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In a homodyne receiver, a sample of the same signal (the prefix homo in this case refers to the same frequency) that was transmitted is used to mix down the received signal to IF. The advantage of the homodyne receiver is that it is low-cost.
The receiver used in a police radar gun is a homodyne receiver. Here the difference between the transmitted signal and the received signal is the Doppler frequency, which is a measure oif how fast your automobile is traveling.