[rec.autos] Radar

gil@limbic.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) (09/19/88)

In article <12462@duke.cs.duke.edu> gazit@bein.UUCP (Hillel Gazit) writes:
|>I was caught by a police radar which claimed that I was going 65 MPH.
|>My speed was 55 MPH.  I think that something was wrong with the radar,
|>so I want to challenge the policeman in court.
|>Hillel                      gazit@cs.duke.edu

You might want to clock your OWN speedometer before you begin your fight in
court.  Although you probably have a chance of winning, if your speedometer
is inaccurate you might have another ticket before your court date!

I wouldn't bother saying anything about this except that it happened to me.
I was doing exactly 55, and got pulled over for doing 66.  When I drove my
car down a metered mile and clocked it, I found that my car's speed was 1.2
times the speed my speedometer was reading.  Note that 55 * 1.2 is, indeed,
66.

Followups on this are directed to rec.autos,rec.autos.tech.

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eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) (09/19/88)

followups to rec.autos

In article <12462@duke.cs.duke.edu> gazit@bein.UUCP (Hillel Gazit) writes:
>
>I was caught by a police radar which claimed that I was going 65 MPH.
>My speed was 55 MPH.  I think that something was wrong with the radar,
>so I want to challenge the policeman in court.
>Can someone please post a list of things that can wrong with a radar?

	there's a good book about fighting radar speeding tickets.
	(i don't recall the name -- go ask the folks in rec.autos!)
	the units can have calibration problems.  usually the cop 
	has to prove that he has calibrated the unit properly within
	the previous few days...  or some 'suitable' time limit.
	if there were other cars around, he may have gotten a reading
	from a faster car...  
 
>Can someone post, in addition, what went wrong with the radar of the ship
>that has shot down the Iranian airliner?

	from what i understand, the Vincennes radar made no mistakes and 
	worked as expected under the short range conditions it was being 
	used in.  the radar operator and the captain made the mistake...  
	a comprehensive discussion on this issue can be found in back
	issues of comp.risks.

	military radars and police radars are very different beasts.
	their missions are worlds apart...

>(I want to ask the policeman how comes his radar cannot make any mistakes,
>when the radar of a very expensive warship has made them.)

	be careful about asking cops such things!  be real nice!
	good luck with your ticket.  65 in a 55 is one wimpy ticket.
	are the California fuzz usually so picky?