SOS LED distress signal

I got a 6 inch smart phone because I liked the camera on it. There is also a free program with charts, tides, and currents for the Pacific Northwest. It is easy to use and seems accurate. I have not used it this summer (or the boat) We got in the middle of selling a house with a LOT of paperwork, and searching for a condo in the Seattle area. We ended up finding what we wanted next to the Bremerton ferry terminal. I am looking forward to getting back on the water next month.

Chart plotter will have to be larger, cheaper, and better if they are going to stave off computers and pads. I am betting against them. They are, to put it simply, a more water and corrosion resistant computer with a display screen, with the capability for a variety on inputs.

My automobile Garmin is still a little simpler to use than my smart phone, but the smart phone does not repeatedly screw up finding destinations or misdirecting me onto impossible routes.
 
Just talked to a gentleman from Sirius and he confirmed that the Sirius SOS Signal light does emit a White Light and that it does flash in an SOS Morse Code pattern. Both of these are specific requirements stated in the requirements of the US Coast Guard (46 CFR 175.130) for marine distress signals.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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My initial thought was great, I don't have to keep buying those 3 (actually more than that), because of the C Dory and Caracal, plus dinghy)--and I have both hand held, and 12 mm aerial, plus the ditch bag self launching flares.

Visability and confusion seem to be to be issues. If the light is at water level, the range is line of sight (unless it is reflecting off clouds--which it may be)

The line of sight of an object on the water is 3 miles….if the observer is 6 feet off the water, then this "range is 4 miles.

I have an assortment of LED flashlights, some cheap, some high end. About 50% of them either have a strobe, a beacon or an SOS function. So kids are out playing with flashlights, and hit the SOS--people become accustomed to seeing the …---… and it no longer means anything. What percent of the population really knows what S O S means? Certainly mariners should--but I'll bet that it is no where near 100%.

So 10 miles--this assumes that the minimal height is 11 feet for the signal light, and 11 feet off the water for the person seeing the distress signal. This puts a lot of boats at far less range than 10 miles.

Lets look at the range of gun fired flares:

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One can say that aircraft may see the Sirius signal at greater range--true, if they are looking downward. (Pilots comments?).

This is not a SOLAS grade, nor Transport Canada approved. Apparently it is in some EU countries.

The other major issue for me is the "day signal" The orange background with a black ball/square has been a standard for many years, yet very few boaters recognize this as a distress signal. Also the visibility of this is measured in less than a mile (depending on weather conditions). I feel that Orange smoke flare is probably the most effective daytime signal.

For offshore use, I believe that the SOLAS flares are the most effective, and well worth the cost. For near shore, certainly parachute flares are first, then meteor flares, and finally the hand held flares. Daytime, orange smoke is best.

I may buy one of these, and put it along with the ditch bag (which goes with me from boat to boat). The laser flares have some of the disadvantages, are more expensive, and are not CG or SOLAS approved.

One issue I noted at sea with strobes, is difficulty of localization. Steady lights are better. I would want to have a steady light also as well as this type of device if I was using it--but never would have it as the only device.

I have a 900 CP LED flashlight, which is slightly smaller than a 2 D cell mag light, and a small 310CP LED flashlight which have both strobe, and S O S functions. I certainly would use those in a pinch, if necessary. (Even the 310 cp is blinding at short range--I suspect that the Sirius signal is extremely bright and one would want to avoid looking at it!
 
It seems that the value might be that it would keep me in Coast Guard compliance, not necessarily the best way of alerting other boaters to come to my aid. I could keep out of date flares for that. I've never had an out of date flare not go off.

Mark
Limpet

I once was heading into the San Juans with a boat I had chartered from Seattle. My parents and three other couples. Heard a bang and the engine stopped. Lifted the engine hatch and smoke came out. We didn't have a fire on board, luckily, but that was scary for me. I'm not sure my guests knew what a bad sign smoke in the bilge can be.

The owner had cross-threaded an oil filter, there was no functioning oil alarm, and the engine had thrown a rod through the oil pan and was only stopped from going through the hull by a stringer.

I couldn't raise anybody on the radio. There were some boats in the distance, so I used the international hand signal for distress. Everyone on board laughed at my attempt. But two guys that were fishing immediately came over. They were retired Coast Guard. It all worked out, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they had just waived back.

Same with using this gadget flashing SOS. Most would probably think that it's a cell phone camera or something.
 
thataway's response is a good summary of this device's shortcomings, and the narrow window of usefulness as well.

Localization is the deal breaker for me. SAR folks emphasize that blinking signals often produce very scarce visibility under rough conditions. Locally, with a 6 to 10 foot swell and seas running 2 to 3 feet, the waters are a very confused mess, so even a steady light produces lots of apparent blinking for observers on the water. Once the helo locates you, then, sure, the SOS LED signal facilitates zeroing in. But it is finding a lost boat or swimmer in the first place that is the difficult and time consuming part.

Used in conjunction with a PLB or similar, the device would be a good complement.

