What Does a Radar Detector Do?
Radar detectors are used to detect police radar guns that are in use in your vicinity so that you can slow down in time to avoid a speeding ticket. Radar uses radio waves to “see” distant objects by bouncing the waves off an object and seeing how long it takes for the wave to return. The radio waves of the police radar gun put out different types of radar bands – X band, K band, or Ka bands. These bands can be compared to three different radio stations. That is why radar detectors are tuned to detecting these specific bands. When the detector detects these bands, it emanates a “beep” that alerts the user of radar presence.
When a radar detector detects a police officer’s radar gun, it alerts you with messages about X band, K band, or Ka bands. These are the bands that the police officer’s radar guns operate on.