Bushnell Speedster Radar Gun

by Bushnell

Product Details

Product Manual [748kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006RJWD
• Batteries: 6 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 26, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description The Bushnell Speedster is a handy, multifunctional speed gun for all sports enthusiasts. It tracks the speed (in mph or kph) of everything from pitching speeds, tennis serves, and downhill skiers to cars at the racetrack. It can measure the speed of a baseball going 6 to 110 mph from over 75 feet away and the speed of a racecar going 6 to 200 mph from over 1,300 feet away. The Speedster also enables you to keep statistics for baseball and softball.

The easy-to-read screen can be formatted to track a series of measurements and keep a running tally of the average speed, making it ideal for analyzing baseball pitches, tennis serves, or car speed per lap.

It features a highly legible, four-row LCD graphic display, a trigger, and a two-way button pad. The Speedster uses digital technology and DSP (digital signal processing) to provide instantaneous and real-time speed measurements with an accuracy of +/-1 mph.

Speedster FAQ

What is the Bushnell Speedster used for?
The Bushnell Speedster can be used to accurately measure and display speeds of many of your favorite sports. It can track speeds of baseballs, softballs, tennis balls, and can be used in ice skating, auto racing, horse racing, track, and other sports where speed is crucial to success.

What technology does the Speedster use?
The Bushnell Speedster contains a K-Band microwave RF (radio frequency) transmitter whose signal gets reflected by the target object. The reflected signal will have a Doppler shift proportional to the target speed. This Doppler frequency shift is detected in the receiver, amplified, filtered, and then digitized in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and passed onto the digital signal processing (DSP) chip. Using complex algorithms, the DSP chip filters out false and low-level return signals to identify the speed of the desired target. The speed, along with various statistics and averages, is then displayed on the LCD.

What is radar?
Radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging.

How does the Speedster work?
Once you press the trigger, the Speedster sends out 24 GHz radio waves at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second. It measures the difference between the signal it transmitted and the signal bounced back to it and relays this information to the DSP to quickly calculate the speed of the object with an accuracy of +/-1 mpg.

How is speed calculated?
Speed is calculated using the difference between the transmit frequency and receive frequency (also known as the Doppler shift).

How accurate is the Bushnell Speedster?
The Bushnell Speedster is accurate to within +/-1 mph.

How does the user need to be positioned in relation to the moving object?
The Bushnell Speedster works best when positioned in front of or behind the moving object.

Can radar guns determine the speed of an object moving in any direction?
No, Doppler radar can only determine the relative speed of targets moving either toward or away from the radar.

Does angle affect accuracy?
A 12-degree angle should not affect performance. The Speedster is accurate to within +/-1 mph for a baseball 75 feet away at an angle of 12 degrees or less. A 20-degree angle at 60 feet away would result in an accuracy of +/-3 mph.

From how far away can the speed of a baseball, softball, or tennis ball can be determined?
0 to 75 feet.

Product Description

The Bushnell« Speedster™ is a handy, multi-functional speed gun for all kinds of sports enthusiasts. Tracks miles (or kilometers) per hour of everything from pitching speeds, tennis serves and downhill skiers to cars at the racetrack. Measures the speed of a baseball at 6-110 mph from over 75 feet away and the speed of a race car from 6-200 mph at over 1300 feet away. Also lets you keep statistics for baseball and softball. Features highly legible 4-row LCD graphics display, trigger and 2-way button pad. The Bushnell Speedster uses digital technology and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) to provide instantaneous and real-time speed measurements of +/- 1.0 mph speed accuracy.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars pretty good, November 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bushnell Speedster Radar Gun (Electronics)

this radar gun is pretty good. It is easy to work and use. The only problem with it is that it is very ocward to hold and sometimes it doesnt read speeds right. I used it to rad the speed of hockey pucks and it did pretty well considering that they are small. It works great for cars but it cant read much over 135mph. This is a nice gun but if you want the best gun this is not it.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the price, works well, though not very rugged, May 27, 2004

By 

Dawgcasa "pbonesteele" (Santa Ana, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bushnell Speedster Radar Gun (Electronics)

I've owned a Speedster for the past two years, and for the price, it work adequately for getting pitch speeds for my son's club baseball team. The accuracy was reasonable and it picked up most pitches. It would occasionally fail to lock on to a pitch.

While not as accurate as a Jugs or other high-end radar guns, for my use, it was a good price-performance tradeoff, i.e., I don't sit behind the backstop measuring every pitch of every game, and +/- 1MPH is OK for measuring prep players, so I simply can't justify spending $800+ for a Jugs. I'm a "team parent", not a scout.

My '4' rating is relative to price-performance ... not necessarily to absolute quality or performance. My only complaints: the battery door in the handle is pretty cheap and breaks easily if the unit is dropped; the unit requires relatively fresh batteries ... it gets dicey on readings when the batteries get partially drained; and, I wish it would hold the highest absolute speed reading until you reset instead of when you release the trigger.

I'm now buying a second Speedster ... my first took a hit by an errant ball to the handle while I was holding it, the battery door broke off, and the battery pack slid out and fell to the ground ... breaking into several pieces. Tried to glue it all back together again, but with the plastic, it simply didn't work. I thought about looking at a higher quality radar gun like a Jugs, but at 4-5 times the price, there's simply not enough value-add to me for that step up in price.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Speedster" Delivers Quality at a Great Price, June 21, 2003

By 

J. D. Prelesnik (Renton, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bushnell Speedster Radar Gun (Electronics)

After reading the four previous customer reviews and giving a lot of thought to what was said, I decided to buy the Speedster. Fortunately, my gamble paid off. After a day of use, the Speedster appears to be all it's advertised to be. Though the battery compartment latch and the fastening point for the carrying strap could be improved upon, the rest of the design is impressive. It only took a minute to get used to knowing when to pull the trigger (to activate the radar beam) and when to release it ("locking in" the reading). In practice, I was able to easily read the speed of pitched baseballs from about 50 feet away, but later in the practice, I was surprised when I found I couldn't read any of the pitches. On a hunch, I asked the pitcher to use another ball, and I found I could read everything again. There must've been something about the troublesome ball that scattered or absorbed the signal, preventing the gun from calculating the speed of the pitch. It's unfortunate that a previous reviewer chose to return his gun when he might've been having a similar problem. By the way, just for grins I clocked the speed of a van driving past my house, and the gun worked like a champ. One final point: I can't say I agree that the trigger design is inadequate. The trigger isn't meant to be depressed more than 1/10" or so, and if you use it as intended, I can't imagine it breaking. The bottom line - the Speedster is well worth the [money] I paid through Amazon.com - buy it with confidence.