The 30mW Laser from dealextreme has a Kaleidoscopic feature which splits the single beam into many hundreds of beams in a Kaleidoscopic fashion (about 500 beams @ 30mW/500 or about 60 microwatts per individual beam). The multiple laser beams are divergent over an area of the sky, greatly increasing the hit probability over a single much more powerful beam (especially if the Kaleidoscopic function is used) The Greatland laser beam is also divergent in one plane and the technique to increase the chances of being seen by SAR is to move the continous divergent beam back and forth across an area of the sky, where the SAR helicopter/aircraft is located.



I'm pretty sure the Greatlands divergent laser flare works just fine once the proper technique is employed to get the laser onto the SAR helicopter/aircraft. I suspect that the Dealextreme 30mW Laser will work as well but i'm just unsure as to the effective range and probability of getting the Laser noticed. The Kaleidoscopic Laser can also be used as a single conventional single high powered beam. Any thoughts? I guess what is pretty crucial is the angular width of the Kaleidoscopic Laser pattern. At just $27 it is considerably cheaper than the Greatland Laser flare.