In a message dated 12/20/1998 4:52:51 PM EST, dkruger_at_pacifier.com writes: << When I told my SO what I had written about the Bar pilot whose strobe was not visible to the CG helo, she reminded me that the strobe was operating intermittently, and so that may have been a contributing factor why it did not attract the attention of the helo. I believe the strobe leaked water, and so it shorted when the water provided a lower resistance path than the bulb. Don't know the brand of strobe he used. >> ****************************************************************************** **************** Strobe lights work best when used against a dark background such as the sky or the ocean. Most of us have observed strobes on overhead aircraft and on tall buildings and towers. These are visible for quite some distance. The surrounding background is usually very dark. Another reason is they are very powerful strobe lights. They are NOT powered by a small battery. Strobe lights do have a drawback as I will attempt to illustrate. Years ago I worked myself through college as a police officer. We had light bars atop the patrol cars made of red plastic with a 12V rotating spotlight in each side of the bar and they rotated in sequence set 90 degrees to each other. These alerted motorist when we "ran hot" at about 300-400 yards judged by when the cars pulled over as we approached from behind. The reason they worked so good was that as the light rotated it shined a sweeping "path of light" through the back window of the car and reflected it into the drivers eyes by the rear view mirror. They also worked effectively while parked along the roadway to warn oncomming motorist that one of "them" was getting a little bit of "papaerwork" done on them. Technology being dynamic as it is, somebody came up with a light bar that had two strobes on it. The man who worked on our radios and installed the lights was a pilot. He knew how good strobes on aircraft could be seen so he ordered a pair and installed them on one of the patrol cars. You could see this car with its flashing strobe lights for miles if you were looking directly at it such as if it was on the side of the road and you were approaching it. Where they did NOT work was in traffic approaching from behind. They were totally ineffective where we needed them the most. Every officer griped and complained about them until they removed them and replaced them with the other type. These sat around the garage until a Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol officer asked for them. At the time Texas DPS cars did not have light bars on them. Very effective for issuing radar clocked tickets in the pre radar detector days. You simply could not tell the car was a cop. Anyway, they gave them to the DPS officer and he put them on his patro; car. That lasted only a couple of weeks. He brought them back. Totally ineffective. We told him that, but he had to see for himself. Today a combination of strobes AND rotating mirrors are used in the most effective light bars. The mirrors directing and focusing the powerful strobe flash like a beam of light. These are very effective in both approaching and parked situations. What does this have to do with PFD mounted strobes? Not much except to say that there is no such thing as magic. They can ONLY be seen IF they work and the person looks directly at them AND they are not shielded by ones head, the PFD, a wave rolling over the person wearing it or many other things. I have one on my PFD for use in canoes, kayaks, motorboats, etc, etc. It might be the one thing aiding a rescuer in seeing me. Again it may not help at all. I guess this is along the lines of "don't just float there, do something" ! John LeBlanc
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Saul Kinderis wrote: > > As far as signaling deivices, all of my lifejackets have a "C" cell type of > strobe attached along with flares in a ziplock. I replace the flares at > least once a year. I have to admit that it concerns me a bit that in Dave's > mention of the river pilot, the Coast Guard didn't see the strobe, as my > whole motivation for putting strobes on all of my lifejackets, including > loaners, was due to a friend of mine not having anything on his person to > signal with (it was all in the kayak I had lent him) during a rescue. [snip] When I told my SO what I had written about the Bar pilot whose strobe was not visible to the CG helo, she reminded me that the strobe was operating intermittently, and so that may have been a contributing factor why it did not attract the attention of the helo. I believe the strobe leaked water, and so it shorted when the water provided a lower resistance path than the bulb. Don't know the brand of strobe he used. The next piece of Saul's post (which I snipped) might be fodder for a discussion/listing of strobes which do not leak. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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