ZR4 versus the law

Stealth Enthusiast · #11 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

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Originally Posted by Streaker

too actually find the switch the car interior has to be stripped.

No that's where you are wrong. What you are using is commonly known as a reed switch. They're nothing new, they've been around since 1936. They used to be called (and sometimes still are called) a proximity switch. They rely on magnetism to work, but magnetism is rated in tesla and they could easily have a magnet that has a higher gauss than yours. They don't even need a magnet to make the reed switch work. A rusty nail with a few inches of wire and a battery will induce a magnetic field. All I'm saying is don't kid yourself that the 'switch' is really hidden. Nothing that works on magnetism is hidden. You would be more protected if you used a common relay connected to a factory switch. When you want to turn the jammer off simply flick the factory switch and the jammer will stay off until you do it again. That way you could use factory parts (including factory wiring) to camouflage your install.

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may he just randomly strip your car next to the road without a warrent?

I'm not familiar with the laws there but here yes, under certain circumstances it would be possible.

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Unless he has a magnet and knows exactly where to put it, jammer remains "broken".

No, see the first response in this post above.

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Will take pics of the switch and fitting tomorrow and post it so as to explain the idea better.

No need. I'm more concerned about you protecting yourself. The last thing that you need is to have a cop see those pics and to have them become the 'roadmap' to finding your jammer

Speed Trap Hunter · #12 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

I was thinking along those lines too.

If you do choose to share PICs perhaps do it in way that doesn't give away too much info. We bright guys can figure it out...

STH

TSi+WRX · #13 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth Enthusiast

All I'm saying is don't kid yourself that the 'switch' is really hidden.

I really think that this is the crux of the issue.

Nothing is really completely hidden.

It all depends on how savvy, experienced, and knowledged the enforcer happens to be - and that's only at the roadside.

Case-in-point:

One fellow enthusiast on RadarDetector.net - he was pulled-over and interviewed, not because the enforcer saw an error or jam-code on his LIDAR device, but simply because, as the enforcer said, that his "gun wasn't doing what he'd expected it to do."

As anyone who has had trigger time behind various police LIDAR devices will readily confess, different instruments have different strengths and weaknesses - and it is just one such characteristic, lock/acquisition speed, that tipped this enforcer off to his target's jammer usage.

Luckily, our fellow countermeasure user was able to, thanks to his quick thinking and rather sterilized cockpit, talk his way out, but it put enough of a scare into him that he was willing to share the story with us.

The take-away here is that no matter how well-conceived/executed our attempts at concealment, there will *always* be a tell, and that someone experienced enough, with enough knowledge and persistence, can and will find what we've tried to conceal.

Nevertheless, in the battle at the roadside, efforts undertaken to lower one's profile can and will help.

Just don't think that it's perfect.

Streaker · #14 (**permalink**) 2009-06-29

I have to agree nothing is fool proof, and in the States I would agree. Here the qualification to become a traffic cop (our traffic and local police are seperated. Normal police can't really enforce traffic, that is the traffic cops job) isn't even high school and our officers are mostly dim wits. Most have never even seen a jammer in real life.

About three years ago they were interviewing the chief of traffic police on a talk show when this guy named "b$#d" phoned in and boasted that they would never catch him speeding because he had a jammer and then he explained what it was.After that for about a year, it was even hard to drive with a detector because they considered it a jammer. Eventually however they said detectors are legal but jammers although legal, users would be caught for obstrution of justice (very hard to prove).

B%$ds phone call caused chaos in the jammer freternity here. Sales from the place I bought my jammers dropped from 40 a month to under 10. People were frightened by the heavy hand they lay on jammers.

As mentioned earlier, you are caught for obstrution of justice. A court case here about 2 years ago ruled that since the driver claimed he was doing less then the posted speed limit when his jammer went off and wasn't breaking the law, he couldn't have been obstructing the officer from catching him breaking the law (needless to say the Blinder m45 had prevented the officer from getting a speed).

The only reason he was caught using it was he never switched it off, and secondly he admitted to a working jammer at the road side. They impounded his 911 Carrera (used in a 'crime').

TSi+WRX · #15 (**permalink**) 2009-06-29

^ Yep, two battles.

One at the roadside.

The next is the consequences, should the former not quite work out.

It really pays to be more discrete, to let discretion be the better part of valor.