Radar Jammers, any good?

[Guest gprix1]

I was checking out the Phazer II jammer. Anyone ever use one of these? Any good?

http://www.jammersstore.com/p_phazer.htm

[Guest Anonymous]

Word on the street is that if you build a radar jammer as per the instructions in the "Anarchist's Cookbook", It will cause all radar scanners in the area to read random numbers. Very interesting....

[Guest gprix1]

I started looking up info on that book and found a site that has some problems with it.

 

http://www.spunk.org/cookbook.html

 

While we do not all agree with all material in the Spunk catalog we should all be able to live with it. The Anarchist Cookbook may well fail to pass this test, if it were applied, due to its contents.

The general consensus among anarchists seems to be that the book is very badly written, and full of factual errors. These go so far that you will probably blow yourself up if you try one of the bomb recipes, or poison yourself if you try a drug from the book. The rumour is often heard that the book was compiled by a CIA agent for exactly this reason. Believe this or not to your own liking.

There are other similiar books that seem to be better received by the anarchist crowd.

[Lockjaw]

I always heard that a hummingbird depth finder would work, but Car and Driver tested all the radar jammers a while ago and the results were they were ineffective at best.

 

Get a Valentine One one of those Bear Tracker things uniden makes, drive a black car that sits low to the ground with no visible reflective objects facing forward, and you will have about the best defense you can have, next to not speeding.

[Guest Big Phil]

I just wrote a training class on radar and laser detectors and jammers so maybe I can answer your questions.

There are two different ways to jam radar actively and passively.There is no proven way to passively jam a radar gun. Several manufactures of passive radar jammers have already been convicted of fraud so beware.

In order to actively jam a radar gun, the jamming device must broadcast radar (X band , K band or KA band depending on the type of gun being jammed)Attempting to actively jam or actually actively jamming a radar gun is illegal. Since all radar transmissions are regulated by the F.C.C,it is not just illegal it is a federal offense.

 

Passive laser jamming is ineffective but active laser jamming is 99% effective. The good news Laser jamming is legal. Laser transmissions is regulated by the F.D.A. so there are no regulations or laws against it.

 

Since laser is very directional, the jammer must have front and rear mounted transmitters. The cop has to aim the laser gun at a vertical reflective surface (normally the front or rear license plate) so the transmitters must be close (within 3 feet) to the cops point of aim. When the laser jammers senses a laser signal the unit responds with a beam of light that confuses the cop's laser gun. Several manufactures make effective laser jammers. I recommemd the Escort ZR3 laser detector/jammer connected to a Passport 8500 radar detector

Phil

[Lockjaw]

Hey Fast Frog, since Mike and a few others got blessed out for our "lawlessness" , I have to offer the responsible law abiding solution. See I am an older fellow, so I have to set an example. Sorry.

 

I remember that C&D test, and the Corvette was the King on invisibility if I remember correctly.

 

I would not mess with a jammer. Instead of just getting a ticket, you are likely to get a federal charge, as someone has already mentioned. When I weigh the choice in my mental scale, the ticket is the way to go.

 

Also remember if you drive a car with a big wing on it, neon, strobe light, stickers, a fart can muffler, and stripes, you don't need to try and speed anyway. You already attract enough attention to yourself, and are probably going 20 mph just sitting still.

 

Slide under the radar, and drive an innocuous car. I also have a theory that if you bought a car and made it look like an unmarked police car, you could speed with impunity, but I don't have the money to test that theory yet.

[denny411]

I personally love to speed, as anyone from this board who has talked to me personally would know. I do the majority of my speeding late at night, or early in the morning when there are very few cars on the road. otherwise I just go with the flow of traffic.

The link that I posted earlier,w/ the active jammers says, that they are legal in all but 3 or 4 states. The only thing that has stopped me from buying one of their systems is the price. I think the one I need would be over 2200.00 That would fly like a lead balloon with the wife

[Guest Anonymous]

No excuses for me, I like to go fast in a Zee. A radar jammer would take all the fun out of it. I am probaly the only fellow in Oregon who has a suspended license for not driving intoxicated. Luv to see that front end and hood raise up at over 100 MPH.(and I still do)

[Pop N Wood]

denny411

 

That was a pretty good link for active jammers. I didn't think it was even legal to sell such devices. Now their stuff looks like it would work.

 

People really need to be careful with things like that. I read something recently about radar guns screwing up the speed pass system at a gas station. Mess with Mobil's money machine and someone is likely to look for the source of the interference. And remember, if you can buy a radar detector to detect the cops radar, the cop can buy the same detector to detect your jammer. You might get away with it as long as the jammer's are not very common.

[Wagz]

Tomahawk - Your not alone. I lost my license for a year a few years back due to speeding tickets. 5 in one year. The kicker was that I had a Whistler One detector. I got so used to the ^$! thing going off for every store security system that I passed, I learned to ignore it.

 

Now I have no radar detector, pay much more attention to the hiding spots along the road and I get maybe one ticket every 2-3 years. Slowing down was/is not an option.

