Most radar detectors oscillators run the 11.4 - 11.5 Ghz range. Spectre sweeps in that range.

at what range can they detect you?

Okay. Good info.

Why (how) are radar jammers illegal. Plenty of devices emit radiation in the frequency that radar guns use. Why is it illegal to emit radiation at something that is doing it to me?

I seem to recall that a few years ago law enforcement in one town were using infrared cameras to look for "grow houses" by looking for bright lights in the houses. IIRC, the local court ruled that using the equipment to search the inside of houses amounted to an illegal search and seizure.

I don't see how this is any different.

Well...it was a State Police officer and I generally don't see many of those around here... so I will just turn it off on the interstate for now. Hopefully Valentine will come up with a fix soon.
How do they beat the VG2? And wouldn't/can't the same type of technology work to defeat the SPECTRE?

Jim Richards- Tell me you work in this field (I thought you were a lobbyist or something Gov related...) and don't just happen to know these things!
I will be worried about you otherwise :>)

Does anyone know how many SPECTRE units are in VA (from what I found out so far, there are not many and most are around Richmond)?

It is hard to believe with all the crap in cars now...they can differentiate all of these signals... to be confident enough to pull me over for it.

Thanks for all the good info!

Another question though-
Why are detectors legal almost everywhere else and not Virginia?


Thanks,

Jim

"Virginia is for Lovers".

Most states allow search of a vehicle w/o warrant with probable cause. Some don't, it changes all the time with various court decisions.

What would be the probable cause?

It comes down to whether or not the devices are intended to transmit, or unintentionally radiate signals. Jammers are intentional transmitters, and the FCC will beotchslap you hard for using one. BTW, your PC is approved by the FCC. The FCC looks at how much (e.g., at what power level) unintentional radiation comes from various electronics manufacturers' devices, and whether or not they create an undesireable interference environment for licensed radio communications.

Yes, but I could in theory use a garage door opener or and RC controller to jam a radar signal. What could the FCC or local law enforcement do about that?

You would have to specifially modify the transmitter to broadcast on the 'jamming' frequency. That's a violation of FCC regulations.

Do garage door openers operate on the same frequency band as traffice radars? I don't recall that being the case, but could be wrong. What about RC controllers? They are licensed transmitters, right? Don't they have to comply with license requirements that would likely have had them operating on different frequencies than traffic radars? Or is that something that traffic radars knew all along that they had to contend with?

I just remembered that X-band detectors could to false alarm on commercial garage door openers. I think my V-1 is set to forget that band. Of course, my dementia might be kicking in.

X-band was shared by a number of different devices. That, along with advances in microwave technolgy led to the introductio of Ka band which had no such competion with door openers. There was no need to further develop radar for door openers...

Thanks Dan! That's consistent with what I was thinking. :)

There are K-band door openers too (not Ka, at least not that I know of for sure). We used to spec K-band openers for one of my clients (I didn't like doing it, but that's what they wanted...)

What I've learned with the V1 is that X-band contacts are almost 100% guaranteed to be nuisance stuff, K-band is 90% of the time nuisance stuff and if you get a Ka hit, it's almost 100% sure to be real/LE, so don't ignore it.

As a general rule, just treat 'em all as real until confirmed otherwise though. Works for me.

Right. Forgot about the K-Band.

Here in Va they need a warrant to search a vehicle, they are not allowed to open or move a thing without it. They, however can make you stay where you are till a warrant is issued, that could take a while. Least that is the law here in Albemarle county, I believe that is a state law, I could be wrong.

Radar detectors are supposed to be passive aren't they?

EDIT; Just read above, i never knew they emmited anything. I thought they were passive like military RWRs are.

Even military RWRs emit. There is no such thing as a truly passive device, only well shielded devices.

Hmmm, i thought a RWR is just an antenna tuned to the frequency of the emmiter?

How 'bout that.