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I'm always on the lookout for new ways to use a radar gun. I wrote a while back on Radar Guns for Swooping, or Skydiving, and I thought that was pretty cool. But as it's almost January and the temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, so a different use for radar guns has presented itself: snowmobiling.

There are two ways that radar guns are being used for snowmobiling. First, police radar guns are used by Conservation Officers and State Deputies on Snowmobile trails to make sure no one is exceeding the speed limit. This is a lot like those police officers using radar on bicyclists in Dallas, as there is a great need to make sure people are safe when out in the wilderness.

Snowmobiles can travel at speeds up to 150mph. That's crazy fast when you consider it's always on icy roads, and there may not be anyone to help you after a crash. You could be miles from the nearest person when you wipe out on your snowmobile, and if you're knocked unconscious or don't have a cell phone or radio you may not be able to call for help. Deaths occur every winter because of this.

Forest Rangers try to get out to the busiest snowmobile intersections with police radar guns to hand out warnings and tickets to keep injuries and deaths to a minimum.

The other snowmobile use for radar guns is more fun. A lot of snowmobilers like to check out their speed, and while they have on board speedometers it can be more fun to have a friend clock how fast you fly by. I'd suggest a traffic radar gun for this type of purpose, as they're designed for a vehicle, and the Decatur Genesis Handheld Directional Police Radar Gun would be a great choice. It can clock speeds from 12 to 200 mph, and it's pretty tough, so you shouldn't have any problems seeing how fast your snowmobile is traveling.

One thing to note is that heavy snow can affect the accuracy of your radar gun, so you'll want to do your speed testing after the heavy snowfall, not during it.

Look at that! Another cool way to make your radar gun useful!

Labels: radar gun uses, snowmobile

I wrote a post back in July about Who Sets the Speed Limits and How, but I just came across some news about a strange twist to this procedure up in Winnipeg, Canada. I won't go through everything from my previous post (as I expect you have no doubt memorized it by now), the basics are that speed limits are set based on the speed that 85% of people drive at on a given road.

So civil engineers set up a traffic radar gun that records speeds over a given period of time, and then consider the speeds over the length of a road. Sharp curves, hills and more can cause the speed limit to be lowered, but it's generally not too difficult to set speed limits.

This procedure was done in Winnipeg about 10 years ago on a number of roads, but city councilors decided that the speed proposed by the engineers was too high, and lowered it by 10kph. Their reasoning was, allegedly, because if they set the speed limit at 50kph most people would drive at 60kph, and so they'd be driving at the suggested speed limit.

I understand the reasoning, but I don't really agree with it, and it has been causing some problems recently.

Specifically, there have been a ton of traffic tickets issued by police officers strictly enforcing the unnaturally low speed limit on certain roads. If the speed limit is too low even safe drivers will find their speed unconsciously drift up. So though they're driving at a safe speed, cops armed with police radar guns are going to find a greater number of people are exceeding the posted speed limit.

There has been some uproar to have the speed limit raised, although I think it might be a good idea to at the very least put up a speed trailer for now, as it will remind drivers to keep their speed down. The Decatur OnSite 200 Radar Speed Display would be a perfect solution here, as it would not only help keep driver's speed down, but it also has tracking software to allow civil engineers to take another look at average road speeds to see if there's some room to increase the speed limit.

It stinks that some random bureaucrat could screw up roads for so many people based on faulty logic, but at least there are plenty of speed detection tools to allow the mistakes to be corrected.

Labels: speed limits

This excessive idling is bad for the battery and severely limits the life of the car, so when a car manufacturer is contracted to make police vehicles, like Dodge recently was, they add a bunch of extra features to make the cars and trucks better suited for cops.

Enter the Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4X4 Special Service Package. This pickup truck is a beast.

The 1500 Crew Cab comes equipped with 100,000 mile sparkplugs and an extra large oil cooler for those long times idling, and the electronics in the truck are outstanding. The lights and computer in a police vehicle drain the battery, and police radar guns can likewise take a toll on the power, so there's a 220 amp alternator, which gives a lot of juice to all the equipment police officers regularly use.

