Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hao!gatech!udel!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!sun!dave
From: dave@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Dave Goldblatt)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: radar countermeasures
Message-ID: <469@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 29 Feb 88 22:10:33 GMT
References: <4596@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 28

From article <4596@pucc.Princeton.EDU>, by MJSCHMEL@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Michael J. Schmelzer):
> Do you think it's feasible (forget about legal for the moment because I'm
> speaking, of course, hypothetically) to build a radar TRANSPONDER?
> (I hear your wheels turning already)
> Think about it: A little black box in your (innocuous looking) Oldsmobuick
> that would, upon receiving a threat signal from smokey, rather than just
> sit there and beep like an idiot telling you to slow down even though its
> already too late, would send back a signal to your friendly Highway
> Patrolman on his X or K or whatever that would register a perfectly
> legal double nickels on the Law's satanic little radar gun's readout.
> Speed with impunity! Drive those Interstates at the speed God made them for!

Not only feasible, but already designed.  It was published in the
Radio-Electronics (annual?  semi-annual?) special issue around this
past November.

Operation was simple: You hooked it in parallel with your radar detector;
it looked for the voltage drop caused by the detector when the alarm goes
off, and activates for 10 seconds.  Switch on the front panel for 25, 35,
or 55 mph.  Estimated cost is about $125, with the most expensive component
a Gunn diode (around $60).  Article states it is only for LAB use, since
it is (probably) highly illegal {although I'd like to saee FCC or state
regulations on such broadcasts}.

Also in there is the plan for a radar detector, which costs about $20.
It give about a mile range, according to someone I spoke to who built
it; the parts are sitting in a bad waiting for me to put 'em together. :-)

-dg-