I recently discovered this "double-sided" mirror when looking for the other type with one type of reflective surface only, and I wonder if anyone has tried it?

Safe Signal Day & Night Signal Mirror - $8.95
beprepared.com

Personally, I would like to see a "sighting/aiming" hole in this one.

I handled something like this a few years ago, and I was unimpressed. When signaling at night, I have always used the light directly, no need to go bouncing the beam off of mirrors. The very best signal device for night time use for me was an ARC strobe unit. The chopper came every time.

An aiming hole would be a big improvement.

Stupid idea badly rendered.

Come on. Tell us what you really think.




If you send me yours I will be happy to put a 45 caliber sighting hole in it for you.

OK, I'll bite:

1) Why the red color? Signaling at night = red? That's just stupid silly marketing talk. Perhaps it looks more tacticool. Those who use red light at night use it to preserve night vision, not because it excels for signaling purposes.

2) As Hikermor said, if you've got a flashlight, use that, don't fuss about with mirrors. Harder to aim (close to impossible, I'd say) and less efficient.

3) Let's rehash some laws of physics: You waste light reflecting it (OK, you don't waste much if the mirror is any good, but it's still a loss). But that red color (filter) idea really wastes A LOT of your light. If you've got a LED light, you're also pretty low in the red part of the spectrum anyway. Filtering out only the red color is about the most inefficient way you can utilize the light from a white LED light (those have a pretty weird spectrum, little red in there). If you've got an old fashion incandescent bulb it's not as bad, meaning it is only very inefficient - remember, you waste any light that's not red.

In summary: Silly gadget aimed to suck money out of an uninformed market.

Why is that exactly?

I am not saying I disagree, I am just wondering why everyone thinks it is no good.

Has anyone tried one?

Yes, I tried one - I didn't make it clear in my first post. Bouncing the light from the original source off a red mirror does nothing worthwhile and it was pretty obvious. As others mentioned, you inevitably lose some lumens in the process.

I was just playing around with the mirror in my back yard, but I saw no reason to bother working with it any more. Offhand, there are probably about forty or fifty more effective ways of signaling at night (well, ten or twenty for sure).

I'm still waiting to hear how that guy starts a fire with a magnifying glass and moonlight...

Sue

Yeah the red light thing... I was wondering about how effective that was. Can't really see how that would be any advantage unless you were military trying to keep your signal visable only to a specific target. I got that impression when I was skimming thru the article.

To be honest, I have only ever used a starflash mirror. I never really played with any other types.

Heck, thats easy

Carefully, very carefully, aim the magnifying glass so that a beam of moonlight is focused on the driest part of your tinder pile. Hold the beam in place on the same spot. Do not move or you will mess up the whole sequence.


Then use a match to light the fire.

Let's realize that there are a lot of players with no other concern but to earn money from uninformed customers. It appears the easiest way to make money is to give some gadget a "tactical" sounding name or otherwise make the impression that this is what the military (and/or search and rescue, police etc) are using.



Which is EXACTLY why your BS meter should go off. Loud and clear. They will probably not tell you a flat out lie, but they will leave an impression that it is so. Military this, military that, tacticool both here and there.


Notice that the regular signaling mirror may actually be OK, for all I know. But with all this other BS I would be highly surprised: Why should a company that makes an absolutely worthless piece of junk tie it together with a high quality mirror? Possible, but highly unlikely.

Doug has some very good and affordable signal mirror recommendations. Stick with them.

Like I said, I use a starflash. It may not be the best mirror, but it's good enough for my intended use. I never had to use it in an emergency yet, but I usually prefer not to get lost to ever need to use it.

I like to give things a fair shake however. I may not find a mirror with a red filter any good, but the next guy may think its the best thing going. To each his own. I just don't like trashing something totally till I have heard about it from people that actually used it. Someone here did, and his comments made perfect sense.

I understand what you mean by tacticool though. I hate that stuff....

It sounds like the "red" side is really red retroreflective material and not really a mirror.

You're right, if you have a flashlight, I'd use it because you can see the light from most flashlights more than 3 miles away. If there is greater than a half moon out, the regular signal mirror can be effective signal if no other better devices are available.

It does seem poorly thought out.

Tom

Red light thing - dumb. Looks like a muzzle flash. Use a flashlight with a filter, either IR or blue, to attract attention.

A red muzzle flash ? You guys down south hunting with laser rifles or what? Unless in a tactical situ how is IR or blue going to help you any better than red will ?

I was addressing the tactical aspect, more or less. Yes, red will appear to be a muzzle flash or tracer, my bad, I left out tracer.

And the NVGs most helicopter pilots wear will pick up IR easily.

Blue is also used as for some reason it attracts attention, dunno why. I imagine this is why the cops went to blue flashers. It can be used in tactical or non-tactical situations.