Radar Lock

[Orbital75]

I know I've seen this posted somewhere but when I do a search a bunch of gibberish that has nothing to do with my search terms come up.


How far away can a LEO acquire a ' Speed Lock ' with Radar.
Being X, K, KA, any of these. Do different Bands Lock at different
distances.

Thanks

[Won Hunglo]

There is no one right answer. Depends on the radar, conditions & operator. I routinely lock vehicles at over 1 mile with my Stalker.

[asianfire]

There is no one right answer. Depends on the radar, conditions & operator. I routinely lock vehicles at over 1 mile with my Stalker.

Yeah, but here's the thing about that. A mile away, if there is more then 2 cars, it is almost impossible to know which one is speeding. Heck, I can't even see that far, but I have horrible eye sight.

[jimbonzzz]

The maximum possible target range will vary from vehicle to vehicle depending on the radar cross section. For example, here's a Car & Driver test from way back in 1979(!). They used a Kustom KR-11, results are in feet.



But of course, different models etc will have different maximum ranges against the same vehicle.

You can view a more recent study against some current guns: HERE.

To som things up, it is generally a couple thousand feet to over a mile depending on the mode and the circumstances.

Jim

[10-8]

For it to count in court the operator must be able to visualize the vehicle before he/she can use the lock feature.

Meaning that a unit can lock a vehicle speed up to a mile, but I doubt many officers can see good enough that far to make the right identification.

1 car on a long highway stretch with no other traffic at all then it's possible.

But on the average, radar is used at less than 1500 ft or so , at least that is what we were trained for. I liked finding places that were like 500-1000ft with range set on about 2-3, little to no warning, but in my area it's very good for hiding lots of small hills and roadway rises.

Take care
10-8

[bauzer71487]

Physically these guys are right. . .

I think the most they can get you at and hold in you court of law when there is decent traffic is .3 miles. Which correlates to about 1584 feet.

[Orbital75]

Thanks guys....... very informative.

I'm thinking since the officer has to make a visual lock on, 1000 feet or less would be accurate.
Now if your the only car on the road I'm sure it's a different story.

[KnightHawk]

I liked finding places that were like 500-1000ft with range set on about 2-3, little to no warning, but in my area it's very good for hiding lots of small hills and roadway rises.

Take care
10-8

Before i got my own police radar, i use to always ask myself, is my radar detector working or not. Range is short at times considering LEO was close and at times i pick signals from long distances. GTO_04 was also wondering if the power output for police radars vary.

10-8, do you know if your radars have selectable power output? Is that also the same as range selection? Some radar specs would say that power output is 10mw to 50mw.

I can tell a big difference when selecting range at shortest and longest in instant on application.

[stalker]

her eis a vid I shot abput 2 months ago....look right up the top of the road...i was getting his speed and that was on a old kustom radar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUvzODAK58

[10-8]

I liked finding places that were like 500-1000ft with range set on about 2-3, little to no warning, but in my area it's very good for hiding lots of small hills and roadway rises.

Take care
10-8

10-8, do you know if your radars have selectable power output? Is that also the same as range selection? Some radar specs would say that power output is 10mw to 50mw.

Hi,

Yes there is a direct relation to power/sensitivity and range, the longer range requires more power.

Only older radar K-55 X for example uses 10- 50mw I'm pretty sure.

The newer radars use a 1/10 of that. My unit is a Decatur speed trak Ka, and it's power output is 5mw-15mw max, I would say all newer radars use the same power output.
I have a K band directional handheld that is 5mw nominal, and with it set on range of 2 on a straight away I get less than 500 ft notice on straight away with an RD, with range on max I get roughly less than 2000 ft notice with an RD

Have a good one
10-8