Found my old Passport 5000. any info?

[Bag302]

I found my old Passport 5000 in the back of the closet. Can anyone tell me what limitations this unit has compared to something like an 8500? Might use it in the wife's car if not totally useless.

Thanks!

[<<JAZZY>>]

Based on what I have read, the Passport 5000 is a great paperweight that has pretty good X and K band performance and crappy Ka band detection and it will fetch between $20-$50 on ebay.

You are better off buying a used Escort 8500 that has been fully tested and refurbished by Escort with your money. Just go to ebay and type in "Escort 8500 Warranty" in the search engine. They sell for $149.95 and that comes with a 6 month warranty from Escort.


http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...rotection.html

A couple of Passport 5000 users:

"Fun detector, good X band, good K band. Ka response is poor at 34.7 and terrible at 33.8 and 35.5."

"This radar detector has terrible Ka range and the display washes out in sun light."


Jimbonzzz, who is a respected member here, said this about the sensitivity of the Passport 5000.

"As far as sensitivity:

1. Whistler Pro-78
2. Passport 7500S (Same platform as the Escort Solo S2, should perform similar)
3. Whistler Pro-73
4. Passport 5000 & 7500 (same platform, similar performance)"


This is from a radar detector test in the year 2000:






Escort 7500

X 1.9 miles
K 1.4 miles
Ka 1.8 miles


Valentine One

X 3.0 miles
K 2.6 miles
Ka 4.0 miles

The Passport 5000, if it has the same radar sensitivity as the Escort 7500, will have 63&#37; of the V1's X band range, 54% of the V1's K band range, and 45% of the V1's Ka band range.

[Bag302]

Thanks Jazzy!

[upstatedoc]

What's the manufacture date on the 5000?

[<<JAZZY>>]

What's the manufacture date on the 5000?

I am thinking that the 5000 was made in the late 90's because Jimbonzzz said that the Passport 5000 has the same platform as the Passport 7500. In December of 1999, only the Passport 6800, Passport 7500, and Solo were for being sold from the Escort website. The Passport 8500 came out in October of 2000 so it would have to be before that.

[jimbonzzz]

The Passport 5000 came out in the summer of 1994.

[<<JAZZY>>]

The Passport 5000 came out in the summer of 1994.

That's strange because you would think that the Escort model numbers would go up because Automobile magazine was testing the Escort 4600 in December of 1995. Do you know how many years they made the 5000 Jimbonzzz?

[SJERSYCONTROLLER]

I owned one of these. Escort's green LCD display and case styling were innovative for the time. I believe Escort sold the 5000 for 2 years.

As stated in other posts, X band detection was great, K band was okay and Ka was horrible.

The 5000's green LCD display washed out in the sun but was to bright at night (it had 3 brightness settings). It looked like a small TV on your dash! The signal strength meter was a gray pixelated blob that moved and was supposed to denote the frequency. I THINK it could track multiple signals. There were no LED alert lights. If you didn't hear the detector, you would never notice the display and were toast.

Escort also sold the Passport 4500 alongside the 5000, and I owned and liked it much better. Ka range lacked but the 4500 had a "real" LCD display, louder audio and was cheaper at about $180.

Ka wasn't prevalent in the early '90s.