If I had to guess, I would say that well under 50%of the general population even knows that a Morse SOS looks like. I know for a fact that many peace officers don't. Not sure about SAR folks, the ones I know do, but I can only guess about the rest. In that case, I would guess that any flashing light would be just as effective as one flashing SOS only...

Many (most???) of the "new breed" were not in scouts or the military, don't camp or hike, don't have a clue. They do have a college education, (but can't spell without spellcheck), and worse of all, don't even drink coffee or eat donuts (gasp), just suck on designer water...

I've seen people argue that if the light has an SOS mode for emergency use, it needs to be easily accessible, which means putting it early in the switch sequence. Similarly with "tactical" strobes. As such they can get in the way.

On the other hand, the Photon Freedom has an SOS mode which is so buried in the user interface that it almost might not be there at all. I find it hard to get to, and hard to remember how to get to it, and hard to distinguish it from the 3 other strobe effects it has.

There are some advantages to making it a function of the software rather than just putting your hand over the light. One is that it lengthens the battery life. Another is that you can leave it switched on strobe/SOS even while you sleep or are otherwise occupied.

+1 oldsoldier

Dave

I agree with the other posts in that the average person doesn't know what an SOS in morse code looks (...---...). For SAR purposes, my experience has been that the brighter non-directional light source is more noticiable than a weaker directional light will be.

I'm sort of embarrassed to say it, but I learned the Morse code when I was younger from an ad for SOS scrubbing pads, that had pots clanging SOS in Morse code.

With just about everything, it doesn't matter where you learned, only that you did...

I'll second that. You know what it means, & thats enough. Knowledge is contagious; doesnt matter who you caught it from.

Say it ain't so, Joe. You can not possibly be talking about the Chicago PD.

M

At the 1996 DNC in Chicago, one of the more popular CPD t-shirts read, "We kicked your father's ass in 1968, wait 'til you see what we do to you."

All I know about CPD is that the bands on their hats looks like the flag on a "follow me" jeep. But I like the shirt!

In L.A. there used to be little stickers available you could put on your baton, inside of an oval, "LA Slugger. You ain't s*** if you ain't been hit"...