Radar Detectors As Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
1,033 words · ~5 min read
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had the experience of you know cruising down
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the freeway with the Windows open not really paying attention to how fast
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they're going and Bam flashing lights in
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the rear view mirror and 5 minutes later you're holding your very own free ticket
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to traffic court and a larger insurance
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bill if only you'd been using a radar
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detector a venerable piece of technology that speed demons everywhere have been
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using for years to avoid such unpleasant surprises but first a little bit about
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how radar Works police commonly use what's called Doppler radar to track how
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fast passing cars are going and although Doppler radar is usually associated with
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weather reporting the way it works makes it a pretty versatile tool a standard
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police radar works by firing a radio signal at nearby traffic which hits
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whichever car is being tracked and returns to the radar gun for analysis
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the fact that the car is moving means that the return signal will have a
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different frequency from the original this is called the doler effect and is
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the same reason that an ambulance siren sounds lower in Pitch when it's speeding
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away from you this difference in frequency is converted to a speed
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readout that the officer can see to determine if you are exceeding the speed
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limit Doppler radar Simplicity has made
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it the tool of choice for traffic cops the world over for many years so
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consumer grade radar detectors work then by detecting frequencies in the Doppler
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bands since the radar signals are really just radio waves radar detectors operate
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a lot like the radio in your car that you use to listen to music they're just
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tuned to Doppler frequencies which are much higher than am and FM frequencies
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So then whenever your radar detector picks up a Doppler signal it will alert
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you in some way so that you can slow down before you get slapped with a
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ticket of course though radar detectors aren't perfect and things like adaptive
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radar cruise control on newer cars and even those automatic doors that you see
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at the supermarket use frequencies in the Doppler range meaning that false
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alarms are often a fact of life for people that use radar detectors but
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aside from false alarms hampering Effectiveness police know how popular
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radar detectors are so many police departments are now using liar which
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uses a more focused beam of infrared light as opposed to Doppler radar which
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tends to scatter making it easier to pick up liar detectors exist as well but
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since police Point liar guns at one
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smaller spot on a car often the license plate the detectors tend to be a lot
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less effective but hold on a second I mean what if instead of just detecting a
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police radar you could actually keep it from tracking your car well some more
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sophisticated radar detectors have a jamming feature that emits extra signal
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sign to confuse police radar and liar
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but not surprisingly these are illegal
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in many places since the cops don't exactly appreciate it when you actively
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interfere with their equipment regular detectors however are allowed in quite a
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few places including all but one US state a few provinces in western Canada
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New Zealand and some countries in Europe just make sure you know what the laws
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are in your area before you buy so you don't get smacked down with a camera of
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irony because the device that you bought to avoid a traffic ticket just earned
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you a traffic ticket or of course I mean
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we could all just slow down and uh you know Kum bya and all that stuff however
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if my experience rolling around out there and rush hour is any indication I
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think we'd have a better chance of seeing Ford try and sell the Flintstone
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it out today so thanks for watching this episode of fast as possible if you liked
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and all that good stuff see you next time