Technical
Details
How
Radar
Works
Traffic radar,
which
consists
of
microwaves,
travels in straight lines and
is
easily reflected
byobjects such as cars, trucks, even
guardrails and overpasses. Radar works by
directing its microwave beam
down
the
road.
As
yourvehicle travels into range,
the
microwave beam bounces offyour car, and
the radar antenna looks for the reflections.
Using the Doppler Principle,
the
radar
equipment
then
calculates your speed
by
comparing
the
frequency
of
the reflection
of
your car to the original frequency
of
the
beam sent out.
Traffic radar has limitations,
the
most
significant
of
these being that it typically can
monitor only
one
target at a time.
If
there
is
more than
one
vehicle within range, it
is
up
to
the
radar operator to decide
which
target
is
producing
the
strongest reflection. Since
the strength
of
the reflection
is
affected
by
both
the
size
of
the vehicle and its prox-
imity to
the
antenna, it
is
difficult for the
radar operator to determine
if
the
signal
is
from a sports car nearby
or
a semi-truck
several hundred feet away.
Radar range also depends
on
the
power
of
the
radar equipment itself. The strength
of
the radar unit's beam diminishes with
distance. The farther
the
radar has to travel,
the less energy it has for speed detection.
20
Because intrusion alarms and motion
sensors often operate
on
the
same
frequency as
X-Band
radar, your
RX65
will
occasionally receive non-police radar
signals. Since these
X-Band
transmitters are
usually contained inside
of
a building,
or
aimed toward the ground, theywill
generally produce
much
weaker readings
than will a true radar encounter.
As
you
become familiar with
the
sources
of
these
pseudo alarms in your daily driving, they
will serve as confirmation that your RX65's
radar detection abilities are fully
operational.
How
IIPOP"
Works
"pOP" mode
is
a relatively
new
feature for
radar
gun manufacturers. It works by
transmitting an extrelnely short burst,
within the allocated band, to identify
speeding vehicles in traffic. Once
the
target
is
identified,
or
"POPPED,"
the
gun
is
then
turned to its normal operating
mode
to
prOVide
a vehicle tracking history, (required
bylaw).
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