wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (06/14/84)
Stuffing steel wool into your hubcaps is a good idea if your into clean hupcaps on the inside.
mikey@trsvax.UUCP (06/18/84)
#R:pegasus:-141500:trsvax:55200073:000:1705 trsvax!mikey Jun 18 12:30:00 1984 If you have an older Corvette, i.e. pre '84, and you have a front license plate, make sure you angle the plate forward about 30 degrees. This works on any car, but is most noticable on the vettes because of their low radar profile. Honda civics are also a low profile car. As for other cars, Back in 1980 Car and Driver did an article on Radar Range. They even found a guy who bought some carbon foam sheets and glued them on the hood and front of his Porsche to make it almost invisible to radar. The only problem with low profile is that you become more suseptable to the traffic around you. For example you come up on a cop about 200 yards ahead doing 55 mph. He may not pick you up until 75 yards, but the White Freightliner behind you can be picked up at 7000 feet!!! Now if that truck is doing 75 mph and he is 1200 feet back and you are in you're nice clean legal speed but fast looking vette, who do you think will get pulled over? Before you answer, I'll warn you it depends on the state. In PA, only State Police operate radar, and they are VERY careful about giving the motorist a way out. They probably would let you and the truck go. More likely, you won't see a radar trap in PA where this could occur. They don't want test cases in court to go against radar. In NJ they just nail everybody for the money, no matter how sure they are, they just want the revenue. mikey at trsvax 55, it's not just a good idea, it S*CKS BTW, if enough interest is generated, I'll post some of the information on how radar guns and jammers work, but it might get lengthy. As for the 84 vette, I've heard, but not verified, that it is not near as invisible to radar as the older vettes.
mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) (06/21/84)
As has already been pointed out, putting steel wool in your hubcaps won't do anything to reduce the effectiveness of radar. One thing that could help, however, was mentioned some time ago in an article in Car and Driver. They noted that the Corvette had a particularly low "radar profile" (i.e. could not be accurately read until the car was fairly close to the radar unit) compared to other cars and especially larger things like trucks. They claim the reason for this is that the Corvette had a slanted radiator which - being the first reflecting metal in the car - reflected a fair portion of the radar beams away from the transmitter. If this is indeed true, it seems that one could make a metal front for their car which is at a 45 degree angle to maximize the amount of radar waves reflected away. (Of course it would probably look pretty awful too.) Is there anyone out there who is familiar with the technical aspects of radar who could clarify whether Car and Driver's claim is correct or not and perhaps explain in some detail how radar, radar detectors, and radar jammers work? Regarding radar detectors with remote sensors, has anyone tried hooking more than one remote sensor to the same unit (i.e. one in the front and one in the back)? The same article in Car and Driver indicated that the dash units were effective in detecting both foreward and rearward radar transmissions (though much less so in the direction the detector was not facing). It seems that hiding the sensor behind the grille would even further limit the rearward range. (I understand that the Aston Martin Lagoda is delivered with two Escort units to provide the same functionality.) Remember, police radar isn't law enforcement - it's the government spying on YOU. -- Mike^Z allegra!pegasus!mzal Zaleski@Rutgers