Saw a possible speed trap Saturday evening

[lawn psycho]

Originally Posted by MAXUM

Could be a patrol officer either lives there and took his boat home (I've seen plenty of state and sheriff's do that with their cruisers) or could have been over there on a call, not necessarily sitting waiting to bust somebody. Either way, I have no problem with the MP using whatever tactics they need to to catch the bad guys out there. I've always thought they should ditch the marked boats for unmarked ones anyways. Way I look at it, if your out there and doing nothing wrong no need to be concerned one bit at the presence of the MP. Give 'em a wave, they got a tough job out there.

We're the creativity? Perhaps there is a scandal afoot and it's a MP officer having an affair with one of the people at that house.

I've only been on the water twice thus far this year. Spent all my time from Alton, Gilford, and W-boro areas and never picked up the MP on my radar detector. I haven't checked but I assume they will use the same Ka band as the State Police.

Given so few boats are doing over 45 MPH I seriously doubt a MP officer would set-up on stationary radar for any length of time. The most likely time to get someone is the gray area when the sun is dropping and sunset is reached but there is still a lot of daylight.

For those who travel along Rt 11 from the Spaulding, not sure what town it is but they have a D.A.R.E schemed car and he lines himself up to clock you at over 1/2 mile until you see him. I was picking him up over a mile out with my radar detector It was right around where the speed drops for 55 to either 45 or 40 MPH. Classic speed trap.

The revenue enforcers are out there but much more likely to get you on the road than on the water.....

[Skip]

Originally Posted by lawn psycho

...Spent all my time from Alton, Gilford, and W-boro areas and never picked up the MP on my radar detector. I haven't checked but I assume they will use the same Ka band as the State Police...

My understanding is that they are primarlily using a handheld LIDAR unit, not the typical Ka band radar SP and many locals use, although NHSP is quickly equipping many Troopers with handheld LIDAR units as well.

The LIDAR units will require that your detector have that ability to detect same as well as the typical Ka band requirements. And while the Ka band disperses with range and is fairly easy to detect with a decent detector, LIDAR units, by the nature of their concentrated and mostly non-scatter light beam, are much more difficult to detect in an omni direction as would be required on the water.

Just some food for thought.....

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by Skip

My understanding is that they are primarlily using a handheld LIDAR unit, not the typical Ka band radar SP and many locals use, although NHSP is quickly equipping many Troopers with handheld LIDAR units as well.

LIDAR would be preferable on the water because it's really good at resolving specific targets, but one would need a pretty steady hand to get a reading. Tied to a dock would be ideal. I can't imagine they'll have too many LIDAR traps out in the choppy broads...

Since LIDAR computes the target speed based on how far the target has traveled relative to the LIDAR unit (in a given time), it suffers the same problem as speed radar in that it's only accurate when the the target is going directly toward or directly away from the LIDAR. Any deviation from a direct tragectory will yield a lower speed reading. That said, It's a function of the cosine of the angle, so even if the target is 20 degrees off a direct path, LIDAR will read only 6% low.

[Rusty]

They use the Prolaser III.




ProLaser III Operator's Manual

The technology used by the ProLaser III to measure
distances and speeds is referred to as lidar, which stands
for light detection and ranging. When the trigger is pulled,
the ProLaser III sends out hundreds of invisible infrared
laser light pulses per second. As each pulse is
transmitted, a timer is started, and when the energy of a
laser pulse is reflected from a target and received by the
ProLaser III, the timer is stopped. From the elapsed time
taken for the laser pulse to strike and return from the
target, the distance to the object is calculated with the
known speed of light through the atmosphere. If the
target is moving with respect to the ProLaser III, a
sophisticated algorithm is used to derive the speed of the
target from a successive number of range calculations.
This speed determination is then displayed to the
operator.

[lawn psycho]

My RD will sniff out the PLIII as well.

For those interested, IMO the Escort 8500 is the best "bang for the buck" detector on the market. This is what I have on the boat. The 8500 can also mate up to their lasar jammers albeit the mounting would have to be figured out but not that hard to do.

You would be amazed at how often your vehicle gets painted with police radar on the road.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by Rusty

They use the Prolaser III.

It's funny. There's a vastly superior tool than LIDAR for measuring the speed of multiple boats, simultaneously, and on any heading, right in that photo.

[BroadHopper]

Originally Posted by Dave R

It's funny. There's a vastly superior tool than LIDAR for measuring the speed of multiple boats, simultaneously, and on any heading, right in that photo.

Ask any engineer at the Raymarine Merrimack R&D plant. A marine radar with the right microprocessor can determine the speed of multiple boats very accurately. As DR points out, the LIDAR is not accurate on water.

I saw a number of state troopers on 106 standing outside their cars aiming at cars with what looks like a miniature vdeo camera. It is definitely not a radar detector. Can Skip tell us what it might be?

[Skip]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

Ask any engineer at the Raymarine Merrimack R&D plant. A marine radar with the right microprocessor can determine the speed of multiple boats very accurately. As DR points out, the LIDAR is not accurate on water.

I saw a number of state troopers on 106 standing outside their cars aiming at cars with what looks like a miniature vdeo camera. It is definitely not a radar detector. Can Skip tell us what it might be?

It's a handheld instant-on LIDAR (or Laser if you prefer) unit. Unlike the traditional Ka band units installed in their cruisers, using the device you saw with its integral aiming allows Troopers to "paint" and pick out individual vehicles, even in moderate traffic, from very great distances. The NHMP unit pictured above is just a slightly different version of what NHSP is now using on the highways, along with a growing number of local & county departments.

[Shreddy]

Originally Posted by Rusty

They use the Prolaser III.

That's a good buddy of mine. Guess I have my get out of jail free card

[BroadHopper]

My cousin is a chief of police. One of my best friend is a captain of a large city police department. A third is the sheriff of a Mass. County. I'm in good hands!