How Radar Detectors Work

There are many drivers who want to know how radar detectors work? We'll Radar detectors are designed to look for radar signals being admitted from police radars. The police radar guns admit a series of radar pulses that can calculate the speed of a car by how long the radar pulses take to return back to the radar gun after they bounce off the car. The radar detector searches for these pulses and attempts to intercept them even before they bounce off the targeted car. Radar detectors use a technology called Superheterodyne design that allows detectors to detect pulses around corners, and over hills. The range can also extend straight ahead.


All radar detectors should have the ability to locate different types of radars. Due to low frequency and high power output, the X-band radar is very easy to detect. Depending on the area, humidity and temperature, the detection of radar can vary from 2 to 4 miles. X-band radar can accurately read speeds from a distance of a half mile or less. Any farther and the reading may be incorrect. Radar detectors can also give off false alarms due to the fact that microwave towers, Garage door openers, and other equipment posses X-band signals.


Most police radar today uses K-band technology. This radar has small wavelength. It's clocking range is most effective at 1/4 of a mile to 2 miles depending on the area the weather and other factors. This type of radar would be late in detecting police radar. A speeding driver would have already been clocked.


Another method in how radar detectors work is the Ka Photo Cop and the Ka wide-band. These radars are set for a predetermined speed that activates the camera When the car approaches it at that speed. A picture of the cars license plate, and driver's face, date, location and time will be taken. Once the pictures are developed speeders will have their tickets mailed to them. These radars can clock and photograph at least 200 vehicles per hour. The range of these cameras is 120 to 3000 feet and they constantly transmit a signal. This can make them easily detected by vehicle radar detectors. Which is a plus for us speeders.


Now the Ka super wide-band is a stalker radar gun With the capability of FCC licensing of any frequency in the Ka-band between 33.4 GHz to 36.0 Ghz. Therefore this technology cannot be detected by radar detectors that only detect X,K and photo radar. Laser radar is more accurate at identifying a particular vehicle and the clocking time is only half a second and is accurate up to 1 1/2 miles. Whats bad about laser radar guns is that they are expensive, do not work behind glass, can only be used standing still, and the person using them must have a very steady hand.


Jamming signals


Conventional radar detectors are designed to pick up police radar. But more sophisticated radar detectors are designed to scramble and jam police radar. These type of detectors play an aggressive part in escaping detection by means of emitting a jamming signal. The signal copies the original signal from the police radar gun, but also mixes it with additional radio noise. This causes the police radar to get a confusing echo signal resulting in inaccurate speed readings.


Some radar detectors posses a light-sensitive panel that can detect lidar gun beams. These devices are extremely difficult to evade, due to the fact that lidar beams are much more focused and doesn't carry all that well over long distances. Vehicles are usually in the beams sights long before the detector can pick up its presence. Some speeders use laser jammers that work the same way as radar jammers.

It is most important to remember that none of these devices are a 100% full proof. Knowing how radar detectors work will give you an advantage when driving on the road. The best and most efficient way to avoid getting a ticket is to just simply slow down.

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Radar Detection | How Radar Works | Radar

Radar detection and the basics of radar

Have you ever wanted to know how radar works? We'll Radar detection is something being used everywhere, it is all around us. Radar uses electromagnetic waves to identify the altitude, direction, and range of both moving and fixed objects. The military uses radar to detect enemy and friendly aircraft. Radar is also used to guide missiles and other weapons. Air traffic control uses radar to track, and guide aircraft on the ground, and in the air. Radar can track storms, hurricanes and tornadoes.




You may ask yourself what makes radar so useful? Well radar is used to accomplish one of three things:

• Detect the presence of an object at a distance - like an airplane or boat, however radar can also be used to detect non- moving objects. Radar can also detect objects hidden underground. Radar can also identify the target it is detecting.

• Detect the speed of an object - Police use radar for speed detection.

• Map something - Synthetic Aperture Radar is used by satellites to create detailed topographic maps of the surface of planets and moons.

These activities can be accomplished by echo and Doppler shift. Echo and Doppler shift are heard by your ears everyday(the realm of sound). By using radio waves radar makes use of these same techniques.




The term RADAR was coined in 1941, short for radio detection and ranging. Radar was originally called RDF (Radio Direction Finder). A radar system has a transmitter that emits either microwaves or radio waves. These waves are reflected by the target and detected by a receiver in the same location as the transmitter. Normally when the reflected signal returns it is very weak. However it can be amplified, making radar capable of detecting objects at ranges where other emissions, such as sound or visible light, would be to weak to detect. There are many variations on radar usage such as meteorological detection of precipitation, measuring ocean surface waves, air traffic control, police detection of speeders.


