mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) (08/16/84)
In a number of articles about building radar jammers, one point that is always mentioned is that a good one is expensive. However, given that a cheap radar detector often jams (i.e. sends false signals to) other radar detectors, it seems that a radar jammer would be quite cheap. Can someone explain this appearant paradox? -- Mike^Z allegra!pegasus!mzal Zaleski@Rutgers
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (08/16/84)
A cheap radar detector does not have to emit much energy for it to be detected by another nearby radar detector when there is no real radar signal present. It would require considerably more signal strength to reach the radar gun at a higher power level than the signal bounced off the car itself when the car is in range. Also, a simple continuous-wave microwave signal in the right frequency range is enough for a radar detector to decide that there is a transmitter out there somewhere. But for a transmitter to jam the radar gun, it should be modulated, or perhaps have its frequency locked to but shifted slightly from the gun's transmitted signal. Radar detectors just look for the presence of a signal which is assumed to mean that there is a radar unit nearby. Radar guns are measuring a particular parameter of a reflected signal, and are thus harder to fool than the detector.