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raqball · 09-13-2010, 07:33 PM

Plenty of threads out there recently on radar and laser... Some have good information and some have very bad information...

References used:

Guys of Lidar: http://www.guysoflidar.com/index.html
Radar Detector Forums: http://www.radardetector.net/forums/
Escort: http://www.escortradar.com
Beltronics: http://www.beltronics.com/
Blinder: http://www.blinder.net/
Laser Interceptor: http://www.laser-interceptorusa.com/home.html
Valentine One: http://www.valentine1.com/
Cheetah: http://www.gpsdetector.com/
Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov/

I will try to keep this thread updated and informative... This will be a four part thread:

Part One will be What you are up against...
Part Two will be Radar and Laser Defense Gear..
Part Three will be mounting locations and test results...
Part Four will be defense gear recommendations...

Please do not turn this thread into a radar detectors are worthless and a waste of money thread... If you feel that way, please post it in one of the other radar related threads...

About me... I am a retired Police Officer who ran radar enforcement for over 10-years... I also trained other officers on radar enforcement... I am also a radar defense enthusiast... A bit odd, I know..

1st of all let me say speeding is dangerous! The higher your speed the more time it takes for you to react, and brake... The higher the speed, the worse the accident in most cases... Please drive safe and never use radar defense gear as an open ended ticket (pun intended) to haul ass.. I have seen and work many horrific accidents over my years where speed was the major contributing factor... Dead children and decapitated motorists is NOT a pleasant sight...

In my opinion radar / laser defense should be used for 2 reasons... 1st so you can check your speed... There are some rather aggressive officers out there who would write their own mother for 5 mph over... When your defense systems sounds, check your speed and adjust accordingly... A ticket these days is not cheap.. Add to that the higher insurance costs and points taken off your license and you get the idea.... A simple moment of lax and you can easily be 8-10 mph over... Murphy's law says that is when you will meet the guy who'd write his own mother...

The 2nd benefit of using radar defense this that when you are alerted, you should become a far more defensive driver to the vehicles in close proximity to you... Once these other drivers see the officer running radar, they do some pretty crazy stuff... They slam on brakes, they swerve into other lanes, ect... If you know radar is being ran ahead, you can prepare for these nut bag drivers...

Legality:

Radar detector are legal in all states except Virginia, Washington DC, and on military installations... Federal law prohibits radar detectors in all commercial vehicles over 10,000 pounds..

Laser shifters / jammers are legal in all states except California, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee, and South Carolina...

Radar Jammers (different from Radar Detectors and Laser Shifters / Jammers) are prohibited by Federal Law...

See ---> http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/...6/da962040.pdf

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PART ONE -- What you are up against:

Types of radar in the USA:

X-Band 10.525 GHz +/- 25 MHz
K-Band 24.150 GHz +/- 100 MHz
Ka-Band 33.4-36 GHz

X-Band is the least common police radar. It is rarely used anymore except in a couple of states, most notably New Jersey and Ohio. Some small towns might also use it on occasion. X-Band IS frequently used by motion sensors, such as those that automatically open the doors at your local supermarket, so in most cases this is what causes X-band false alerts.

K-Band probably has the most radar units out there on the road. However, K-Band is also used for some motions sensors too. Treat K-Band alerts with caution, until you have identified the source.

Ka-Band radar is the newest band utilized for police radar. Some sources claim that most of the new units sold are Ka. Generally, with the higher end detectors, false alerts on Ka are rare, so every Ka alert should be treated as police radar until you know otherwise.

POP:

POP Mode is a feature that was introduced by MPH Industries in their latest radar guns, designed to defeat radar detectors. POP acquires a vehicle's speed by sending out a quick burst of radar. This burst was so short that detectors available at the time of POP's introduction did not alert to it, either due to a sweep rate that was too slow to detect it at all, or due to the short burst being filtered out as a false alert. Fortunately, many radar detector manufacturers have since added POP detection capability to their latest radar detectors.

Radar guns that currently have the POP feature:

MPH BEE III = 67ms, K or Ka-Band
MPH Enforcer = 67ms, K or-Ka Band
MPH Z25 = 16ms K-Band
MPH Z35 = 16ms K-Band

Laser Gun Pulse Rates in the USA:

Ultralyte 100/200 Standard 100 pps
Ultralyte 100/200 LR 100 pps
Ultralyte 100/200 LR 125 pps
Kustom Prolaser III, Kustom ProLit 200 pps
Kustom Prolaser II 238 pps
Kustom Prolaser I 380 pps
Laser Atlanta 238 pps
Stalker LZ-1 130 pps

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PART TWO -- Radar and Laser Defense Gear

Radar Detectors

Radar detectors are superhetrodyne receivers, similar to a scanner. First, they use a microwave horn antenna to receive the radar signal. The radar signal is generally passed on to a mixer stage, where it is mixed with a first local oscillator to produce an IF. The IF is generally passed on to one or two more mixers and IF stages depending on the design. Finally the signal is detected, and then handled by the processing and control circuitry to produce a visual and audible alert. Radar detectors usually sweep the first LO (and sometimes the 2nd or third too) in order to sweep the different police radar bands for a signal. They will also contain multiple filter and amplifier stages.

