Radar Detector News New Zealand

STEPPING OVER THE LINE

Traffic laws are there to ensure the safety of all road users. When you break the law you must also expect to accept the consequences.

DEMERIT POINTS

Demerit points are given for some traffic offences and for ALL speeding infringements, except those recorded by speed cameras. If you get a total of 100 or more demerit points within two years your licence will be suspended for 3 months. If you are disqualified by the court for 6 months or more, any previous demerit points will be cleared from your record. Demerit points are dropped if you have not offended for two years or you are suspended from driving through the demerit point system.

DEMERIT POINT OFFENCES AND POINTS

• Exceeding the speed limit by up to 10Km/h 10

• Exceeding the speed limit by 11 - 20Km/h 20

• Breaching conditions of learner licence 25

• Breaching conditions of restricted licence 25

• Exceeding the speed limit by 21-30Km/h 35

• Exceeding the speed limit by 31-35Km/h 40

• Exceeding the speed limit by 36Kph + 50

• Driving at a speed as to be unable to stop within 1/2 the clear distance ahead 20

• Driving at a speed as to be unable to stop within length of lane visible 20

• Driving at a speed as to be unable to stop short of the vehicle ahead 20

• Careless or inconsiderate use of a motor car 35

• Refusal to wait for the result of a breath screening test 50

• Refusal to accompany a Police Officer when required 50

• NOT Wearing a Safety Belt- You can be fined if you are aged 15 or over and you drive or ride in a vehicle without wearing a safety belt.

MANDATORY SUSPENSION OF DRIVERS LICENCE

Your licence will be suspended on the spot if:: A Police officer (Not a speed camera) detects you exceeding the speed limit by more than 40Km/h Your Licence will be suspended for 28 days, and you will have to face court-imposed penalties for your offence.

SPEEDING FINES:

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by up to 10Km/h $30.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 11 - 15Km/h $80.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 16 - 20Km/h $120.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 21 - 25Km/h $170.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 26 - 30Km/h $230.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 31 - 35Km/h $300.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 36 - 40Km/h $400.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 41 - 45Km/h $510.00

• If you are caught exceeding the speed limit by 46 - 50Km/h $630.00
  

In 2004 the N.Z.Police will have

• Carried out 1.66 million compulsory breath tests . 

• Issued 1.2 million  speed camera  traffic offense and infringement notices for speeding.

• Issued 35,000 safety belt infringements . 

• Issued 1,020,000 traffic offence and infringement notices annually: an increase of 47% over 2000.
  

This represents two tickets for every five drivers in New Zealand.

This represents two tickets for every five drivers in New Zealand. Booze Busses to double   LATEST NEWS......LATEST  NEWS........  Alcohol was the number one killer on the roads in 2003 accounting for 28% of road deaths. If you buy nothing else buy the PNI BT-3500 personal alcohol detector. Only $130.00 may save your licence or your life! NEW HWP get Stalker Duels to replace the poor performing EAGLE Radar Units! After successful trials the new Highway Patrol cars will have installed the latest Digital Radar System. It's well know Police have been disappointed with the low power performance of the Kustom Eagle. The Stalker Dual returns their radar systems back to the High Power (50mW) that they have been used to with the old HAWKs. R.A.D.A.R.
Civilian radar frequencies were established at the end of the Second World War by the powerful American Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and
adopted by nearly every country in the world. Here in NZ we fall under The control of the ITU. At first there were only two frequencies allocated. X Band at 10.525 Ghz ± 50 Mhz and 24.150 Ghz+/- 100 Mhz. In subsequent years, pressure came on Governments to allow X Band to be used for other purposes than simply police radar. Licences were given to a multitude of electronic devices that required access to microwave transmitters. In 1993 the ITU allocated a new range of frequencies called Ka Superwideband. With a range that went from 33.400 Ghz to 36.000 Ghz they felt confident that this allocation would last police enforcement many years. Almost immediately the manufacturers of radar devices came out with a whole new range of radar products. Most significantly came the introduction of speed cameras. Overnight people with two band radar detectors had their investment made obsolete. But suddenly radar detection became a whole new ball game. It was easy to detect a pre-defined frequency like X and K bands. Suddenly radar detectors were expected to scan a huge range of new frequencies to find radar devices that could be operating anywhere on the frequency.

RADAR FACTS

RADAR: Acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. A remote sensor that emits electromagnetic waves on order to measure reflections for the purpose of detection. X Band Radar: Frequency tolerance 10.525 GHz+/-25 Mhz Frequency range 10.500-10.550 GHz. X band radars have been around since the 1960s and operate on a single frequency. Typically their operational range was 20 mph- 90 mph or more. New Zealand and Australia ceased using X Band Radar many years ago when the frequency was liscensed out to other industries that required access to Microwave transmitters (alarm systems etc).

K Band Radar: Frequency Tolerance 24.150 GHz+/-100Mhz Frequency Range 24.050-24.250 GHz. K Band radars have been around since the 1970s and operate on a single frequency. With K BAnd operating in the limits of the water vapour absorption band (centred at about 22.24 GHz) signals in the absorption band tend to become absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere and do not have the range that other frequency bands offer. Primarily this is why the FCC allocated this frequency for short range Police use. The most well known Radar devise operating on this frequency is the HAWK.

