There's an unending debate over at CPF (the flashlight board) on whether it's worthwhile having SOS (i.e. the flashlight has a setting where it flashes SOS) in a flashlight that already has a strobe function (steady pulsed flashing). The issue with flashlights is that more functions complicates the interface, so one side says get rid of the SOS function: if SAR is looking for you then the plain strobe will get their attention just as well. The other side says a non-SAR observer might interpret the strobe as some non-emergency signal but SOS always means SOS. I myself would say that SAR by definition means a person is known to be missing, in which case any signal will be investigated, so SOS is likely only of value when the person is not known to be missing but might be spotted by an accidental observer. I wonder how likely it is that a non-SAR observer will spot such a signal anyway.

Does the equpped.org or SAR community have anything to say about this?