Improving Passport 8500 X50's QT and I/O Detection

[Grant]

After about 20 inches of snow and drifts up to 8 feet in some places I thought I would experiment with my X50. So I grabbed my Bushnell and went about it, after hearing about Escort's poor response time due to RDR and general filtering. I first hooked up my retired Whistler XTR-335 (a unit without much attention around here) and fired 10 shots all at close range... I fired the Bushnell as fast as I could pull and release the trigger, which was literally a flick. Well the results were pretty good the 335 caught 9 out of the 10 QT's. I then swapped out the Whistler for the Escort. Now on to the X50, I repeated the exact same test that I performed on the Whistler on the Escort. (X Band was turned OFF on the Escort)
After firing 10 QT shots at the Escort it only detected 2. I was pretty upset to say the least as I live in a very heavily I/O patrolled area. Anyways, since I had a little time on my hands I was going to try to improve on this. I know that Escort scans through all bands independently so I turned OFF: X, KA, POP, and LASER. (as the Bushnell operates on K-Band) I repeated my test again and the Escort picked up EVERY single QT shot that the Bushnell was lashing out.
On Friday, I will be going to Winter Fire School which is about a 2 hour drive all on major highways and the MSHP use only Stalker KA-Band units (34.7) So my question to you all is... Would it be smart to turn off every band but KA since it's the only threat that is posed to me?

-Grant

[NormSky]

How much is a ticket and can afford the points?

Get a ticket in Cleveland and it's $200 regardless. Well that's half the price of V1. Time to upgrade with no sacrifices in bands and softening filters.

[DUI Elite]

After about 20 inches of snow and drifts up to 8 feet in some places I thought I would experiment with my X50. So I grabbed my Bushnell and went about it, after hearing about Escort's poor response time due to RDR and general filtering. I first hooked up my retired Whistler XTR-335 (a unit without much attention around here) and fired 10 shots all at close range... I fired the Bushnell as fast as I could pull and release the trigger, which was literally a flick. Well the results were pretty good the 335 caught 9 out of the 10 QT's. I then swapped out the Whistler for the Escort. Now on to the X50, I repeated the exact same test that I performed on the Whistler on the Escort. (X Band was turned OFF on the Escort)
After firing 10 QT shots at the Escort it only detected 2. I was pretty upset to say the least as I live in a very heavily I/O patrolled area. Anyways, since I had a little time on my hands I was going to try to improve on this. I know that Escort scans through all bands independently so I turned OFF: X, KA, POP, and LASER. (as the Bushnell operates on K-Band) I repeated my test again and the Escort picked up EVERY single QT shot that the Bushnell was lashing out.
On Friday, I will be going to Winter Fire School which is about a 2 hour drive all on major highways and the MSHP use only Stalker KA-Band units (34.7) So my question to you all is... Would it be smart to turn off every band but KA since it's the only threat that is posed to me?

-Grant

From what I understand, turning Ka off alone will increase sensitivity to K band and X band because the spectrum for Ka is so wide (I dont recall the actual values but i believe its from the high 20s to low 40s) so the RD "scans" the frequency for a possible source. K band and X band are very narrow in comparison to Ka band so turning them off shouldnt dramatically increase Ka band detection. In theory, it should help a little, but it wont be a night and day difference the way it is turning Ka off and seeing the difference on X band and K band.

Any questions? lol I think i suck at explaining things

[Weeth]

Good read. Very interesting test by turning off other bands.

My 9500ix reacts the same way to the Bushnell. Almost unresponsive to the q/t shots.

My V1 does very well with q/t (detects every shot) but I don't think that infos much help to you, unless you're considering upgrading.

I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable disabling all the other bands unless you're 100 percent positive the only one used is Ka... It would be the biggest fail ever if you detour to an area and get a c/o k band ticket. I'd cry if that happened to me.

Also, you haven't tested the unit on q/t with Ka band. That may make a difference.

If q/t & i/o is a major threat in your area, I'd consider investing in a V1, especially for the q/t ability. I think it's a risk to disable the other bands and impractical unless you want to reprogram the detector for everywhere you go.

hope this helps.

[DUI Elite]

This is what nine_c1 taught me over on the Escort forums (although the context was about the Redline, I think it applies to most Escorts)

Turning off Ka Band on the RedLine for sure kills the sweep of 33.4 - 36.0........and most likely kills the RDR (Radar Detector Rejection) filtering algorithms which require a frequency to be present on multiple sweeps before alerting. This RDR filtering only applies to Ka Band.......so turning off Ka not only kills the Ka sweep, it kills the Ka filtering algorithms as well.

