Radar Detectors

A radar detector, sometimes called a fuzz buster, is an electronic device used by motorists to determine if their speed is being monitored by a radar unit. more...

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To do so, police bounce a radio wave off of a moving vehicle with a radar gun or other radar device that determines the vehicle's speed by the Doppler-effect-moderated change in the wave's frequency. Most of today's radar detectors detect signals across a variety of wavelength bands – usually X, K and K_a (as well as K_u, in Europe, also recently approved for use in the U.S).

These devices should not be confused with LIDAR detectors and jammers, or GPS-based warning systems that use a speed camera Point of Interest database to warn a driver who is approaching a speed camera's vicinity.

Newer speed detection devices use pulsed laser light, commonly referred to as LIDAR, rather than radio waves. Modern radar detectors have been modified to alert to the infrared light emitted by such LIDAR guns. LIDAR detection, however, is not nearly as effective as radar detection because the output beam is very focused. While radar's radio waves can expand to 85 feet across at 1000 feet from their source, LIDAR's light beam expands to only about 6 feet. Also, a police officer targeting a car will most likely aim for the center mass or headlight of the vehicle and, because radar detectors are mounted on the windshield away from the beam's aim, they may not alert at all. Lastly, with such a focused beam, an officer using a LIDAR gun can target a single car in close proximity to others at ranges of up to 3000 feet.

Despite the advent of LIDAR speed detection, radar remains more prevalent because of its lower price relative to LIDAR equipment and the amount of radar equipment already in service. A severe limitation of LIDAR is that it cannot be used while the police car is in motion, because it requires the operator to actively target each target vehicle whereas traditional radar can be operated while the police officer is driving his car. Popularity of LIDAR speed detection is on the rise, though, as costs decline, ease of operability approaches radar, and existing radar equipment reaches its end-of-service life and is rotated out of service.

Popular radar detector brands include Beltronics, Cobra, Escort, K40, Valentine One, and Whistler.

Radar Scrambling

Although some companies advertise that their radar detectors can 'scramble' or 'absorb' radar and LIDAR (such as Rocky Mountain Radar), many or all of their products do not affect radar and laser equipment due to the low power intake from the device versus the high power that bounces off a vehicle.

Read more at Wikipedia.org