Speed is the never ending ecstasy of almost all type of person right from youngsters to middle aged men or women. To control the vehicle’s speed, policemen in each and every corner of the traffic watch the speed of the moving vehicle to avoid serious accidents. To escape from the police, radar detectors are used by the speeding motorists.

Radar detector is a device that detects active speed cameras. It is used by the motorists to detect if their vehicle’s speed is detected by the police. It alerts you when you are nearing a speed trap. A radar detector can detect the radar gun before it detects the vehicle’s speed.

To find the speed of the moving vehicle, police bounce radio waves on the moving vehicle. And from the wave’s frequency, police will able to determine the speed of the vehicle. In such circumstances you can use radar detectors to escape from the police. First and foremost factors to look in to will be if the radar detector is made for the European market or if it has the UK profile. A detector must be able to detect both K and Ka band. But before buying any radar detector it is very important to look into certain important factors.

Few important factors to be considered are:

1. Are they allowed to be used legally in UK?

2. What are they capable of detecting?

3. Can they be used in built-up areas?

4. Is it necessary to use both radar detector and GPS system?

Functions of radar detector

Radar detectors are used to provide mobile speed camera and fixed camera location. Devices also come with GPS (Global Positioning System). GPS warn the drivers about the posted speed limits and published camera sites. Detectors that are active ignore the speed cameras that are inactive. GPS navigation system brings awareness of the speed camera locations only without actually checking if they are active or not.

How does it work?

Radio waves are the key feature in the working of the radar detectors. Radar detectors emit radio waves. When a vehicle crosses the path, radio waves reflect electromagnetic energy automatically. Thus the radio wave bounces back and reaches the radar detector. The time taken to travel and reach back is calculated and determines how far the vehicle is.

A word of caution

Devices that warn a motorist by constantly detecting a camera ahead may be banned if Road Safety Bill 2005 is adopted. Devices that rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) will not be prohibited. Hence careful study is essential before buying the product. If radar detectors are banned, then the police have to adopt a method of tracking those persons who are using these devices and that is not going to be so difficult.

Kinds of radar detectors

X-Band

This kind of radar detectors feature lower frequency and higher power output. They can detect radio signals from a range of 2 miles to 4 miles. The frequency range of this radar detector ranges from 10.5 to 10.55GHz. As the devices operate on lower frequency it can easily detect garage door openers, microwave towers and microwave alarm.

K-Band

It operates with the frequency ranging from 24.05 to 24.25GHz. They are designed as handheld radar guns which were used from stationary vehicles. Later they were redesigned for moving vehicles. This type of radar detectors can detect signals between the range of ¼ mile and 2 miles.

Ka Wide-Band

The frequency range of this kind of radar detectors is 34.2 to 35.2 GHz. The camera captures the picture of the speeding vehicle and gives details like the front view of the vehicle, time, place and license plate number. Photo cops have outstanding range of taking snaps of 200 vehicles per hour. Ka Wide-Band is designed to detect the photo cops.

Ka Super Wide-Band

These types of radar detectors have frequency range of 33.4 to 36.0 GHz. Stalker guns in photo-cops were used to trigger the speed of the vehicle. Hence radar detectors that work with the super wide band technology were introduced.

General

Though radar detectors safeguard the users from the police, it is always wise to think about the safety when the vehicle is driven with the right speed. Hence any product you buy must protect you from danger rather than pushing you into troubles.