Turning off K and X Band are not going to have the same benefits for Ka reception though........here's why. First, Ka bandwidth is over ten times broader than K and X band combined! Thats alot of ground to cover and switching off K & X don't help a whole lot. Next......even with K & X turned off, the 9500ix and RedLine are still sweeping freqencies adjacent to the standard X-Band bandwidth looking for the primary LO emissions from other detectors to screen out Ka falses. When it finds one, it knows not to set a Ka alert to the 3rd harmonic of that LO emission which would fall right into the normal frequency range for Ka.....voila, a Ka false has been supressed!

This is what they call an oversweep of X-Band which has a normal bandwith of +/- 50 MHZ ( X-Band => 10.475GHZ - 10.575GHZ).......RDR oversweeps X-Band, sweeping frequencies between 11.133GHZ to 12.000GHZ. Even with X-Band off, this oversweep is assuredly still happening if Ka Band is enabled. But even then, it's not the time it takes to oversweep X-Band that slows down our response to Ka alerts. It's the combination of sweep time PLUS the fact that RDR requires a Ka signal to be present on multiple sweeps (2 or more) before an alert will be set.

Simply put.......turning off Ka band kills LOTS of sweep time due to the broad bandwidth and multiple sweep requirements to set an alert, while turning off X & K band take out less than 4-8 % of total sweep time considering how RDR works.

[Grant]

I really appreciate your responses! Weeth, do you think it would be a very worthy investment for me to sell my x50 (Rev 5, S7) for a new V1? Like I said, my main threat is the MSHP using instant on 34.7

[Weeth]

I really appreciate your responses! Weeth, do you think it would be a very worthy investment for me to sell my x50 (Rev 5, S7) for a new V1? Like I said, my main threat is the MSHP using instant on 34.7

From what I read, the 8500s with the S7 antennas are the best of the 8500s. So unless you need the money for the V1, you may want to hold on to in.
Sometimes having a back up detector can come in handy. I wouldn't sell it until you're sure you like the V1, but you should like the V1.

I love my V1 and it's always done well against Ka band. It also scores the best in the GOL tests of Ka 34.7. The first graph is a C/O test and the second is an I/O. It scores higher in both tests than the 8500.

[EscortRadar]

For quickest alert response also be sure that your X50 is in "Highway" mode.

You said that your Bushnell gun was very close to the X50 when you were testing it. You may be overdriving the Passport causing it to react slowly. Very strong signals can show as multiple detected signals (put the detector in expert meter to track multiple signals). This can temporarily confuse the detector and delay initial alerts. When conducing your tests try aiming the gun away from the detector and maybe using something in between the detector and the gun to reduce the strength of signal that the detector receives.

With regard to I/O remember that detection distance is a major factor. If you are the sole target then you will just be alerted that you were shot. Detecting someone ahead of you being shot is what will help you.

If you think that your X50 isn't detecting properly then please call our service department.

[Monkey]

For quickest alert response also be sure that your X50 is in "Highway" mode.

You said that your Bushnell gun was very close to the X50 when you were testing it. You may be overdriving the Passport causing it to react slowly. Very strong signals can show as multiple detected signals (put the detector in expert meter to track multiple signals). This can temporarily confuse the detector and delay initial alerts. When conducing your tests try aiming the gun away from the detector and maybe using something in between the detector and the gun to reduce the strength of signal that the detector receives.

With regard to I/O remember that detection distance is a major factor. If you are the sole target then you will just be alerted that you were shot. Detecting someone ahead of you being shot is what will help you.

If you think that your X50 isn't detecting properly then please call our service department.

I thought Auto Mode usually did better with picking up signals? So it's better to run Highway anywhere if you're not concerned with falses? (I can't turn off X Band because Ohio Highway Patrol still uses it)

[CJR238]

I thought Auto Mode usually did better with picking up signals? So it's better to run Highway anywhere if you're not concerned with falses? (I can't turn off X Band because Ohio Highway Patrol still uses it)

Nope, AutoMode will slow response time to some extent. Highway is what should be used for the most sensitivity.

Grant, Ill take that 8500X50 rev5 S7 off your hands, that's one very special unit you got there.