Ka Band Radar: The available bandwidth allocated to Ka Band traffic radar is 2.6 GHz operating between 33.4GHz-36GHz. Most Ka traffic radar have a frequency tolerance of ± 100Mhz (200MHz band width).Therefore 2.600 MHz (available band width) divided by 200MHz (Channel Bandwidth) equals 13 channels. A traffic radar in the Ka band with a frequency tolerance of ±100MHz may have more channels, but some or all the channels will
overlap.Some models transmit on a single frequency only. Others may allow the operator to select one of the several fixed frequencies. Some can hop from one frequency to the next in a Phase Loop.

The Doppler Principle: Everyday life has a multitude of examples of the doppler effect with sound. The whistle from a train is a good example. As the train approaches a stationary listener, the pitch (frequency) of the whistle sounds higher than when the train passes by, at which point the train and the person standing are technically stationary. Electromagnetic waves radiated by the traffic radar obey the same principle, although electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light and audio waves at the speed of sound.The Doppler Effect that enables police radar to work is a frequency shift that results from relative motion between a frequency source and the listener. The Doppler shift is proportional to speed between source and listener, frequency of source, and the speed the waves travel at (speed of light for electromagnetic waves).

Instant ON (Pulse Radar): Intended to defeat radar detectors. Instant ON radar allows the operator to control the radar transmission. The operator only transmits after selecting the target, and only long enough to get a speed reading. In practice most police find this a difficult mode to operate in and are more likely to have the radar on all the time unless two officers are present in the car, one driving and one working the radar.

Cosine Effect on Moving Radar: Moving Radar measures closing speed between the radar and target. The radar also measures patrol car speed (from the ground echo) to calculate the target speed. (Target speed=closing-patrolcar). This introduces additional sources of cosine error. In most situations the angle between the radar and target is the major error source and favours the target (measure too low). However if the antenna is misaligned (off patrol car direction) the patrol car speed may measure low resulting in target speed measured too high.

Moving Radar Variables: Target speed will only measure higher than true speed when the target is approaching the patrol car AND the cosine angle between radar and target are small, (typically less than 5%) AND the angle between the patrol car and the ground is large, (typically greater than 5%). Patrol car and target speeds are significant, patrol car speed greater than target speed increases the error. (The greater the difference the larger the error and the higher the measured speed).

Shadowing: Radars identify ground echoes as the strongest signal (most of the time). The ground echo cosine angle is a function of the radar antenna alignment and beam width. More reflective terrain in only part of the beam could change the angle of the ground return (shadowing) which can change the measured speed of the patrol car. Large and or reflective objects such as overpasses or billboards and roadsigns may have a momentary effect on radar. Guardrails, bridge trusses and construction zones may have a longer effect.

Ka Band Radar: Photo Radar: Automatic unattended photo radar started appearing in the late 80s and came to New Zealand in 1993. With Photo radar systems a human operator does not observe any speeding violation, but is replaced by electronic circuits and a photo recording device. No one has to see the alledged violation; the process is automatic. The registered owner of the vehicle usually receives a ticket in the mail.Photo radar is across the road radar and designed to point a narrow beam of radar (typically 5 degree horizontal beam width) across the road at an angle of 22.5 degrees. Speed measurement is then adjusted for the angle. Some units operate with an amber (orange) flash filter. This is not as bright to the human eye and causes minimum disruption to a driver even at night. Power output is very low (2.5mW typically) which makes detection for radar
detectors difficult, but not impossible.

How Laser Guns Work

The word Laser actually stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation." It is a form of electromagnetic radiation the same as radio and microwaves. The difference is that light has a much higher frequency than radio or microwaves.

The light emitted by a laser is no different than any other source except that it has a unique method of generating light. The type of laser used is an infrared semiconductor laser diode. The generated light energy has a wavelength of approx. 900 nanometers, with a beam divergence of 3 milliradians, equal to a beam width of about 3 m (or ft) at 1000 m (ft). Target acquisition times range from 0.3 to 0.7 seconds. 

TThis laser is completely eye safe, meeting FDA Class 1 specifications. This means that you could stare directly into the laser for 3 hours without any harm to your eyesight. The radiated light power on MOST lasers is in the order of 50 micro watts, or in other terms, it outputs only one twentieth the light power of a typical TV remote control, and far less than a flashlight. 

Which is why laser jammers using industry standard laser LED diodes are effective against laser guns. 

The products calculate distance by measuring the time of flight of very short pulses of infrared light. This method is different from the traditional surveying instrument method of measuring phase shifts by comparing the incoming wavelength with the phase of the reflected light. Any solid object will reflect back a certain percentage of the emitted light energy - it need only be small for the sensitive detector to pick it up. The guns measure the time it takes a laser pulse to travel to the target and back with a precision, crystal-controlled time base. Knowing the speed of light, you then calculate the distance travelled. To increase accuracy, the laser measures as many as sixty pulses, utilizing a least squares method of determining the range. Sophisticated error trapping algorithms are in place to ensure a reliable reading. 

However laser jammers generate an off phase pulse which infills the phasing cycle of the laser guns making them easy to defeat. 

LIDAR: Laser Radar as it's sometimes called. LAser Detection And Ranging, or LIDARS (LIght Detection And Ranging). These systems radiate in the upper infrared 9IR) band and have extremely low beams compared to radar. Very fast to establish your speed and with high accuracy. Laser is a real challenge for detectors. You should avoid products without Laser detection built in (Q4000 Whistlers and old two band radar detectors). Competent Radar and Laser detectors can detect laser up to 3 km away in the right circumstances. Operational effective range for laser is around 800 metres. It's just too hard for an operator to stabilise a target much beyond this distance.