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From: neal@weitek.UUCP (Neal Bedard)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: radar detectors
Message-ID: <325@weitek.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Nov-85 00:05:23 EST
Article-I.D.: weitek.325
Posted: Tue Nov 12 00:05:23 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Nov-85 04:18:58 EST
References: <130@necis.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Weitek Corporation, Sunnyvale
Lines: 38

In article <130@necis.UUCP>, geo@necis.UUCP (George Aguiar ext. 224) writes:
> 
> 1.  Is it true that the police can tell you are using a radar  detector  or
> is  this  just  hype  that they would like you to believe??  It seems to me
> that the way a radar detector works is like a radio, it has an antenna  and
> tuner  however,  instead of playing music it plays warnings.  Given this, I
> don't see how they could tell.

All radar detectors emit some microwave radiation (some emit more than
others, in some cases enough to set off other nearby radar detectors - to
combat this pollution, my Passport and others use signal processing.)

However, the police tactic is to irradiate a car from behind and observe if
any lights light up: if so, they've hit pay dirt. My unit has a switch to
defeat the lights (led meter and yellow warning) to foil this tactic.

> 2.  Is there a way to insure that your radar  detector  is  working??  I've
> had  mine  less  than  2 weeks now and it still hasn't gone off, except for
> power on diagnostics.  Can you use a garage opener?  I think garage openers
> usually work on the X band.

Hmmm, microwave door openers and burglar alarms set mine off regularly (the
damn thing's downright chatty sometimes.) If you pass thru a developed area,
you probably should've encountered at least an X band radar source by now.
Garage door openers use a `remote control' frequency in the reigon of
Citizens Band (around 27 MHz) so I don't think they'd set off your detector.

> 3.  Is the Spectrum remote a good one???

Does it have a signal strength meter? Different X/K warning noises? If not,
then it's practically useless in a metropolitan area (where microwave
sources abound) no matter how sensitive it is. In any event, I can only
vouch for what I have.

-Neal
-- 
55. It's a law we can do away with.
UUCP: {turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!neal