RE: Valentine versus new Passport

["Spire, Ed" <ed.spire@missioncritical.com>]

>> Does the new passport have front and back radar sensors?  Can it count
>> unique sources?
>
>	Yes.  It does all this.  I assume this is why Lee is asking about
>them.  I saw this new Passport for the first time in a Passport Add a
>couple weeks ago so it is brand new.  It detects front, back and side and
>tells you where its coning from and How many hits it is getting and what
>sources I belive.  BUT, I have never used it so I dont know how well its
>implementation is compared to the V1.

I just went to escort's web site and read their user manual for the new
unit, the passport 7500.  When you run it in its "expert" mode (which they
do not suggest a first time user should try,) it will display multiple
signals, up to 2 K band, 2 Ka band, and 4 X band signals.  It does it by
converting it's dot matrix display to show alpha characters like this..

		Ka|K||X||'    

(although the ' is really the bottom half of a bar, not the top half...)

The above would mean that the unit is seeing one strong Ka signal, two
strong K signals, and two strong and one weak X signal.  I doubt that this
will communicate as well as the signal strength meter, flashing arrows and
numeric display you get on a V1, but the passport is limited in size and
this is all they have room for.  I suppose this is why they make it optional
and steer new customers away from it.  If it worked well, it would be SOP.

I also saw absolutely no display that indicated if the signal was coming
from the front or the rear, so even though they apparently are detecting
this, they don't have room to display it.

It is smaller and cheaper than a V1, and it may work out well in use for all
I know.  It will be interesting to see the next comparison test done by C&D
etc.  Competition is a good thing, if the passport is indeed catching up to
the V1, it may spur Valentine on to newer and better things.