Surplus radars?

Traffic engineer · Guest

We have a MPH Industries unit from 1978, and I'm hoping to pick up a newer one on a very limited budget.

I use radar to determine proper placement of warning signs, design speed for highway construction projects, and other traffic safety studies. For these studies, traffic engineers round to the next 5 mph anyway, so I don't require the accuracy that you need for enforcement . I figure I could save county taxpayers some money and use one that is being discarded.

Any suggestions?

CopRadar.com · Guest

You could probably use a brand new "sports radar gun" to accomplish your requirements. Sports radars will not have the range of a police radar and the transmit/receive beams are generally larger. If measuring vehicles at ranges of less than about 500 feet a sports radar will work and should be as accurate (not to mention much less expensive -- around $100 or so).

Saving taxpayers money is a worthly goal!

Traffic Engineer · Guest

On lower volume roads, sports radars would work fine. The problem is on higher volume roads, you can't tell whether it locked on to the vehicle moving towards you, or the one moving away. Either a +/- display (with negative speeds moving away from the unit) or a doppler tone would be a big help. Sports radars don't usually have these.

CopRadar.com · Guest

I believe you are correct -- I am not aware of a sports radar that indicates target direction (on-coming or going). If target direction is required (as in your case) currently you have to use a police radar.

Sport radars could indicated direction, but that would require a little more processing (more circuits and more lines of software code) which increases development and production cost.