re: John on Radar

[Ray Kaupp <rkaupp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John said :

>and?  I am sure you know that the radar will pick up the target moving the
>fastest.

I thought police radar displayed the strongest return, which would be a 
function of distance and RCS of targets hit by the outbound beam. Any 
engineers know if it is strongest or fastest that gets displayed?

A few years back, I got a radar ticket in Scotts Valley, CA for 55 in a 35, 
on a stretch where they often have radar going and where I ALWAYS drive 35 
mph. Behind me (I was in my wife's Volvo 850) was a 70's-era Chevy 1-ton 
4X4, coming up fast on me, then slowing for a right turn before we got to 
the cop. In court, I argued (and won) that his radar was reading the 
Chevy's spead, and had some mathmatical calculations from a book, loaned to 
me by a Lockheed engineer, about the relationship between distance, radar 
cross section--a function of the combination of size, materials, density, 
and "squareness" of the object being tracked--and signal strength.

I think I was right, that the truck, with dozens of square feet of 
perfectly vertical grill, sheet metal, bumper, and radiator,  50 yards 
behind me, 1/2 mile from the cop, overwhelmed the wimpy doppler from the 
skinny-nosed volvo.

What I know to be true is that I was doing 35 mph, was cited for 55, and 
beat it. So did I just baffle 'em with bulls**t?

Ray Kaupp
'85 535i

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