THE latest weapon in the war between speeding motorists and traffic cops is a radar scrambler Americans can buy for under $100. A more powerful model that jams police laser radars as well as the older radio-frequency types sells for $199.95. Both go a step beyond radar detectors by returning signals that confuse police radars so they cannot calculate the driver鈥檚 speed accurately.
Britain and many other European countries ban the use of radar detectors, as do a few states in the US. Scramblers are 鈥渋mmune to radar detector laws because we鈥檙e not detecting鈥� says Mike Churchman, founder of Rocky Mountain Radar in Littleton, Colorado. Instead, radio-frequency scramblers use a high-gain antenna that automatically reflects any incoming signals back towards the radar gun, while mixing in another radio signal that confuses the receiver.
The company鈥檚 more expensive Phazer scrambler also includes an infrared LED, which fires invisible infrared pulses through the car鈥檚 windscreen. Laser radars interpret those pulses as reflections indicating the car鈥檚 distance, and because they calculate speed from a series of distance readings, the false data block speed measurements.
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鈥淥klahoma and Minnesota have passed laws geared towards us,鈥� says Churchman. The Minnesota law came into effect in August. Since then, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission have investigated the devices, but 鈥渘obody鈥檚 ever taken any action against us鈥�, he says.
The Pentagon, which has spent billions on electronic warfare systems that use similar technology to hide military planes from enemy radars, has also investigated 鈥� although its motivation is somewhat different. The US Air Force wants the company to build jammers to block enemy navigational systems.