Those of you who don't have access to the suped up Ram 1500 might want to take a look at some of our other options for accessorizing you radar gun. Our police radar gun accessories include tools like mounting brackets and large digital radar display signs.

For sporting enthusiasts, our baseball radar guns are fairly energy efficient, but even they need a recharge once in a while. If you're away from a power outlet, a great option is a solar battery charger like the Brunton Explorer Foldable Solar Panel, which will give you energy anywhere the sun makes an appearance.

Whether you're a police officer in need of the best equipment available or a little league baseball coach who doesn't settle for second place, our radar gun gear will help keep you performing at the highest levels.

Labels: police procedure, police radar

Radar and radar-style technology is always advancing. Most of my posts deal with these new developments and new ways of using radar because of how interesting this stuff is.

One form of a speed detection device is called LIDAR, or sometimes LADAR. It's been around for a little while, but it's uses continue to expand. LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging, and it technically isn't a form of radar, it's just similar. To be classified as radar the tech actually needs to broadcast radio waves, but as a LIDAR is still a way of determining velocity, it is often lumped in with radar.

LADAR stands for Laser Detection and Ranging, and it's often called laser radar. But like LIDAR, LADAR is not a true radar system.

You can actually read a bit more about this tech on our LIDAR Facts page.

But what's the latest development with this cool radar-like tech? It has to do with wind currents. I've written about Doppler Radar before, but Doppler LIDAR is a bit different, and it's great for a really good look at where wind is coming from and it's temperature.

Knowing the speed, direction and temperature of wind is helpful for wind farmers, who need to perfectly position their turbines for optimal power creation. The amount of land these wind farmers can be greatly minimized if they can appropriately use the land. If the turbines are too close together those in the back won't generate much power, and if they're too far apart there will be wasted land.

If wind turbines are place correctly, the price of the energy will go down, while the wind farmers make more money.

Using a LIDAR system is a lot like using a police radar gun. You point it at what you want to measure, and it'll give you a reading. It's a bit more complex than that, but with a Doppler LIDAR researchers have seen that there is a cool area of wind directly in the wake of the turbine, with hotter, faster moving air at the ends and swirling around the blades.

As every location is different, it's important to get a reading on each individual wind farm. Overall wind speeds may be lower on one farm, allowing for closer placement. In more Southern areas of the US the higher temperatures may call for further placement, as turbulence from one turbine can potentially harm another turbine.

Police use LIDAR systems for traffic measurement at times, and while they're incredibly accurate, a regular traffic radar gun generally has all the necessary accuracy and consistency for speed enforcement.

There are a number of different radar gun-like systems used for weather forecasting, but it's interesting to see them used to help us get clean energy right from the air. It makes me wonder if there will come a time when sailors use a LIDAR Speed Detector to better chart a path across the ocean. I'm sure they use normal weather systems, but if they had a handheld LIDAR on board it might help them make better time.

Food for thought.

Labels: lidar, new technology

I just read a pretty cool story about a man in Baltimore who built a driving range in his backyard to practice his golf game. At 73 years old, Bob has taken his love of the links to another level. While he plays 18 holes 5 days a week, sometimes that just wasn't enough, so he looked at his one-acre backyard and decided to do some construction.

A number of mesh nets are around the perimeter of Bob's land, designed to catch the balls as he practices his drives and approach shots. He has both artificial turf and regular grass cut to multiple lengths, so he can simulate a number of different situations. He even tried a sand trap at one point, but it didn't work out as well as he planned, so he's going to make some improvements soon.

But it isn't just a driving range. Bob also has a putting green for practicing his all-important short game, and he's set up the area as a wonderful getaway in his retirement.

