“Do Radars Need Certified Calibration”

Going to fight a ticket and recieved diclosure. The radar unit was a Eagle II Kustom Signals unit. They sent me the calibration cetertificate for the same model but the serial numbers are different. But on the certificate it says "No Expiration Date" which I find weird. I know Laser has to be recertified. The owners manual says they recommend peroidic maintenance and check with judicial districs for requirements. I've searched the internet and cant really find any recommenations or laws. Does anyone know any requirements in Canada? They also will not release the tuning fork certification and there is no record of the radar being tested at the end of the shift.

Radar and Lidar only need to be calibrated when originally shipped to the police agency and after repairs are done. There is no requirement for annual calibration. Tuning forks (which are not required for most radar) are also not required to have calibration. In fact by using a tuning fork with a radar you are actually doing more of a test on the accuracy of the fork and not the radar itself. Radar/Lidar must be tested prior to any enforcement and after the end of enforcement. (generally start and end of shift) This may be something that you can clear up if you cross examine the officer on the stand.

Thanks for the reply. Some of the handheld lidar rerquires yearly by the maunufacture. I think thats how I got off on one last year The certification was out for a few months. I'll try it on it wasnt checked after the shift and also the officer was trained back in 1990. Radar has changed since then so I'll give that a try. I'll point out that they gave me the wrong radar cetification so hopefully that might help.

Radar requal in Ontario is every 36 months for an Operator. If 1990 is his original date, I'd question them about their most recent requal.

bad10r wrote:1990. Radar has changed since then so I'll give that a try. .

radar principles have not changed, only difference is in the radar unit itself in that they have more functions built into the units to in isolate targets better (ie same direction targets, opposite direction targets, targets coming towards, targets going away), where as the early units even in late 90's the officer had to make decipher what the reading was from. So the units used today are a lot easier to determine the proper target

Modern units will also not function when they detect harmonics or a level of RFI that is too high. Moving radar equipped with a VIP will also eliminate shadowing and batching by comparing the vehicle speed and the low doppker that is received.