pinkston.jon

I run a built-in K40 w/ laser jamming & love it. Thing detects LONG before a LEO can get a legitimate signal.

As far as LIDAR goes, it's not a narrow beam as described above, but it's damn sure sold that way. It's a different light frequency than radar & it spreads similar. Depts are trained that it's like a laser pointer/laser gun sight, but that's all marketing/propoganda.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I don't know who told you that but it is 100% wrong. Calculating beam width at a distance is done by taking the tangent of the emitter's angle and multiplying by the distance. As an example, the ProLaser III gun has a square beam that is 3.0 microradians or about 0.172 degrees so the beam spreads to about 3x3 foot square at 1000 feet from the emitter. By comparison, the typical radar gun has a 12 degree angle which results in a beam 212 feet wide at 1000 feet. I would call that a significant difference. A 3 foot beam could be easily blocked by a vehicle in front but a 212 foot beam would cover all lanes of the road and then some.

Also, radar (which is radio waves not light) reflects off of almost anything solid whereas the laser does not reflect well off of surfaces that don't have reflective coatings. That's why laser is targeted at license plates, headlights, and chrome trim for the best reflectivity. Add to that the fact that the 905nm laser is in the range that can be damaging to the eye at high power forces the use of only a low power beam that also makes detection difficult.

The end result is that laser is many times more difficult to detect for warning purposes than radar. The detector has to pick up the beam while aimed at someone else because if it only picks up when you are targeted, you can't possibly slow down faster than the (less than a) second or so it takes to read your speed.

pinkston.jon

Guess I'm going to have to look into it further then. I do know for sure the laser jammer side works well though because I've been hit a few times & the LEO couldn't get a lock.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Laser jammers are legal in most states and the good ones are quite effective at a distance (certainly far enough to give you time to slow down). That is because light emissions are not regulated by the federal government through the FCC.

There are two types of radar jammers - passive and active. Passive jammers basically do nothing except waste your money. I remember a time when they used to say put wadded up aluminum foil behind your wheel covers to confuse radar. Active radar jamming can be quite effective if you have the budget of the US military to set it up. And active jamming involves radar (radio) emissions which are under the jurisdiction of the FCC and are highly illegal under federal law. I'm talking cart you off to jail illegal not just a ticket.

I used to have a nice K40 SonarRadar remote setup that worked very well but it didn't have any display showing signal band (it used only an LED and different alert tones to differentiate for X, K, and Ka).