One thing Bob felt was missing was a radar gun. Any man who goes to so much trouble building a driving range isn't going to be sheepish when it comes to getting equipment, so Bob walked right up to a police officer sitting in his patrol car and asked if he wanted to clock Bob's speed!

The cop explained that police radar guns aren't really intended to measure the speed of golf balls, as they're too small. I think Bob might want to check out RadarGuns.com. We have a number of different golf radar guns that would be perfect for him!

For ball speed, I'd suggest the Bushnell Speedster III. This sports radar gun is exclusive to us, and it's fantastic for a number of different sports, from golf and baseball to tennis and RC racing.

For greater all-around improvements to your golf game, I'd go with the Sport Sensors Dual Mode Swing Speed Radar, which lets you measure a number of different factors for your golf game. You can measure your actual swing tempo and club head speed. Having these measurements allows you to get a better idea of what part of your game needs the most work. The more consistent and reliable your swing is, the more success you'll have hitting the green!

I think Bob's backyard driving range could greatly benefit from having a golf radar gun close at hand. What's even better is that you don't need a full range like Bob. If you have enough room to swing your club, you can get a look at your swing speed and make the appropriate corrections.

I hope in my retirement years I'm still healthy and active like Bob. I said he was 73 years old earlier, but it's more like he's 73 years young!

Labels: golf, golf radar gun, speedster III radar gun

I wrote a radar guns blog post about 2 months ago about a new radar system that sends out radio waves in every direction at the same time to allow for faster and more comprehensive tracking of enemy boats and the origin of enemy fire. It's a really interesting new piece of radar technology, and it should help save some lives for terrorist attacks and guerrilla warfare tactics on the sea.

But I'd only heard about the defensive capabilities, as that seemed to be the primary function of holographic radar, but it also has great potential both for improving firing accuracy on the larger guns on a warship and minimizing the cost of training.

So how does it help? Well, by using a number of complex algorithms a holographic radar system can track smaller objects, even when there are a lot of competing radio signals in the air. The system goes by the name Land and Surface Target Scorer (LSTS), and it can show where explosive shells go off. What's especially nice about this radar system is that the Naval specialists can see how effective their aim is without needing to use explosive ordnance. An inert shell can be tracked as easily as a live round.

This will greatly reduce the cost of training Naval Officers, as inert shells are far less expensive, and there will be no need for a target boat, which in the past had to be sunk to see how effective a shot was. As these shells explode in the air to maximize the damage area, if the soldier knows where it lands, they'll be able to easily estimate how much damage would have been done to a vessel.

Training is also faster, as the LSTS radar system has successfully tracked one shot every three seconds, so sailors can make immediate corrections and see the effect. Holographic Radar can track a 5-inch shell moving at 1,000 mph. That's pretty cool. A police radar gun needs to be aimed directly at a car and generally won't get an accurate reading over about 200 mph. Granted, they're not designed for greater speeds, and I'm sure a police officer could eyeball a car moving over 200 mph and know it's speeding. Whether they could catch it or not is another story altogether.

It's kinda like using a spotting scope when you're sighting in a new rifle scope. You put the scope on your gun, take a few shots, and see how far off the bulls eye you are. After a few rounds of shooting and adjusting, your new rifle scope will be on target. As the rounds from a gunship go a lot further it's hard to see how accurate your shot was, so the holographic radar acts like the spotting scope. It lets you see if you're dead on or need to make some adjustments.

I doubt this tech will be coming to baseball radar guns in the near future, but down the line I have no doubt it could come in handy. Right now it's very difficult to measure the speed of an object that isn't coming directly at you or moving away from you. It can be done, but factoring in the cosine effect can be challenging, and doing so in real time is hardly feasible, especially for a baseball game. But imagine you have a holographic radar system. Then you would be able to get readings on all sorts of things on the field, not just the pitcher's speed. You could measure the speed of the batter's swing, or how fast the center fielder threw a ball to home. I actually wrote a post a while back about a center fielder's throwing speed clocking in greater than a pitcher. That speed was figured out by a physics professor. But with holographic radar the announcer could tell you how fast that thrown was in real time.

