When it comes to cheap radar guns, one of the common questions is whether the Bushnell Radar Gun is worth the expenditure. Most consumers who buy the Velocity, or any inexpensive radar gun, expect precise accuracy and all-around application. What we tell all of our consumers is to be realistic. No other radar gun can match the utility and price like the Bushnell Velocity radar gun. Bushnell Velocity radar operates in a continuous mode which means it displays the current speed of the target you are measuring and has the capability to lock in the peak speed (known as the fastest speed). The Velocity is a lot of value for the price!

The Velocity radar doesn't measure up in quality to those used by the police, but it gets the job done when it comes to the following applications:

• Little League
• Middle School
• Recreational Sports (T-Ball, etc)
• Motor sports where price is the factor not professional grade
• Neighborhood Watch (timing speed of passing vehicles)

Remember this when thinking of buying a radar gun: Bushnell Radar Guns like the Velocity and the Speedster are the most practical RADARs for the majority of users. These radar guns are versatile units that show continuous speed and lock-in peak speed on the display.
Just for the record, the new Velocity radar gun model can calculate speed both in MPH (miles per hour) and KPH (kilometers per hour). Kudos to Bushnell for the upgrade.

If you have more questions regarding radar guns I would advise reading out Radar Guns FAQ page, you will find answers to many interesting questions about the RADAR.

For those of you in the Chicagoland area, you may have noticed unmarked white cargo vans parked on the side of I-94 or I-294. These harmless looking vans may, in fact, house a radar gun that will take a picture of your license plate as you're flying through the constructuion zones. While I have not yet heard of any cases where the speeders have been mailed a ticket, with the number of drivers violating the 45 MPH speed limit is astounding. For those of you who are concerned with the abilities and fallbacks of traffic radar, check out the Traffic Radar Handbook.

The ongoing battle between speeders and cops has recently entered the Web 2.0 Internet age. A new Internet start-up has been in the news lately called Trapster. It's Facebook meets radar detection.

Trapster is a user-generated database of known speed traps throughout the country, as well as red light cameras and other traffic enforcement techniques. This is not a new concept for a website. What they do differently is notify a user via text message whenever they get near a speed trap using cell phone GPS.

Since the invention of radar guns, cops and speeders have been playing a cat and mouse game, trying to continually outsmart each other. Radar detectors led to speed measuring technology that couldn't be detected by a radar detector. The volume of speeders led to the development of speed detecting cameras. Red light runners spurred the development of red light cameras.

So, how can cops fight back against Trapster?

They can start by signing up for the service themselves. This way they will have all the information that clever motorists have as well.

Check out the map that Trapster features and find out where people have reported seeing cops hiding. Adapt. Find new places to hide.

Cops can also fill it with false information. Strategically find locations on a map where you can report that cops like to sit and place your cops nearby, preferably before the spot so that they won't have already slowed down. Even if you don't have a cop stationed nearby, it will have the knock on effect of making people slow down because they think there's a speed trap.

Cities could also fill it with false reports of red light camera locations. That way, people will be more likely to heed red lights if their phone tells them there's a red light camera there. If you're using a mobile speed camera system, then vary it's location every couple of days so the Trapster report is always outdated.

The key is to be smarter than the speeder. With careful planning a municipality can use a nuisance like Trapster to their own traffic safety ends. Eventually the data from services like Trapster will become so unreliable that people will stop using the service or develop other techniques to evade police radar. The cat and mouse game will surely continue.

Radar Speed tracking technology was quick to catch on when it was first developed. It revolutionized the ability to catch speeders and effectively fine them. Before, officers had to rely on sight speed detection, which to say the least, is quite inaccurate. There have been many exciting developments in police radar guns in the last few years. That's why now it's a better time than ever to upgrade your radar equipment.

We've gotten calls from some police departments that have been using the same radar guns for thirty years. They're practically using antiques that belong in a museum. While they still do the job, there have been huge advancements in radar accuracy as well as new technologies such as LIDAR and VASCAR.

