (Aluminum-Gallium-Arsenide) 280 LED Matrix/Text
* Bar Graph, ExpertMeter, or SpecDisplay
* 3-Level Dimming, plus Dark Mode

Power Requirement
* 12VDC, Negative Ground
* SmartCord MuteDisplayTM Included

Programmable Features
* Power-On Indication
* Power-On Sequence
* Signal Strength Meter
* AutoMute
* Audio Tones
* City Mode Sensitivity
* Display Brightness
* Dark Mode
* Radar / Laser Bands

Sensitivity Control
* AutoSensitivity, Highway, and City

Mute and AutoMute
Auto Calibration Circuitry
SmartShield VG2 Immunity

Compact Size
* 1.25" H x 2.85" W x 5.32" L


After having my Passport 8500 and test driving it for more than one month, I am now ready to write my review.

On my way to work, I encounter police radar at least once. Illinois County and Illinois State Police troopers with K and Ka band radars mostly. After having a measly Cobra ESD-6060, I felt insecure, and felt the need for a more sophisticated and sensitive radar as it the Passport 8500.

First of all, you must know that when you are driving with a radar detector, you are not invincible. Cops are smart nowadays, that meaning that you are vulnerable against "Instant-On" radar, no matter if you have a $299 Passport or a $399 Valentine One. I will discuss my experience with Instant-On radar with the 8500 later on.

Let me start by describing the unit from its shell. It is made of a durable dark gray, metallic looking plastic composite, it feels expensive (worth $300) to the touch. It feels slightly heavy though.

The front of the unit has a dark red plastic lens, in which the front antenna and its waveguide point. The front looking laser eye is also present there.

In the top of the unit, you will see a slot, in which the windshield mount bracket slides in. In front of this slot, you will see a quick-release button. Attach the two soft transparent plastic cups, press the button and slide in the Passport. Release the locking button, and the unit will reset against the windshield. This is not very good, as you will notice that the unit will rattle against the glass with an annoying noise. The unit is not light, so it cannot hold to the windshield just by resting on the metal bracket, so its body has two extrusions which touch the windshield and will keep the 8500's body straight. Otherwise, it will not be straight. Make sure you mount it not as high, as to have a better line of sight, and not too low, as to avoid missing a cop's laser hot spot when you enter a LIDAR trap!!!

Once you find the perfect position for your 8500 in your windshield, you will note that the front display panel, angles slightly towards you at the driver's seat. Good thinking, as this slant will allow you to keep yourself concentrated on the road and not to move your eyes too much.

The coiled power cord is about 1.5 feet without extending it. Some cars with the 12V socket far away will experience problems with it, you will need to buy the regular extended flat cord. Anyway ... the cord will plug in to the front right side of the 8500, through a RJ-11 socket, like the one on your telephone line. Neat. It will not come off easily, though it can be delicate, as it can snag to clothing or to your car's extrusions, and you will tear off the connectors locking tab, rendering the connector unusuable ... It hasn't happened to me, but you better be careful ... This is no regular power cord ... It is a SMART cord ... At the end of the connector, you will see two LEDs, a bright green power LED and a red ALERT led, and a MUTE button... See? Isnt' that cool? you can easily MUTE the 8500 by pressing the mute button on the power cord, if you cannot reach that far to the unit's front panel and press the mute button... Cool feature ... This makes muting the radar easier, just away from the shifter (at least on my two cars, the 12V socket is near the shifter).

Power it on by sliding the dial, away from you to increase the volume ... You will see the 8500 light up saying "8500 Passport" with clearly legible bright red LED displays ... then the unit will chirp and cycle through every band ... a BEEP for X-Band, a BREEP for K-Band, a BRAP for Ka Band, and whistle for LASER and the Safety Warning System (SWS).
Cool ... You can even configure the powerup option to be short and just mention which bands are suppressed, or let it cycle and chirp-chirp through every band.

Pressing the left button on the 8500's body, you will be able to cycle through 3 sensitivity modes: Auto, City, and Highway modes. The Auto mode will let the 8500's DSP automatically adjust its sensitivity, according to signal conditions. Nice feature indeed.

The rightmost button will allow you to choose from 4 brightness modes: BRIGHT, MEDIUM, DIM, and FULL DARK. The latter will allow you to completely black out the display, and you will only be alerted from the chirps and sounds and the ALERT LED in the 12V connector. Good feature to use, if you find being followed by someone that can be smart enough to know you are using a detector by looking through your rear windshield. The brightness levels selections are adequate and it will remember your last brightness choice if you want, or you can make it default to a brightness of your choice.

The standard display will display AUTO, CITY, or HIGHWAY while the unit is idle. You can configure the display to display a cool sweeping scanner dot, or display an A , C or H (for auto, city, highway). Very cool. You can even configure it not to display nothing at all.

You can also configure the way the detection display looks! The regular display will show you the radar band being detected (X for old X-Band, K , Ka , LASER and 160 different safety warnings). Right next to the letter, a signal strength meter grows from left to right (weak to strongest). Audio notifications will sound more calm as the source is farther away, or if you are detecting pulsed radar. A solid, agressive tone will mean you are being targetted directly. It will look something like this:

X . (Beep ......... Beep)

K .|| (BREEP .. BREEP .. BREEP . BREEP)

Ka .|||||| (BRAP-BRAP-BRAP-BRAP !!!!)

