--update--
reading farther into the thread, i see a lot of this was already covered. screw you guys if i'm deleting all the following keystrokes.
--update--
not as a transmitter but as a "noise" side-effect of the circuit running. take an AM radio near a computer hard drive and scan the dial. you'll pick up radio frequency "noise" from the hard drive as a function of it's operation (the CRT example is also a very good one RF noise is common but that doesn't make the plethora of devices transmitters under the legal definition). no one would attempt to claim that a hard drive is a "radio transmitter", yet the radio can "receive" the "noise" in the same way a detector detector can receive the noise from a detector's circuitry. the "leak" is unintentional and mostly a result of case design. many designs are plastic (production cost savings and easier to shape into stylistic directions). one of the things that has always made the V1 less detectible is the metal shielding. "seeing over a hill" is less a function of "pulling in a signal" than it is the sensativity of the listening device and reflection (cars or other objects ahead). AM radio is also a radio wave but can be heard over the horizon; again as a function of relection -- often off the atmosphere itself at those power levels. their really is a lot of misunderstanding on the part of some of the folks on this thread. using something for umpty ump years doesn't mean that the mechanics of its operation and learned through osmosis (nor that the legal underpinnings of why something is "banned" is accurately understood).
just like people in the early days of satellite TV could legally receive signals broadcast through the air, so too can radar detector owners. in fact, the fcc told hbo and other channels to take a hike when the subscription stations originally tried to get legislation passed to ourlaw privately-owned dishes. in the end, subscription services were told that the only way to protect their signal was if they encrypted it. then the subscriber was authorized the unencryption but not the general public. everyone was still free to receive the signal but it did no good unless you could unscramble it.
it's all part of that pesky "government doesn't own anything, the people own it and loan it to the government" concept that the founders defined.
in the case of detectors (within scope of their rolls as receivers), they are passive and the only signal emitted is "noise"; not an active broadcast (not so with jammers which actively broadcast). some few jurisdictions have locally banned the use of detectors but not as transmitters. they tend to address them in transportation code with an eye (imo) on how they impede the collection of revenue; not a safety issue any more than the state with the recently passed $3000+ speeding fines that admitted it was for revenue enhancement.
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