We recommend that law enforcement agencies upgrade their radar equipment every few years to keep up with the latest technology and to maintain their good traffic safety statistics. The most important aspect of all is saving more lives by catching more reckless drivers and correcting the behavior.

To that end, it's important to keep up with the latest technology in police radar guns. The best recommendation we can make is to invest in police radar equipment that can be hooked up to a computer and analyzed with traffic analysis software. It's a great tool to spot traffic trends in your community and will help you in making decisions on where to allocate your scarce resources.

Many smaller police departments that have had the same police radar gun equipment for several decades are weary of investing in new equipment because of the cost. They have distant memories of their equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. That's not the case these days. Traffic Radar equipment has come down substantially in cost and is now more affordable, even for smaller, resource conscious police departments.

And everyone loves a new toy, the officers in your department will love playing around with the latest technology.

A difficult choice for a police department to make is where to allocate officers to monitor traffic speeders. Ideally they need to be placed in areas with a high instance of speeding or places where speeding trends are moving upwards.

The resources of a police department are finite and cops can't be everywhere at all times so it can be difficult to find out this information. So what is a resource stretched police department to do?

A traffic radar speed trailer may the solution their looking for.

Recently a Police Department in Utah got their hands on a traffic radar trailer. They placed it in areas where they were getting increasing reports of wreckless driving. The trailer allowed them to track traffic and store the data. The data was later analyzed and the department discovered where it was best to send their officers to catch wreckless drivers. Once they placed the officers in key locations, instances of speeding steadily decreased.

The police department in question paid too much for their trailer, though the Federal Government picked up the tab. We have an affordable solution for police departments without deep pockets.

The Decatur Radar Trailer features radar detecting equipment, large display board and solid construction. When it catches a speeder it will instruct them to slow down. The data can be analyzed with Decatur Stat Pak to help you know where to allocate your scarce resources.

The Decatur Radar Trailer is the perfect solution for your local town to make it's roads safer to drive on.

Baseball season is in full swing and most likely, ballplayers out there are getting pretty exhausted. Well, having a Human Touch massage chair is like having relief pitcher or a pitch hitter in your own living room.

Relax with the state of the art robotic massage chair technology that learns your body up and down and manages it's massage to give you the most fulfilling massage you can get around. This is perfect if your team's masseuse was too busy to fit you in. No need to wait in line.

The full line of Human Touch massage chairs are perfect for working the soreness out of the muscles in your back and giving your feet the care they deserve. Every athlete knows the most important piece of equipment he has is his own body. So, treat it right with a great massage chair.

After a long day out on the field, get yourself a quality massage from Human Touch.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about Radar and about how Radar Guns work. Below is a list of the most frequent questions we get by people hoping to get out of their speeding tickets. So, without further adieu, here are the most commons myths about radar, misconceptions about radar guns and the cops that wield them. If you have any radar gun myths you'd like to add to this list of Radar Detector Facts, feel free to post them in the comments.

Myth #1 - Radar doesn't work accurately in bad weather - Many people think that if it's raining, cloudy or cold that radar equipment won't work correctly. This is simply not true. Look at it this way. Air traffic controllers can still track airplanes in the sky when it's foggy or cloudy. The equipment a radar gun uses is substantially scaled down compared to an airport but the same principles of radar technology and the laws of physics still apply. Bad weather as an argument will not get you out of a speeding ticket. Besides, if the weather is bad, it might be a good idea to drive more carefully anyway.

Myth #2 - Radar Detectors will prevent me from getting a speeding ticket - A Radar detector does not make you bulletproof. Radar detectors are simply tools; tools that can be used correctly or incorrectly and can perform differently under different circumstances. There's a good chance it won't detect a cop on the prowl and there's an even better chance of it going off when there is no cop around at all. There are also new and changing radar technologies that your fancy radar detector may not be able to pick up.

Myth #3 - Cops can't hide when running Radar - Cops can park wherever they want to nail speeders. There is no law saying they can't hide when searching for speeders. Some people call this entrapment, but that defense won't get you very far in traffic court.

