Xref: utzoo rec.autos.driving:5696 sci.electronics:21104 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu!khan From: khan@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving,sci.electronics Subject: Re: A New Approach to Radar Detection Message-ID: Date: 23 Jun 91 15:22:44 GMT References: <1991Jun20.161636.29034@rice.edu> <1991Jun20.162417.29255@rice.edu> <1991Jun22.175649.8327@athena.cs.uga.edu> Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Distribution: usa Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Lines: 47 mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes: >The trouble with trying to detect police cars by listening to their radios >is that the range is too good. There is *always* a police car close enough >to you to give a strong signal. In fact there are always ten or twenty, >unless you live in the Mojave Desert. The secret is not merely to listen for the presence of a police car, but also the location. Whenever a cop changes status, he radios in to the dispatcher to let them know what he's up to. If he's 10-8, it means he's coming back on duty after a break (at the donut shop?). If you hear one unit call for another unit to 10-25 in the 7-11, that means that the two cars in question are going to go park in a convenience store parking lot, each facing in the opposite direction, and chew the fat. Around here, if you hear a unit going "code 34 at " it means he's going to whip out his radar gun and start enhancing the city coffers. OK, so it requires more effort than using a radar detector. On the upside, if you hear over your scanner the exact location where the cop is waiting with his radar, isn't that BETTER than a radar detector? This technique even works against instant-on and LIDAR (so-called "laser radar"), which no detector on the market will protect you from. >Finally, the police car standing still at a speed trap is not likely to be >transmitting anything. Au contraire. For each and every speeder he pulls over, he calls into the dispatcher for a licence and registration check. If you're cruising around, and you hear One-Adam-Twelve calling in a bunch of 10-27s, chances are good he's taking pictures. Just keep listening until he relays his 10-20 to dispatch, and steer clear of the area. Now, you nitpickers in the audience who are just itching to hit 'F' and tell me how this ain't gonna work in all situations, please save your energy. ;-) I already know there are limitations to this idea; I merely present it as a possible component of a multi-faceted revenue enhancement defense plan. A scanner, a radar detector, a CB, some RAM for your bra ;-), a CHiPs Detector, a radar communicator, and a Corvette would be quite an effective combination, don't you think? -- Scott Coleman tmkk@uiuc.edu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "The military particularly liked Prodigy because the censorship came for free." - Andrew Grove on the use of email services to send mail to troops in the gulf