Advantages for LEOs

[asianfire]

Can anyone tell me if there is an advantage for LEOs to have, say, Ka band radar vs. K vs. X? This is assuming that there are no countermeasures involved from their targets.

Does one get a faster reading then another for instance?

[AirMoore]

Well...

1st: Ka 'scatters' less and has a narrower 'spread', so it makes it much harder for RD users to detect (as you know).

2nd: It is a much larger frequency band then X/K, so again harder to detect.

3rd: I believe that Ka is just a bit better as far as detection of cars over a distance vs. X/K band (and I mean slightly)... the cross-sectional area visable to the Radar unit of your car would be much more important then anything else in that respect.

[kpatz]

Most of the advantages are in the newer technology used in newer guns, as opposed to the band. Ka guns have the newer digital technology which generally makes them superior in performance, but not because they're Ka. Newer K guns are superior in performance as well. In fact, K propagates and spreads farther than Ka, so a modern K-band gun can (in theory at least) clock traffic farther out than an equivalent Ka gun. But, on the other side of the coin, K is easier to detect further out.

[asianfire]

Thanks guys, however, I knew all that anyways. I guess my point was that if you were a police dept. and not worried about RDs or other counter measures, would there be any reason to get a new gun if the old one works ok.

Both of you talked about further distance, but as we all know, 90% of speed traps focus on a small section of the road (they have to do that to be kept hidden from plain sight) that doesn't require a 'long distance' of detection.

The whole reason that I asked was because my county is rather rich, but still uses older K band radar (I mean old, most guns have scratches and the older square cone shaped). I was just wondering if they would get any advantage over a NON-countermeasure user with a newer unit.

[AirMoore]

Well I would maybe assume the newer the unit the easier it would be to fix/upgrade it... rather then trying to find parts for radar guns 20years old.

Thats just my opinion though.

[richardboy316]

yeah just in general
-quicker speed acquiring
-the most new technology for stationary and moving modes,opposite way and Same lane, meaning more accuracy
-smaller antennas
-more reliability
-harder for RD's to pick up
-farther distance

[Spare Tire]

I'm astounded that the LEO's aren't going back to X band....it would blend in to all the retail store 'junk' and hide like a criminal, and we would ignore them!

[richardboy316]

I'm astounded that the LEO's aren't going back to X band....it would blend in to all the retail store 'junk' and hide like a criminal, and we would ignore them!

my thoughts exactly....also, some poeple have x-band disabled on their rd's