Laser Jammers

Generally speaking, the jammer must first recognise that it is being shot at. Then it must determine what kind of gun is shooting at it. Then it must fire back with the appropriate beam, at the appropriate pulse-rate, as no two laser gun models are the same. And all of this must happen at the speed of light. As you can see, it is not simply a matter of shining light back at the laser gun. However, in the past there was one jammer -- The Lidatek LE10 -- that employed "brute force" of high intensity laser optics as part of the equation, which allowed it better success at blinding a laser gun. Guns are more sophisticated these days though, so the "brute force" concept remains a valid adjunct factor, but cannot be reasonably relied upon as a sole manner of jamming laser. Consequently, don't fool yourself thinking that just adding a bunch of lights of any kind to your car is going to protect you.

One common misconception is that the laser beam from a police LIDAR gun is a very small, pinpoint beam, as common lasers are. It is not. The beam from police LIDAR, even at a very short distance, is several inches wide. At typical engagement distances (around 500 feet), the beam width is likely to cover the entire front end of your car. Consequently, simply protecting your licence plates and/or headlights with passive measures alone will not help you. The entire front end must be protected by a competent jammer.

Photo Defense:

Using GPS technology, the detector alerts you with audible and / or visual alerts to high risk accident areas and photo-enforcement safety cameras, including Redflex, ATS, Nestor, Lasercraft, Gatso, Redspeed, Traffipax, TruVelo, SPECS Average Speed cameras, Watchman, Speedcurb and many more.

These photo / speed camera detectors are updated via online databases... They use the preloaded locations and your GPS position to alert you to known photo / speed camera locations before you reach them...

Veil

VEIL is a "stealth coating" that is designed to absorb the LIDAR energy from a police laser gun to reduce the range that the officer can obtain a speed reading. Veil is generally coated onto headlights, fog lights, tail lights, and license plates..