Myth #4 - The Officer has to show me the Radar readout if I ask - Cops don't have to do anything for you. They're the ones with the authority over you. If he refuses to show you the readout, you can't use that as a defense in court. The officer is not obligated to show you his equipment. The judge will always believe the cop's word over yours. Cops can even ticket you for speeding with a visual inspection without radar. You can tell when someone is going a 100 mph and cops are trained to pick it up, even if their radar equipment is off.

Myth #5 - Cops give more speeding tickets to red cars - Cops give tickets to speeders and don't discriminate on car color. This theory probably arises from the corollary that people who own red cars are more likely to speed and thus get nailed more often for speeding. There are no magic properties in red car paint that make them more targeted by radar guns.

Myth #6 - Why did I get a ticket, I was only going 5mph over? - Generally it's up to the cop and the jurisdiction he represents to decide how much speeding warrants a ticket. There are no laws that say this much over is or isn't speeding. Speeding is 1 mph over the posted limit, period. He has grounds to ticket you for going 1mph just as much as if you were going 50 mph over. "But judge, I was only going five miles over" will not make a good defense in court. Five miles over is five miles over.

Myth #7 - I only got a ticket because cops have a quota - This is a common myth about police departments. They don't set quotas for how many tickets a cop needs to write. Officers can write as little or as many tickets as they wish. You can't establish a quota based on who might break the law. That'd be like telling cops they have to solve 5 murders in the next month when murders may or may not even occur.

Myth #8 - I didn't sign the ticket so it's not valid and I don't have to show up in court because it will be dismissed - Signing the ticket is not an admission of guilt. It's usually an acknowledgement you have to appear in court. If you don't show up to court based on this logic, the judge will likely rule against you automatically, you'll be levied a fine in addition to the ticket and have a warrant issued for your arrest. Some states will even suspend your license.

Myth #9 - There's an error on my ticket so the judge will have to dismiss it - People make mistakes. The judge will not dismiss a speeding ticket if the cop got your eye color wrong on the ticket.

Myth #10 - If I place tinfoil on my car's hubcaps or hang a CD from my rear-view mirror, I will become invisible to police radar - This was the subject of a recent Mythbuster's episode. All these methods were proved to be ineffective. There's nothing you can put on your car that will prevent it from being detected by polic radar. Maybe if they started building cars out of the stuff they make stealth bombers out of...

Editor's Note: None of the above information should be considered legal advice.

We've all been there. You’re cruising down the highway at a good clip; you're in the Driving Zone, completely unaware of your surroundings. And BAM! You see blue lights in your rearview mirror. I know, I know; you didn't even realize you were speeding, but the Cop nailed ya anyway. We get a lot of questions about the accuracy of Radar Guns and how to get out of speeding tickets. Many people have their own unique ways to get out of a speeding ticket. Some never work, while some do. This advice is just that, advice. I make no guarantees that these methods will actually work in your favor. In no way should this be considered legal advice.

1. Don't Speed - The obvious solution is to just watch your speed. I know, I know, this a cop-out (pun intended) of a reason. But generally obeying the speed limit will ensure that you don't get pulled over and ticketed. It will also have the knock on effect of making you a safer driver.

2. Kindness Counts - Cops see a lot of crap in the line of duty, the least you can do is not add to it. When you're pulled over, turn the engine off, have your license and registration ready, roll down the window and keep your hands on the wheel when he approaches. If you're wearing a hat or sunglasses, take it off. Never get out of your car or be provocative in any way. Simple courtesies like this will work in your favor. When he starts talking to you, kill him with kindness and be very polite. Remember, he has the high ground.

3. Admit fault immediately - This is usually the best way to get out of a speeding ticket. When the cop asks, “do you know why I pulled you over?” Or something along those lines. Simply respond "Yes, I was speeding." Usually this will catch the cop off guard. People try to come up with a million excuses as to why they were speeding, but unless you’re speeding to the hospital there really isn't a good excuse.