Laser will report with a SOLID aural tone:

L A S E R (BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP !!!!!!)

The Expert Mode display, will allow you to display multiple detected signals, up to 4 X band, 2 K or to Ka signals. Excellent if you cruise with microwave infested zones (like strip malls, near KFCs or Burger Kings, or cellphone towers, or houses planted with DirectTV dishes, etc. etc.) Anyway, the Expert mode will display something like this:

Two X band signals, one weak, one strong (thanks to the KFC next to you) and an incoming trooper using Ka Band:

X .| Ka | (BRAP-BRAP-BRAP-BRAP)

Once you get pass the KFC, you will see something like:

Ka |

Either way, the 8500 knows which one if the highest potential threat, and will warn accordingly. The EXPert mode is useful if you drive in Auto mode, through signal polluted places, That way, if you detect a K band where you usually see two X band sources, it's most likely a COP! (or a newly installed automatic door opener :)

X || K |

The next display mode is called SPEC display. This is for hardcore, flight simulator, full strength F-117 fighter pilot mode. It will display the band, and the frequency of the detected source in GigaHertz. It will look like this:

X 10.151
Ka 34.700
K 24.175

Many people say it isn't useful. IT IS. You will learn to identify police radar frequencies (they are not the same, especially the superwide Ka which sweeps through 34-36GHz!!!)

None of these features are available on its hardcore competitor, the Valentine One.

Enough for the fancy stuff. I'll comment on what I have experienced.

In Auto mode, the unit falses seldomly on X or K-bands, unless you get really close an automatic door opener. If you find your 8500 falsing too much for X-band and you CERTAINLY KNOW there are no cops with Xband radar (at least in Illinois I've never encountered one yet, only K and Ka band by 80%) you can suppress X band totally, or configure the City mode so that it has No X sensitivity (or low, low X band sensitivity).

Where the 8500 really excels, is in detecting Ka band radar, which is what most state troopers are using. This is a low powered, digital radar beam on the 34-36 GHz range. As this signal is digital, it is hard for cheaper radar detectors (like my $25 Cobra I bought discounted on 2002 t-giving :) to detect such low powered signals. The 8500 is just amazing in its Ka band detection range.

Driving on the left lane with fairly dense traffic, moving at 65mph on a straight road with no turns, if you detect an incoming cop, you will hear the 8500 frantically announce Ka band on a solid aural tone, that will get you saying "what the hell? where is he?" ... still, easy on the brakes ... you're 55 mph by now ... Still the 8500 frantically screaming Ka band ... 20 seconds later, you will see that white Crown Vic Police Interceptor with a light rack on the opposite lane... Excellent early warning with cops that have their radars turned on ALL the time... You can't go wrong with that!!! The problem, as I said before, is always the Instant On Radar.

You will hear nothing on your 8500 until the cop visually targets you, and then he releases the RF HOLD button on his lethal K/Ka gun. Your 8500 will detect the radar beam only when it is turned on. Don't get fooled with it. It will take 4-6 seconds (or even less, depending on distance) to acquire your target speed. This is what most cops use by days, instant on detection. If you are relying blindly on your radar, you will get nailed by instant on radar if you are not careful, if you are leading the pack of cars at 70mph and a cop spots you at the distance ... So don't blame Escort or state that your radar doesn't work. Be careful.

Still, the Escort 8500 has proven me useful against these deadly encounters. Its aural reporting is consistent, and you will mostly be within full detection range when a cop turns on his radar beam, so the 8500 will frantically yell for you to slow down. I find the warning very appropriate to the kind of threat you are facing.

At first, it will be difficult to determine if you are encountering K or Ka band, but once your ears get tuned to the 8500s music, you will know exactly.

I haven't had any LIDAR (laser) encounters yet, and I hope I don't. But I did get a false alarm when a Fire Engine blew past me (as I moved to the right lane), and it had its sirens and lights moving. Looks like the passport caught the red beam from the fire engine's strobe and thought it was a LASER threat. The manual will state that some LED brake lights from some cars may trigger false LASER alarms.

Rear sensitivity is adequate, and you can actually see that it isn't as good as full front detection. Drive past a trooper with its Ka band beam on, and you will see that the aural cue of the 8500 drastically drops by when you are about 100-150ft past the trooper. This is obvious, as Ka band is low powered and difficult to detect. This is not a problem as most radar encounters you will face will be head on, with the cop aiming at your front license plate, especially with a LIDAR gun (I now know why front license plates are mandatory in Illinois!!!)

I am truly satisfied with the vast array of programmable features of the 8500, it has excellent detection range, and the SMART power cord is a very handy feature. All in a nice, clean looking, titanium casing. I will strongly recommend the 8500, though I haven't had the chance to test-drive the Valentine One yet...

One last thing. Don't be fooled by so called RADAR JAMMERS. They are ILLEGAL in the U.S. LASER JAMMERS are not yet regulated, though, but illegal in several states.