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From: brian@sdcsvax.UUCP (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Radar effectiveness
Message-ID: <1426@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Feb-86 17:07:57 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.1426
Posted: Mon Feb 17 17:07:57 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Feb-86 08:06:42 EST
References: <1113@decwrl.DEC.COM> <517@eneevax.UUCP>
Reply-To: brian@sdcsvax.UUCP (Brian Kantor)
Organization: UCSD wombat breeding society
Lines: 29

As someone who's done a little bit of experimenting with radars (I own
two radar guns; one is a surplus police model and the other is a sport
radar, and yes, they're licensed to me), its my distinct impression
that the best reflection comes from radiators and firewalls.

That is, the cars with slanted radiators and firewalls don't read at
nearly the distance that those which present a more plane surface to
the incoming "beam" do.  Of course, if you WANT to show up on the
radar, you can build yourself a simple radar corner from some cardboard
and aluminum foil.  I suspect there isn't much you could do to reduce
the amount of radar reflective area on your car without some structural
modifications.

The radar signal seems to go right through plastic noses and get the
metal behind it; I'd sort of expect that as reasonable behaviour.
Perhaps there are special plastics that do better at absorbing radar
than others, but most cars are still metallic enough that it might not
help.

This is for X-band; I don't (yet) have a K-band radar to play with.

	Brian Kantor	UC San Diego

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