09-13-2010, 07:33 PM	#1
raqball Drives: 2010 Camaro Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: California Posts: 636	The Radar / Laser MEGA thread Plenty of threads out there recently on radar and laser... Some have good information and some have very bad information... References used: Guys of Lidar: http://www.guysoflidar.com/index.html Radar Detector Forums: http://www.radardetector.net/forums/ Escort: http://www.escortradar.com Beltronics: http://www.beltronics.com/ Blinder: http://www.blinder.net/ Laser Interceptor: http://www.laser-interceptorusa.com/home.html Valentine One: http://www.valentine1.com/ Cheetah: http://www.gpsdetector.com/ Federal Communications Commission: http://www.fcc.gov/ I will try to keep this thread updated and informative... This will be a four part thread: Part One will be What you are up against... Part Two will be Radar and Laser Defense Gear.. Part Three will be mounting locations and test results... Part Four will be defense gear recommendations... Please do not turn this thread into a radar detectors are worthless and a waste of money thread... If you feel that way, please post it in one of the other radar related threads... About me... I am a retired Police Officer who ran radar enforcement for over 10-years... I also trained other officers on radar enforcement... I am also a radar defense enthusiast... A bit odd, I know.. 1st of all let me say speeding is dangerous! The higher your speed the more time it takes for you to react, and brake... The higher the speed, the worse the accident in most cases... Please drive safe and never use radar defense gear as an open ended ticket (pun intended) to haul ass.. I have seen and work many horrific accidents over my years where speed was the major contributing factor... Dead children and decapitated motorists is NOT a pleasant sight... In my opinion radar / laser defense should be used for 2 reasons... 1st so you can check your speed... There are some rather aggressive officers out there who would write their own mother for 5 mph over... When your defense systems sounds, check your speed and adjust accordingly... A ticket these days is not cheap.. Add to that the higher insurance costs and points taken off your license and you get the idea.... A simple moment of lax and you can easily be 8-10 mph over... Murphy's law says that is when you will meet the guy who'd write his own mother... The 2nd benefit of using radar defense this that when you are alerted, you should become a far more defensive driver to the vehicles in close proximity to you... Once these other drivers see the officer running radar, they do some pretty crazy stuff... They slam on brakes, they swerve into other lanes, ect... If you know radar is being ran ahead, you can prepare for these nut bag drivers... Legality: Radar detector are legal in all states except Virginia, Washington DC, and on military installations... Federal law prohibits radar detectors in all commercial vehicles over 10,000 pounds.. Laser shifters / jammers are legal in all states except California, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee, and South Carolina... Radar Jammers (different from Radar Detectors and Laser Shifters / Jammers) are prohibited by Federal Law... See ---> http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/...6/da962040.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART ONE -- What you are up against: Types of radar in the USA: X-Band 10.525 GHz +/- 25 MHz K-Band 24.150 GHz +/- 100 MHz Ka-Band 33.4-36 GHz X-Band is the least common police radar. It is rarely used anymore except in a couple of states, most notably New Jersey and Ohio. Some small towns might also use it on occasion. X-Band IS frequently used by motion sensors, such as those that automatically open the doors at your local supermarket, so in most cases this is what causes X-band false alerts. K-Band probably has the most radar units out there on the road. However, K-Band is also used for some motions sensors too. Treat K-Band alerts with caution, until you have identified the source. Ka-Band radar is the newest band utilized for police radar. Some sources claim that most of the new units sold are Ka. Generally, with the higher end detectors, false alerts on Ka are rare, so every Ka alert should be treated as police radar until you know otherwise. POP: POP Mode is a feature that was introduced by MPH Industries in their latest radar guns, designed to defeat radar detectors. POP acquires a vehicle's speed by sending out a quick burst of radar. This burst was so short that detectors available at the time of POP's introduction did not alert to it, either due to a sweep rate that was too slow to detect it at all, or due to the short burst being filtered out as a false alert. Fortunately, many radar detector manufacturers have since added POP detection capability to their latest radar detectors. Radar guns that currently have the POP feature: MPH BEE III = 67ms, K or Ka-Band MPH Enforcer = 67ms, K or-Ka Band MPH Z25 = 16ms K-Band MPH Z35 = 16ms K-Band Laser Gun Pulse Rates in the USA: Ultralyte 100/200 Standard 100 pps Ultralyte 100/200 LR 100 pps Ultralyte 100/200 LR 125 pps Kustom Prolaser III, Kustom ProLit 200 pps Kustom Prolaser II 238 pps Kustom Prolaser I 380 pps Laser Atlanta 238 pps Stalker LZ-1 130 pps --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PART TWO -- Radar and Laser Defense Gear Radar Detectors Radar detectors are superhetrodyne receivers, similar to a scanner. First, they use a microwave horn antenna to receive the radar signal. The radar signal is generally passed on to a mixer stage, where it is mixed with a first local oscillator to produce an IF. The IF is generally passed on to one or two more mixers and IF stages depending on the design. Finally the signal is detected, and then handled by the processing and control circuitry to produce a visual and audible alert. Radar detectors usually sweep the first LO (and sometimes the 2nd or third too) in order to sweep the different police radar bands for a signal. They will also contain multiple filter and amplifier stages. Laser Jammers Generally speaking, the jammer must first recognise that it is being shot at. Then it must determine what kind of gun is shooting at it. Then it must fire back with the appropriate beam, at the appropriate pulse-rate, as no two laser gun models are the same. And all of this must happen at the speed of light. As you can see, it is not simply a matter of shining light back at the laser gun. However, in the past there was one jammer -- The Lidatek LE10 -- that employed "brute force" of high intensity laser optics as part of the equation, which allowed it better success at blinding a laser gun. Guns are more sophisticated these days though, so the "brute force" concept remains a valid adjunct factor, but cannot be reasonably relied upon as a sole manner of jamming laser. Consequently, don't fool yourself thinking that just adding a bunch of lights of any kind to your car is going to protect you. One common misconception is that the laser beam from a police LIDAR gun is a very small, pinpoint beam, as common lasers are. It is not. The beam from police LIDAR, even at a very short distance, is several inches wide. At typical engagement distances (around 500 feet), the beam width is likely to cover the entire front end of your car. Consequently, simply protecting your licence plates and/or headlights with passive measures alone will not help you. The entire front end must be protected by a competent jammer. Photo Defense: Using GPS technology, the detector alerts you with audible and / or visual alerts to high risk accident areas and photo-enforcement safety cameras, including Redflex, ATS, Nestor, Lasercraft, Gatso, Redspeed, Traffipax, TruVelo, SPECS Average Speed cameras, Watchman, Speedcurb and many more. These photo / speed camera detectors are updated via online databases... They use the preloaded locations and your GPS position to alert you to known photo / speed camera locations before you reach them... Veil VEIL is a "stealth coating" that is designed to absorb the LIDAR energy from a police laser gun to reduce the range that the officer can obtain a speed reading. Veil is generally coated onto headlights, fog lights, tail lights, and license plates.. Last edited by raqball; 09-14-2010 at 04:25 PM.