There'd be a number of great ways to improve player performance in baseball using a holographic radar gun. Just wait for this new tech to trickle down to the public. Right now it's saving lives in the military, but in a few years it might help your favorite team win the pennant!

Labels: new technology, radar uses

I have a small confession to make: I'm a bit of a nerd, and I play video games. Today's games add in new features all the time to give gamers greater variety, and allow them to play in the style they prefer. One example of this that's becoming more and more common is a 'radar' skill.

In many games, from Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid to Need for Speed, you can earn various skills that will give you an edge over other players. In tactical games like Call of Duty you could use the 'radar' skill to let you know where enemies are, which makes it easier to set up an ambush or possibly avoid detection completely. First Person Shooters are especially big with having a small radar screen, with many of them using sound as the impetus for positional awareness. This makes sense, as when playing a game you might not be able to tell where a gunshot comes from based on sound alone, but in real life a trained soldier can pinpoint the origin relatively quickly.

This isn't exactly like real radar, but the screen shows an image similar to an older Doppler radar monitor to allow you to see opponents.

For a closer approximation of true radar you should check out the Need for Speed series. These are racing games, so you're in a car racing against either the computer or other players online. To make the game more interesting, in some editions the developers make you a street racer, so from time to time you'll run into a police roadblock. These make it difficult to continue racing, so if you earn the 'radar' skill you'll be able to spot these roadblocks at a distance and hopefully avoid them.

It's sorta like using a radar detector to see where police radar guns are located so you can slow down and avoid a ticket.

Most games also have an included map, which works like a GPS device to show you where you are on the track, and the 'radar' skill just puts little lights where police or barricades are. Just like with a normal radar detector, there's a limit to the range so you have to be quick to fully avoid problems.

I can see more and more possibilities for radar gun-themed technology in video games in the future, with, perhaps, the 'see through the walls radar' that I wrote about a few weeks back used in military games to allow you to take out bad guys with extreme precision, or maybe a game with motion control that clocks your pitching speed with a simulated baseball radar gun. There are plenty of options, and they all have some cool implications for adding cool radar tech to to your favorite video games!

Labels: radar guns, video games

It appears that Dubai Police are cracking down on speeders. One of the biggest roads in the emirate, the Dubai Bypass, is getting some stricter enforcement of speed limits to try and keep the number of motor vehicle-related deaths down.

So how deadly is the Dubai Bypass? Well, in the last year, almost 12 percent of all road deaths were on the road. The reasons for this deadly nature on the road is primarily due to the size of the road and the apparent lack of speed enforcement.

The Dubai Bypass Road has six lanes, and because of how much wider it is than other roads, many drivers believe they can safely travel over the speed limit, especially when the road is less crowded, but they don't realize the speed limits were set based on how fast a person can drive in various conditions. Just because a road has extra lanes and there are few cars present, that doesn't mean the curves are any less sharp or the hills any less steep. These are serious hazards for those going over the speed limit.

Because of the dangers on the road, Dubai Police are upping their efforts to curb speeding. This increased enforcement has taken a few different forms. First, there will definitely be more police on the road with radar guns. All the other improvements won't matter much if no one is enforcing the law.

Dubai cops, armed with police radar guns, will be giving far less leeway to speeders, and the fines for speeding will be greater than before, with drivers who are speeding more than 60kph over the limit having their car impounded for 30 days, receiving a hefty fine, and getting points on their license.

That seems okay, but for someone traveling 60kph OVER the speed limit I'd suggest even harsher penalties. That's nearly 40mph over the limit. I'd think anything above about 10mph over the limit is excessive. Sheesh.

Fortunately, the Dubai Police Department is optimistic about their new efforts. They've had success lowering the mortality rate in recent years, and this is more of a continuing effort than a brand new initiative. No doubt with a few more radar guns in Dubai the roads will be a bit safer.

Labels: police procedure, police radar