A radar jammer is used to scramble radar signals in a certain circumference of area. Although these are used heavily for military purposes, the normal public also uses it to jam the signals from a police speed detector.
All about Radar Jammers
In this article, you are going to see all about Radar Jammers like what they do, are they legal or not, types and more.
What do Radar Jammers do?
Active radar jammers work on the principle of interfering with the reflected, Doppler shifted radar waves that police radar employ to obtain a vehicle’s speed. The police radar gun sends out radio waves at a certain frequency. The speed of a moving car is determined by the frequency with which the radio waves are returned.
As these radio waves cannot be sensed by humans, we would need a radar jammer to identify when being sent towards your car. These detectors pick up the waves sent by the police radar and make a noise. The driver gets alerted on hearing the noise and can reduce the speed.
Some advanced versions of radio detectors are the radar jammers, which detect waves and send back a mix of waves and confuses the police radar gun and does not allow it to calculate the exact speed.
Are Radar Jammers illegal?
While radar detectors are perfectly legal, the radar jammers are illegal to use. Radar detectors may not be particularly effective, as they can only detect the radar signals and sometimes might do it pretty late.
Radar jammers work effectively by overwhelming the signals sent by the radar guns. While the idea is lucrative, if you get caught with a radar jammer on an interstate highway, you need to shell out a fine of up to $50000 and serve a five-year prison term.
Radar jammers are also illegal to use in some states of the US. So even if you escape a federal offense, you might end up with a state issue. The FCC has strict rules and has made radar jammers illegal since 1996 in the USA.
Advanced police radar guns can indicate the police officer that someone is trying to interfere with their signals. Sometimes a jammer might end up sending higher frequency signals which might show an increased speed of your car! So much to interrupting the signals!
Radar Jammer Guide
There are two major types of radar jammers available – electronic and mechanical jammers.
- Mechanical jammers work in a very simple way. These jammers have strips of tin or plastic foils that reflect varied frequencies. The strips return strong echoes of the radar signals which can compromise the detection machine. This type of jammers is predominantly used in the military to compromise radar guided missiles.
- Electronic jammers are used for multiple purposes. These can send drain out the radar echoes and send out false echoes. These false echoes can affect the ability of the radar machine to detect the signals. There are two types of electronic jammers – active and passive jammers.
- Active radar jammers work by actively generating and transmitting a signal back to the radar gun, preventing it from functioning properly. The three brands that are under active jammers are X band, KA band and K band.
- Passive radar jammers don’t generate their own signal but reflect a modified version of the original signal.
What are Laser Jammers?
A laser jammer is an electronic device used by car drivers to prevent the detection of speed by laser guns or LIDAR. Laser jammers do not work like radar jammers.
For laser jammers to work, it should first detect the emitted light first. It is usually the infrared light of about 904nm wavelength. Once the laser light is detected by the jammer, it sends out a signal of the same wavelength but of higher intensity. This confuses the LIDAR gun and it cannot determine the speed of the vehicle.
Some of the newer laser models can detect the pulse rate of the gun. Based on this pulse rate the LIDAR gun determines the speed of the vehicle. Then these jammers emulate the pulse rate, thereby making it all the more difficult for the laser gun to detect the speed. This kind of jammers will only block the laser light from the guns and do not block the radar signals.
Although the US federal agency does not have any restrictions on laser jammers, several states have laws passed against the potential use of laser jammers.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for a legal way to avoid a speeding ticket, “Do not speed!!” But if you think you cannot really control those primal instincts, radar jammers are not essentially the solution to your problem. Just because it is there, it is not right to use them. For more information, keep visiting www.radardetectorguide.com regularly.