Legal or not?

[M_Six]

I was driving west from Champaign to Springfield, Il this afternoon on I-72 and passed an old red pickup truck with a farmer Brown looking guy driving. I thought I saw a radar unit mounted to his dash and as soon as I passed him, I got a full blown K-band alert. As I-72 is pretty flat and straight, I continued getting the alert for 20 miles or so. I think he finally exited the highway.

Two questions:
1) Is it legal for anyone to mount and run a radar unit?
2) As my Escort 8500 was muted for that K-band alert, would it have alerted again for a real cop's K-band? I know if you mute an X-band signal and then get a K-band hit, the alert will still sound. But I'm not sure if it will sound for a like band signal.

[marker227]

It's legal to own and operate a radar gun and mount it.

[Spinner55]

Hello,

Some people own them. I have been known to own a few. (see picture)
You need a license for some units.

Take care,

Spin

[M_Six]

Is there a good reason to run a radar unit all the time if you're not a cop? I can see using it for testing, but just running down the road with the thing on for no reason other than to screw with people seems a bit odd, no?

[jdong]

Is there a good reason to run a radar unit all the time if you're not a cop? I can see using it for testing, but just running down the road with the thing on for no reason other than to screw with people seems a bit odd, no?

Sounds like fun if I can afford one

[Jabomb9]

Before I was even into radar detectors, my dad made this little device that would set off RDs on the road. Since our family would travel from WA to ND, we would bring that with us and have some fun, and believe me, it was fun. That was a few years ago, and unfortunately, I cannot find it anymore.

But I don't do that anymore that I own a RD and have respect for RD drivers.

[M_Six]

Sounds like fun if I can afford one

Like shooting at people with blanks, right? Great fun. :roll:

[jdong]

Sounds like fun if I can afford one

Like shooting at people with blanks, right? Great fun. :roll:

They might not be doing it intentionally to make people with RD's crap their pants (at least I hope they have the dignity not to) -- it's not at all abnormal to see people around here traveling in pairs and zapping each other with radar, or just to familiarize themselves with the equipment by shooting traffic.

[KustomEagle]

don't know why he'd run it in CO like that.

On road trips i mount mine to have some fun with cobra owners


Maybe that guys speedo was broke though I bet if he had a Ka gun (usually expensive compared to x or K) he probably wasn't using it for that.

[Won Hunglo]

Sounds like any small town Texas LEO. A dude in overalls in an old pick up truck with flashers in the grill & tail lights with an old K or X band gun being ran on CO.