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How do tinted windows affect radar or radar detectos? Also, I live in Virginia where radar detectors are illegal...is it true that radar detectors can be detected....or just seen when hanging in the window? Thanks!!
Some radar detectors can be detected (the technology is called VG-2, there may be others), most new ones are undetectable tho. This is the one I got, but I got it here.
Most tints don't affect radar, however, some car makers (BMW for one) on some models, put a windshield defroster in and this totally reflects radar. I believe Ford did this on a few models and left a rectangle at the top of the windshield free of the defroster conductor. Some tints are made by a very thin vapor deposition of metal, and these reflect radar. Dyes and plastic films don't do anything to radar, but can attenuate lazer depending on what the dye or film is made of.
The least expensive way to make a superheterodyne radar detector is to use a local oscillator at 11.5 GHz and some of this signal is radiated which is detected by a product (a receiver) called VG-1 and 2 used by police where detectors aren't allowed. The Valentine 1 does not use this frequency scheme and therefore does not set off VG-1/2's. Of course if you hit your brakes when they illuminate you, then they know that you must have a detector.