Radar Gun

Radar on the Roads Mazhar M. Chinoy Radar guns are a relatively new concept for most Pakistanis roadsters, perceived as an irritating tool that can get them into trouble with the law while speeding beyond the assigned limit. The invention is however, more than 50 years old, a product developed by Decatur Electronics in the USA in 1954 and inducted into their police force the same year . Radar guns were invented with a simple concept behind them, nothing more than the mere transmitting and receiving of signals. A radio signal is sent out by the gun that bounces off objects and is received again, albeit differently. The difference in this frequency is calculated by the Doppler Effect, and measures the speed of the object rather accurately. Radar guns these days do not need to be stationary and can compare the frequency shift between received images instead of the frequency shift between sent and received frequencies, enabling accurate measuring of speeds with a moving radar gun Traffic radar guns can be hand held, stationary or mobile. Hand held units are normally battery powered and mostly stationary, mounted inside police vehicles, or even outside of the vehicles while discretely hidden around a curve or behind small mounds of dirt to catch unwary speeding motorists. Sophistication has arrived with tech-savvy machines in the market that can track vehicles approaching and receding both in front of and behind the patrol vehicle. They can also track the fastest vehicle in the selected radar beam, from the front or rear of the police car. While radar guns tend to measure an object’s speed very accurately, the machine is dependent on user expertise. In most machines, the vehicle whose speed is desired ideally should be the only moving object within the radar beam. Thus, on a busy stretch of road, user application is critical for a correct reading. This issue is more or less circumvented in newer machines that are capable of picking out and tracking the fastest vehicle among others. Another downside is erroneous readings creeping up due to interference in the radar band by cellular phones, other transmitters, power lines and even road signs along the bandwith Motorway Police generally undergo rigorous training in the optimum operation of police traffic radar that includes the setting up and testing the equipment as well as correctly identifying target vehicles. Training in the visual estimation of speed and distance is another feature that vastly reduces chances of error in all fairness. Radar guns have a significant role to play towards the prevalence of sanity on Pakistan’s dangerous highways, and are hopefully here to stay