How does a car radar work? like what does X, K, and Ka mean?

Question

How does a car radar work? like what does X, K, and Ka mean?

Answer 1

Radar works by bouncing a radar radio signal off of a moving object and measuring the change in the signal when it returns to the radar gun. The change in the signal between when it leaves the radar gun, bounces off of an object, and returns to the radar gun is called the Doppler Shift. The radar gun measures the amount of Doppler Shift to determine the speed of the moving object.

X, K and Ka are 3 different radar bands. Radar is like radio: there are different stations, or 'bands' that can be used for the same purpose. Law enforcement uses different bands to help thwart users of radar detectors, but the best radar detectors will detect every police radar band, while cheap radar detectors will not.