When you know what radar is detecting, you can get a basic understanding of radar detection, and how radar works. For example a Speed gun used by a police officer is really just a radio transmitter and receiver combined into a single unit. A radio transmitter oscillates electrical current. This electricity generates electromagnetic energy. When the current is oscillated or made to move back and forth between two points, the energy travels through air as an electromagnetic wave. The transmitter also amplifies the electromagnetic energy, and broadcasts it into the air by antenna.

A Radio receiver is the opposite of a transmitter. It picks up electromagnetic waves with an antenna, and the waves are converted back to an electric current, basically radio is just the transmission of electromagnetic waves through space. Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the altitude, direction, speed and range of both moving and fixed objects. This is how radar works in simplest form, it tells you how far away objects are. The radar device does this by emitting concentrated radio waves, and listening for any echos. If any objects are in the path of the radio waves, they will reflect some of the electromagnetic energy, thus causing the radio waves to bounce back to the radar device. Radio waves travel through the air a consistent speed which is the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). So radar devices can calculate how far away the object is based on how long it takes the radio signal to return.



Doppler Shift


Doppler radar is radar which uses the Doppler effect of returned echoes from targets to measure their radial velocity.
Doppler shift refers to the method in which radar is used to measure the speed of an object. Radio waves have a certain frequency, the number of oscillations per unit of time. The Doppler effect is produced by a moving source of waves in which there is a shift upward in frequency as the waves move closer. Take for example the sound wave of a passing fire engine truck. The sound of the fire truck blowing it's horns and sirens will become "higher" in pitch as it approaches, and "lower" in pitch as it speeds away. So the number of sound waves reaching your ear in a given amount of time (frequency) determines the tone, or pitch, perceived. The tone will remain the same if the fire truck and yourself are
not moving relative to each other. As the truck moves closer to you the number of sound waves reaching your ear increases. Making the pitch increase. However the opposite happens when the fire truck moves away from you.



Echo


Echo is something you experience everyday. For instance: If you shout down a hallway, the echo returns a moment later. This is because some of the sound waves in your shout reflect off the surface of the walls and travel back to your ears. The time it takes for you to hear your echo after you shout depends on the distance between you and the surface that creates your echo.



Bat sonar


Bats have a sort of radar detection that they use to navigate when they fly and hunt for food. This amazing acquired system is called bat sonar, or sometimes referred to as echolocation. By shouting at ultrasonic frequencies (usually above 20kHz), bats are able to detect echos reflected from objects in it's path. Amazingly they can fly around at great speeds in total darkness without crashing into anything. Their unique sonar system can also detect small insects from a few meters away. The sounds they use to navigate are much to high- pitched (up to 120,000 cycles per second) for human ears to hear. After shouting, they are extremely accurate in listening out and "scanning" the obstacles around themselves and " sees" by the timing and direction of the returning sound waves.

By studying this remarkable animal you can gain a good understanding of radar detection and how radar works.



Radar Images


Precipitation is generally viewed on a map as reflected particles. Depending on it's intensity, different colors will appear on the map. This is what weather radar looks like when you view it. The different levels of energy pulses reflected from precipitation will correspond to each color on the radar screen.

The size of the particles, how many there are, and their physical state (liquid-rain solid-hail) and shape will determine the strength of the pulse that's returning to the radar. Considering all these factors enables the estimation of the rate of rain at the ground. This is just another unique way of how radar works.




Understanding radar


In their basic form radars have four main components:

• A transmitter, which creates energy pulses.

• A transmit/receive switch that tells the antenna when to transmit and when to receive the pulses.
• An antenna to send these pulses out into the atmosphere and receive the reflected pulse back.

• A receiver, which detects, amplifies and transforms the received signals into video format

The received signals are displayed on a display system.



Radar output comes in two forms: reflectivity and velocity.

Reflectivity is a measure of precipitation in a particular area.
Velocity is a measure of the speed and direction of the precipitation toward or away from the radar.



Radar errors


Radar images are not always accurate, and precipitation is not what you'll always see on a radar screen while detecting the atmosphere. Precipitation is sometimes detected while occurring higher in the atmosphere but does not reach the ground. That is why radar may show rain sometimes when it is not raining. This is described as virga.

Sometimes the radar may be reflecting sea and ground clutter, such as birds, mountains, planes, and boats which are blocking the beam either whole or partly. Being that Doppler radar has a high rate of sensitivity, this is a more common problem with this particular radar.

As you can see radar is a part of everyday life, from weather radar, to submarine radar, down to the doors that automatically open in the grocery store. Radar is everywhere, and it's helped mankind to make many advancements in the study of sound. After reading this I hope you have a better and more clear understanding of radar detection and how radar works.

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