Cruising Under The Radar: Rise of the Fuzzbuster

Ur-Turn
by Ur-Turn

by Richard A. Ratay

In 1974, Congress passed legislation establishing the national highway speed limit of 55 mph. The original goal of the law was to conserve gas during the first OPEC Oil Crisis. Later, proponents of the lower limit argued it reduced highway fatalities. (Remember “55 Saves Lives”?) In time, studies showed the lower limit accomplished neither objective. It did, however, irk just about every driver across America.

Truckers were already equipped with their own means of skirting the new limit. Using their CB radios, long haul truck drivers kept each other informed about the whereabouts of “bear traps” and “Smokeys” lurking along the highways.

But drivers of automobiles sought their own weapon for combatting enforcement of the new lower speed limit. They found it in a device called “The Fuzzbuster.” Released a year before passage of the 55 mph National Maximum Speed Limit, the Fuzzbuster was the creation of Dale Smith, an Ohio driver who had earlier found himself seething at the side of the road after being nabbed in a police speed trap.

Unlike other motorists, Smith was a man capable of responding to his ticket with more than just a few curse words muttered under his breath. He was a research scientist for the Air Force who had also worked on improving the technology used in police radar guns.

Working in his garage, Smith assembled a small parcel of electronics that could detect X-band radio signals — the kind used by police radar guns — at a distance greater than the operating range of the devices used by law enforcement. He then attached to the device a red light that flashed and an alarm that sounded every time such signals were detected. Finally, he added a coiled cord with a plug that allowed the unit to be powered by his vehicle’s cigarette lighter.

Testing the device around town in his car, Smith found his Fuzzbuster consistently identified lurking patrol squads well before he could see them. Confident he had a winning product on his hands, Smith founded his own company, Electrolert, to manufacture the device.

For nearly two decades, law enforcement had been able to unilaterally use radar technology against motorists. But upon its release, Dale Smith’s “Fuzzbuster” instantly leveled the playing field, perhaps even giving drivers a slight advantage over the police and state patrol due its greater operating range.

From the moment of their debut, Fuzzbusters flew off store shelves at the same pace its buyers raced along the roadways. In no time, the small black boxes appeared on the dashboard of nearly every car on the highways — every car but ours.

I never quite understood my father’s reluctance to buy one. The cost wasn’t prohibitive, even for a man as frugal as my father. A low-end Fuzzbuster retailed for less than the cost of two speeding tickets. We’d certainly get plenty of use out of the device, between the considerable amount of travel we did as a family and the many miles my father logged for work.

But my Dad could never get past the stigma that came with owning such a device. In a way, plopping a Fuzzbuster up on your dash was like extending a big electronic middle finger to the police. It smacked of the post-hippy, anti-authority sentiment still raging at the time, and my father wanted no part of it. He was, after all, a respectable family man, an upstanding member of society. He didn’t want to join the ranks of the long hairs and scofflaws, the wearers of fringed leather jackets.

When it came to the ridiculous 55 mph speed limit, my Dad didn’t mind breaking the law. He just didn’t want others to know he was doing it.

Plenty of other drivers had no such reservations. Fuzzbuster sales soared and soon the device was joined on store shelves by a crowd of imitators including such memorably named brands as “Super Snooper,” “Bearfinder” and the “Screamin’ Demon.” By the mid-1980s, radar detection had become a $400 million industry.

Most makers of radar detectors faded away with time. Even Electrolert and its Fuzzbuster succumbed as technology improved and law enforcement transitioned to superior K-band and Ka-band instant-on radar. But successors such as Escort, Whistler and Cobra rose to carry forth the blinking red torch initially lit by Dale Smith. Even today, in an age when there is an “app” for just about everything else, motorists continue to count on the humble radar detector to let them know when Johnny Law is watching.

In fitting tribute to its considerable legacy, Dale Smith’s original Fuzzbuster was named one of Time magazine’s “All-Time 100 Gadgets” in 2010.

[Image: dave_7/Flickr]

Richard Ratay is the author of the upcoming book “Don’t Make Me Pull This Thing Over! An Informal History of the Family Road Trip”. Follow him on Facebook.

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on May 09, 2016

    After getting a ticket in the late '80s while taking a friend to catch a flight, I bought a Cobra Trapshooter (X-K bands), and used it for several years. I actually got a ticket once while using it (didn't pay attention quickly enough), but fortunately the cop didn't notice it, as I had it mounted to the metal trim at the top of my windshield, using the sun visor clip turned upside-down, with death grip Velcro (the interlocking pins kind). When I switched vehicles, the Trapshooter got packed away.

  • Wheeljack Wheeljack on May 09, 2016

    I run a V1 (that needs an upgrade at this point) and an old Uniden Bearcat Scanner (BCT-12) with a form-factor like a radar detector. The scanner was programmed with all the police bands by state, so you simply change to the state you are in to monitor police communications. It will automatically scroll through all the known frequencies on a continuous basis, and it will pause for a few seconds when a signal is strong enough, the idea being that you are close to the source, i.e. a police officer. You can even "hold" the frequency if you want to listen in. The other cool thing the scanner does is it will light up like a Christmas tree and make a bunch of noise if the officer keys the mic on his shoulder, activating the repeater in the squad car that amplifies the signal. Because of the momentary power surge, you know you are close to an officer, maybe a mile or two. Unfortunately it looks like many of the police frequencies have changed (mostly to digital) and my old scanner isn't as good as it used to be, but between it and the V1, my bacon has been saved a bunch of times. It's too bad Uniden never came out with a newer version of the same concept or offered upgrades like the V1.

    • Lonborghini Lonborghini on May 09, 2016

      Yeah,i run a Bearcat scanner too, and an Escort Max 360, and a CB radio and i run Waze. Safe,efficient driving is using protection, lot's of protection!

  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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