[Guest Anonymous]

Wag Z .. Did you take delivery on that VR??

[Wagz]

Yup. It's sitting on my garage floor. We need to plan a little get together to compare notes on our projects. I'll email you in the am.

[Guest Fast Frog]

Lockjaw!

 

Not speeding is not an option!!

[Pop N Wood]

Be careful with true radar jammers that actually transmit. Actively transmitting radio waves is regulated by FCC rules. It would be very easy to build an active police radar jammer that would make the police radar read any speed you like. I think boat radars are at the police band. It would be just as easy to get caught.

 

The device in the link above is a "passive" device. It doesn't actually transmit radio waves, it only mixes up the police signal when reflecting it back to the police radar. While valid in principle, I doubt it could be made to work well enough to trust. To be 100% effective, the mixed up signal would have to be stronger than the reflection from your car. Since the physical area of the box is much smaller than your car, the signal from the "jammer" is probably going to be much weaker than the reflection off your car. Of course I have never tested this.

 

My cousin swears hanging a CD from your rear view mirror will confuse police radars. Now if the position of the CD is just right and it is wiggling around just right, then it is possible the CD could momentarily confuse the radar. But once again, I would not bet a ticket on this.

 

Now what does work is what Lockjaw said. Get a nice, low to the ground, fiberglass car with a radiator that slopes backwards (i.e. a Corvette). Such things tend to reduce the amount of radar energy that gets reflected back toward the radar (just look at an F117 to see what I mean). This won't make your car invisible, but it will reduce the range at which the radar can get a reading on your speed. If you couple this with a good radar detector, you will be able to see him long before he can see you. This should give you enough time to brake before the radar can lock onto your speed.

 

Car and Driver did a test on this many, many years ago. They took a Corvette and a 911 and measured ranges at which the police radar could read their speed. They then went on to install panels of radar absorbant materials to see how close you had to be before the radar would work. I think they got it down to something like a quarter mile. Their idea was to build an active radar jammer that was connected to a radar detector. In normal driving, the jammer would be off. If the detector went off, then it would turn on the jammer for a few seconds to give you time to brake. Once you started slowing down, the jammer could turn back off since police radars will not register a speed until it gets two separate measurements that agree. This way you minimize the time your jammer transmits and thus reduce the chance of getting caught.

 

Driving near a truck will also work. The truck signal will be so big, the police radar will probably not see your car. Trouble is, if the truck is speeding you might get his ticket since the cop won't know which vehicle the reading is from.

 

Of course none of this will work on a laser.

[denny411]

here is a place to get active jammers

http://www.1-radar-laser-jammers-detectors.com/

they sound pretty good, but are way expensive

[denny411]

I have also heard that the reason solid wire plug wires are not aloud for highway use, is they cause a magnetic field aroud the engine effectively confusing radar guns

[Guest De Schmaydee]

....i just use that paint from lockheed...works pretty good.......of course it only comes in black....s

[labrat]

What determines the strength of the radar is not necessarily related to the size of the car, but the radar cross section. Radar reflects most strongly off of metallic objects that are even multiples (or divisors) of the wavelenth. Such as 1/4 of the wavelength, etc. now, my idea was to build a radar reflector using thin aluminum sheets (like soda can) at exactly 1/4 of the wavelength of police band radar (not sure of frequency ATM) and hang it from a 6" string or wire from the tip of my antenna, and drill holes in it to make it bob around alot. Talk about erratic speed changes! And it would only need to be an inverse cube about 4" square or so. I definitely need to test this theory more...

 

Bill

Ex- electronic warfare systems technician USAF

[pparaska]

Bill, I agree that there is SOME 1/4 wavelength affect, but if you present a nice surface of any measurable size to the incident radar wave such that it causes a nice specular return, it won't matter if the surface has dimensions that are divisible by 1/2 wavelengths, etc. Steps, gaps, cavities, shape, edge returns - it's all so complicated.

 

One of biggest problem with an auto's signature is the cavity return from the cabin. Gold coat the windows, (only millions of dollars to have done correctly for this purpose) and you're miles ahead. A slanted radiator is good too.

 

One thing the Z has going for it is the sloped hood and small frontal area. But the vertical radiator, cabin return, edge returns from the hood, etc. all make true stealth pretty difficult.

 

Jim has an excellent point - the radar gun will listen to the loudest return. You need some decent power and a good antenna to be able to override your vehicles signature. Then you have to worry about getting caught.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was under the impression that as long as you're not transmitting at more than 3 Watts on any RF signal it's pretty much fair game in terms of needing an FCC license to transmit legally. Not 100% positive on this though so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Anyone considered a chaff system? I bet a cloud of metalized mylar confetti being ejected would screw up a radar gun pretty nicely with all the thousands of returns from all the little reflectors slowing down at varying rates.

 

Of course this would probably just get you pulled over for littering or something, then again littering doesn't usually go on your license or insurance.