Police radar foiling spray

[hanssolo]

We had this thing on the local news here about some clear spray you put on the front license plate to mess up police radar guns and the cops were upset about it. Anyone know what it is?

[Green72GMC]

no, but I want some now!

[passthebuck]

I saw a gut at the local World of Wheelz demo this for me - HE described it as a polymer-spray that super-increases the inherent reflectivity of your licence plate. It reflects 100% of the light of the flash back to the camera lense so that your plate is just a white rectangle & illegible. I can check around here for a trade name if you want...

[Southpa]

That was happening with photo radar. It was illegal to wrap your license plate in saran wrap.

[project1971]

Thank goodness here in oklahoma we don't have to worry about that.... yet. we just have normal radar. We did have photo radar and cameras at intersections in Arizona, ah to be back there again... oh well.

[hanssolo]

Very interesting. Did that aluminum foil in the hubcaps ever work for regular radar?

[Locutus]

Laser can get a reading on any part of your car that is reflective. ie Your paint, your glass, your license plate, chrome, etc. Fortunately Laser units are very expensive and even a big state like Texas only has a few. As far as photo radar, it is still against Texas law to even use the devices for traffic enforcement.



Mike

[jef5150]

tell ya what, go buy a bottle of that stuff,spray it on your license plate,,then next time you see a radar "speed enforcement" set up,,,go thru it "DOUBLE" the posted speed limit,,,,,,,then tell us what you think,,,,

[cdowns]

if you line your hat with aluminium foil they can't read your mind

[Stocker]

Originally posted by hanssolo
Did that aluminum foil in the hubcaps ever work for regular radar?

Mmmmm...... No

[barn9]

if you line your hat with aluminium foil they can't read your mind

ROFLMFAO!! And if you use the spray, they won't be able to see your hat! LOL!

[ChevLoRay]

When I was in the USAF (VietNam era), I worked on the radar that was used for navigation. Any surface, from which the signal can be reflected, can be "read", or seen, as you wish.

That is why the government worked to develop paint that is capable of absorbing some radar energy for use on specific aircraft. In addition to that, the goverment developed the stealth concept for aircraft. The best you can hope for is to send the reflected signal back at a different angle, and hope that it misses the receiver portion of the transmitter that sent it.

Aluminum foil in hubcaps/wheelcovers/hats may have made the vehicle operator feel better, but the hubcaps and wheelcovers were larger than the foil and presented a better picture. There is no way that the foil was read and caused a false signal to the receiver. The vehicle is was on presented a much larger target to be "painted" and therefore a much larger return was visible to the equipment. Radar doesn't select a smaller item to look at, when it is attached to a larger item.

But, the radar, or laser, is only as good as the operator is accurate in his/her aiming. Users attend training so they can be creditable witnesses in a court of law.

I have seen ads for some license plate covers that were reportedly capable of foiling the photo monitoring equipment by not allowing the plate to be read at any angle, other than directly behind, for instance. At a side angle, you weren't supposed to be able to read it. Never saw one, so I don't know.

Laser is "instant on", making it much harder to detect, than X, or K, or Ka band radar. Your best bet is to play it safe, and pace the traffic. If traffic is moving 10 MPH higher than the speed limit, you will probably impede the flow of traffic, if you drive the slower limit. Go with the flow....it will be better and safer, for all.

[ddsmith]

Like others have said it is the reflected signal which the radar uses to determine the vehicles speed. I drove my vette in excess of 100 mph frequently in my younger days. I never got nailed by radar. I did get tickets but never with the gun as proof. That is a whole lot better from an insurance standpoint. Just to compare the two vehicles. These truck front ends have a very large radar reflective area. Think of all the grill, bumper and other vertical surfaces that exist to reflect. When you look at a vette it's almost like they developed it as a radar stealth car. There are pretty much no vertical elements in the front end to reflect the signal back. The radiator is even laid back so it won't reflect back to the gun. My biggest worry was that I would be running next to a big truck who was exceeding the speed limit. They would point the gun at me and the truck would reflect the signal back. That would have sucked bad but it never happened. The vette hasn't been plated since 1991 so I haven't had to worry about it lately.

[jimfulco]

Don't y'all know that if you run your wipers full-time the things can't lock on to you anyway???

[bpmcgee]

I heard that everyone who uses the highway should like their shorts with tinfoil so that the radar waves don't make us all sterile!

They're just like mini microwaves they're pointing at us! Someone should stop them!!!



Brian

[JayDubBlazer]

Just a couple of points or what ever
1. can you use your garage door opening to "jamb" radar guns?

2. Is it true that at one point the federal goverment made GM raise the angle of the radiator on the corvette so it could more easily be picked up by radar?

[speeddemon]

I watched a show on the Discovery channel a while back where they tested the radar cameras. they did the plastic rap test, that spray stuff, and some kind of clear vinyl over the tag. All of them failed. The camera picked out the tag every time.

Demon

[Stocker]

Originally posted by jimfulco Don't y'all know that if you run your wipers full-time the things can't lock on to you anyway???

LOL - can't wait for someone to actually try this!!!

[Maximum Overdrive]

Originally posted by cdowns
if you line your hat with aluminium foil they can't read your mind

That only works with space aliens.