Pocket Radar: Hand-held Speed Measurements
We’ve all been touched by radar- most likely, you’ve suffered from a ticket at the hands of police using radar guns to detect your excessive need to get somewhere quickly. And we always enjoy testing our throwing speed at the amusement park, where you can find a radar gun as part of the classic pitching game.
Now, you can practice at home. Further, you can add linear speed to your line of interesting measuring instruments, from temperature to weight to ski jump distance. The Pocket Radar is an lightweight, easy to use, Doppler radar system. About the size of a deck of cards, the device claims to be accurate to within 1 mile per hour!
Using two AAA batteries, we took it out into a field, and tested a few different objects- baseballs, beachballs, human beings, and also a few cars. What we found is that the area measured can take a little while to get used to, and moving the device much can have a pretty large effect. Also, there are some limits- you can only measure speeds from 7 mph to 375 mph (so, people walking and slow beachballs don’t work so well). Also, it’s important to stay relatively still, or at least keep the device at a consistent angle. It wasn’t particularly easy to hold- we know why radar guns are shaped the way they are- but it was about the same as holding a Flip camera. It can indeed fit into a pocket pretty handily, and the giant red button means it’s simple enough for any kid to operate.
Coaches and athletes are obvious target users, but they also suggest hobbyists- folks with R/C vehicles, for instance. And it’s not just baseball- golf, soccer, and of course tennis are all sports that are served well with a bit of extra gadgetry. Battery life is quite good- they rate it at 10,000 speed readings, and we never had a problem. And yes, you can adjust the units, to kilometers per hour, or even feet or meters per second, although it’s not exactly intuitive (we had to check the manual). They have a helpful FAQ on other potential uses, listing everything from paintball to dog racing, and our only major criticism was the lack of an automatic mode- allowing you to set the unit up and capture the peak speed of an object in range. At $200 and available widely online, it’s a fun tool with a lot of potential.
