Hi! Bob,

On Thu, 16 Oct 03, you wrote to me:

 DD>> You don't see any motorcyclists being pulled up by those things
 DD>> - target too small?
 PQ>> Watch out for the fellers with the LIDAR guns. They're
 PQ>> guaranteed for a distance of 841 meters, with telescopic
 PQ>> lensing; red-dot targetting. We clocked a Jack Russell crossing
 PQ>> the highway a klick out of town, once. =:)

 BL>  How could you possibly see a red dot at 800 metres?

It's not a beam, but a target indicator built into the electronics/optics. 
As the system starts getting echoes from the target the colour changes
through varying hues, till it gets a 'solid' return, at which point the
operator can lock (i.e. freeze) the target picture.  The basic technology
isn't radar in the classic sense, but utilises low-power tight beam laser
range-finding and doppler (I think) return/computations.  Which explains
the short-ish range of 800-odd meters.

 BL> I imagign that it would be something like shooting a rifle,
 BL> where the problem is not the optics, it's the stand.

Okay.  (All of the above, actually... and more.)  When was the last time
you participated at a rifle range, Bob?

Cheers,
Paul.

--- Radius/W32 4.009-02.01.03/RC10