Don’t forget that cops are human. Don't you hate it when people give you excuse after excuse? Cops hear excuses all day and they could care less about yours. Simply admit speeding was the reason you were pulled over. That’s it. Often times, you'll find yourself on your way in a few minutes with a written warning. This also depends on your driving record as well. If you have a lot of tickets on your record, especially with the traffic authority the officer represents, he'll be more likely to issue you a ticket.

4. Fight it in court - There are as many strategies for fighting a ticket as the sky is blue. Here are some common tips. Show up to the court date, preferably in a suit and tie. Often times the cop will not show up, often times they have to appear in court on their own time and they have so many possible court dates that there's a good chance he won't show up at all. Usually this means the judge will rule in your favor. If the cop does show up, challenge the validity of the radar equipment. Ask when the last time the equipment was calibrated, ask to see the logs. This will create lots of delay and can work in your favor. Create as much delay as possible.

Another strategy is to file continuing motions to string things out for as long as possible. Most people would rather avoid this method; you'll end up with as much in court costs as the ticket would have cost you, plus the cost of a lawyer if you don't feel you are up to fighting it. Also be sure to be very respectful of the judge and the officer. Don’t be a jerk. That will not help you.

5. Pay it and take defensive driving - Sometimes it's best to just suck it up and deal with it. Get the money order and just pay the ticket. If you're worried about your insurance going up, most municipalities have programs where you can take a defensive driving course and the ticket won't show up on your driving record at all. Nowadays most of these courses amount to a 4 hour video and a test you can take online. Paying the ticket and the cost of the course is a lot cheaper in the long run against higher insurance premiums. Look at the bright side; it might actually make you a better driver.

6. It's about who you now - This is where your extended network of friends and family comes in handy. It's called six degrees of separation. You've got to be able to connect to someone you know in the court of city government that can simply make the ticket 'go away' or help the court rule in your favor. If you know someone who knows the cop, perhaps they can get the cop to drop it once that personal connection is made. It never hurts to be friends with a cop. However, in some cases this is not exactly the right thing to do.

7. Don’t Pout - If you're a girl, don't expect to be able to use your good looks and whatnot to get out of a ticket. Cops are generally impervious to your charms, especially if the officer in question is a woman. Do not play dumb to the cop or pull down your top a little to show off your assets. It won't work and may actually work against you.

8. If you’re Drunk – You’re screwed. Don’t drink and drive.

Have your own tips? Post it in the comments or send us an e-mail.

Get a lot of cutomers wanting to know the difference between the Bushnell Speedster II and the Bushnell Velocity. The answer is simple. There is no difference! Both versions now read in miles per hour and kilometers per hour. The Speedster II is an eclusive version of the Bushnell Velocity made for OpticsPlanet. Same gun, but slightly lower price. Great radar guns for the money.

It may be the dark days of February, but spring is inching ever closer. In the second article in this series, I'm going to tell you about the best sports equipment available in our store to help you get the most out of Spring Training.

Every Baseball team needs a good pitching machine. Check out the JUGS MVP Pitching Machine. It's a great, affordable option for the local little league team or the local high school. It comes with a digital readout that allows you to vary the speed from 15 to 52 mph. Give your pitchers a rest!

If you don't want to outlay the costs for a pitching machine but want mechanize your practices in some way, check out the JUGS Baseball Deluxe Toss Pack. It comes with a low speed baseball or softball tosser, a backstop, remote for tosser, home plate and a dozen Sting-Free baseballs. It's great for doing offensive and defensive drills with your infield and outfield players.

If you have the next Babe Ruth on your hands and you want to provide a place for him to practice all the time, then consider the JUGS Backyard Net Package. It includes twine netting, installation kit and screens. This coupled with the pitching machine would be the ultimate home baseball training kit.

If baseball isn't your thing, we also carry the JUGS Soccer Machine which will help you perfect your goal kicking. We've also got the JUGS Football Passing machine if you can't wait to get started prepping for the next football season.

And don't forget a radar gun! Check out the last entry for my recommendations on the best Spring Training radar guns.