Radar isn't finicky at all. It will reflect off most surfaces.
It is extremely finicky. If it's hitting a group of 5 or so cars and one is a large van or truck and I can clearly see a car wildly breaking the speed limit the radar will give me the speed of the large van or truck constantly, and only sometimes giving me little quick, almost unusable flashes of the speeding vehicles speed. The radar always reports back the best signal, not the fastest, which is usually some large vehicle with a nice flat surface and not the aerodynamically shaped sports car.
I almost never get readings off of the wedge shaped corvettes, unless they have a front plate, and even then it takes entirely too long and he has had 10-15 seconds to see me and slow down, not to mention if he had a detector.
Its range is not nearly as far as the laser, and it has to go through the windshield which is detrimental if it is dirty. If the road is bumpy and the radar is vibrating excessively it will struggle to give a reading and rain completely obliterates the radar range.
Radar is finicky, more so than a lidar gun is.
Telco said:
At 2500 feet you either have a great hiding place or are tagging people who aren't paying attention. By finicky I mean:
- You have to be almost head on, otherwise it's not effective.
- The cop has to be stationary where radar can be used while moving.
- Bad weather can interfere, as it is a light beam and light is reflected by water. Smoke, fog, haze, anything that clouds human vision also clouds lidar, reducing its effective range.
- If the cop isn't holding the gun steady, the gun wavering around can affect the reading. If the cop's hand moves up to down a tiny bit causing the beam to hit different parts of the car, he gets an erroneous reading.
- If the alignment isn't spot-on, at 1000 feet you may be looking at one car in the crosshairs but actually hitting the car a lane or two away. Just a 0.5 degree misalignment means that at 1000 feet you're really shooting the next lane.
- If using through the windshield, the safety glass will refract the signal.
- Bright headlights can interfere with the accuracy, which points towards mounting halogen driving lights on either side of the front plate as a possible legal lidar jammer.
- If there are any other objects between the car and the cop, like a pole, the pole may interfere with the signal.
- On your 2500ft clocking ability, considering how far the beam would spread at that distance anyone who wanted to would be able to claim that you could not possibly be clocking them accurately as the beam divergence at that distance would be far enough that you might have hit other cars with the beam. At 1000ft, beam divergence can be 3-4 feet depending on the unit. At 2000ft, beam divergence will be 6-8 feet. If my ticket showed the cop had a range over 1000ft, I would definitely challenge the ticket in court, and use the cop's own operational manual to defend myself.
- Apparently, a driver's car wax selection (if you can believe advertising) can affect how well your laser picks it up, but car wax would have no effect on radar.
-2500 feet is a good bit away
-Correct, can’t move with lidar
-Bad weather also interferes with radar, if it's raining, forget about it.
-"If the cop isn't holding the gun steady, the gun wavering around can affect the reading. If the cop's hand moves up to down a tiny bit causing the beam to hit different parts of the car, he gets an erroneous reading."
Almost true, if I am not holding it steady enough it won’t give you a reading.
-"- If the alignment isn't spot-on, at 1000 feet you may be looking at one car in the crosshairs but actually hitting the car a lane or two away."
We do test these things you know. Mine is accurate up to over 3000 feet measured on a speed limit sign, but after 2500 feet, readings tend to take too long.
-Never go through glass, always sit sideways and shoot it out the driver or passenger window with it down. Glass severely limits its ability, which is one of the reasons radar is finicky. It’s mounted behind the glass.
-Headlights? Really? A complete fallacy. Whatever interference your headlight may create is completely negated by the fact that the laser is effectively bouncing off the mirror's in the headlight. A perfect place to aim it.
-Yes it is a laser, as like a small beam of light. I normally don't try to burn though poles with it.
-One, your ticket will not show the range of the lidar. Two, do you think someone hasn't done that defense? I've had people claim the proximity to an airport caused their false reading. I've heard it all in court.
Two, we don't just blindly rely on the machine. More often than you might thing, we catch people speeding and let em go because we didn't entirely rely in that particular reading. Your claiming that "beam divergence" will save you in court because at that distance the spread is 6-8 feet and you could be getting another car. You know officer testimony is a big part of ticket court.
"Well Mr. Defendant, you were the one passing every other vehicle on that stretch of road, clearly you were the fastest car, so tell me what other car would give me a reading faster than what you say you were going?"
You know, for a thread where you all are discussing radar detectors and how to avoid tickets you sure are dismissing probably the most valuable source of information. I've had to sit though hours of classes on this and get certifications upon certifications on it, and claibrate the radar unit everyday with tunning forks. Yet, internet radar/lidar experts are going to dismiss this information. Righto then. I would have loved this information back in my day when I was scouting for cops all day while I was speeding.
Also, writing tickets is something I do when I am bored. I have no "quota" but they like to see some road activity. I know with 5 seconds of talking to you if you get a warning or a ticket regardless of speed. The number 1 thing you can do to avoid a ticket, is to be cool, and don't lie. Easy warnings all day, but then again. I know some other departments don't see it that way. Looking at you Virginia.
We have to take what you say with a grain of salt.