I'm sticking with smoke and aerial pyrotechnics for now.
 
The range of visibility is probably the greatest short coming on this device. For primary rescue I would count on the DSC radio (2 on board) and a handheld which is on the PFD. Once in the water (or preferably into the inflatable doughnut boat) the handheld would be on 16 and the strobe on the back of the PFD would be going. Those would be working because I know someone is already looking for me. (BTW, I'm taking lunch with me; it might be a long drift to Japan's coast.)

Thanks for bringing this one up, Bob.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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hardee":12n7p8nv said:
it might be a long drift to Japan's coast.)
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Harvey, I thought the garbage all drifted this way from Japan :wink I guess your not garbage then if you're going to drift the other way! Just don't get stuck going round and round in that big garbage gyre. You might have trouble getting someone to come in to rescue you! Even with this newfangled strobe sailors might just think the gyre had finally reached critical mass and was glowing. On the plus side you might find scraps to eat floating around in there! There is even a story of a motorcycle that was swept away during the tsunami and floated across landing somewhere on the west coast.

Regards, Rob
 
Anyone knows if ACR/ARTEX is planning to release a similar device? They produce well made and engineered items, along with a well proven track record
 
Brent I had looked at the ARTEX website and saw nothing to indicate that they were going that way--Sirius Signal has been around for about 5 years. Still several certifications are lacking. My guess is not now from ACR.

Harvey, you might drift out of the Straits, but most likely down the coast. There is a counter current (Davidson) close to the Coast, but Japanese/Calif. go down the coast. I know of one 50 foot sailboat not too far from us when we were about 5 miles off the N. Calif. Coast, which was evacuated because of weather and injuries to crew. It ended up in the S. China Sea (don't remember the exact location) about 3 years later, pretty much interacts, sails shredded, but rig intact and surprisingly little water inside. The boat was salvaged.
 
OK, I might need a bigger lunch :lol: Actually, I just saw on the news that there is an effort being started to clean up the plastic island. Of course it is starting with a huge grant for some research first. Realistically, I would hope to be able to reach a shore before I exit the Strait. And even before that, to make contact with some vessel for rescue....... should that scenario ever occur.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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The single white light may not be seen 360*, it's too low
to be seen at a distance and seemingly does not flash an SOS
sequence. If not, it could be confused with an anchor light.
It is also wimpy. The flag also seems wimpy; too small.

If I am in distress on the water, I want big, BIG, BIG.
Not wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.

My impression: wimpy. Don't waste your money on this.
Go bigger or stay home.

Aye.
 
Foggy":1hop8bhp said:
The single white light may not be seen 360*, it's too low
to be seen at a distance and seemingly does not flash an SOS
sequence. If not, it could be confused with an anchor light.
It is also wimpy. The flag also seems wimpy; too small.

If I am in distress on the water, I want big, BIG, BIG.
Not wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.

My impression: wimpy. Don't waste your money on this.
Go bigger or stay home.

Aye.
Click to expand...
It does flash an SOS signal (as confirmed earlier in the thread) and it's quite bright in 360 degrees. I rather doubt it will be confused with an anchor light. I agree with you on the flag.

Also, while I agree with Bob regarding range being dependent on depth off the water - 2 things. 1) It's the same distance off the water as any other handheld flare so as a replacement for a handheld flare, I think it's a good choice. 2) In testing this has operated from 72 hours continuous on a set of batteries. That may make up a bit for the range limitations as even a SOLAS parachute flare only lasts 40s. During that 40s, someone has to be looking in the direction of the flare and/or be close enough to the boat to notice the increased local brightness in the sky. A handheld burns for about 3 mins. So with 6 SOLAS flares one get 240s or 4 mins of total time during which a boat/plane/person on shore has to be within range and looking in the right direction while with this device you get 4320 mins (72 hours) or about 1000x as many minutes.

Also, for remote travels (where there's not many people around), the recommendation is often to not shoot off a parachute flare until you can visibly see another boat/plane/person (or unless you have plenty of spares). In such cases, the useful distance of those flares is the distance you can see another boat/plane/person which is limited by the combined height of your eyes off the water, the visible boat structure off the water, the brightness of their running lights and weather. As a result, I wouldn't completely discount this device. Depending on your location, the number of other people around and the frequency at which they move, I'm sure they are conditions in which the LED device would be the better choice.

So while I wouldn't consider this as a replacement for a SOLAS parachute flare, I think it's a better choice than a typical handheld flare and probably a useful supplement to a SOLAS flare.
 
Roger, I have only seen parachute or meteor flares on a couple occasions, which were not part of a demo, or sometime like 4th of July, when some folks decide it is time to shoot off the old ones.

In those several cases, the flares were at my peripheral vision, but I immediately noticed them. That probably would hold true for any very bright light. Since I was then alerted, I began to focus on the area where I thought I saw the flare--and when the second one went off, I could localize, and get a compass bearing from my location to report to the CG. (Turned the boat toward the distress signal, and read the course off the compass). This would hold true for any distress beacon.

Your comment brought to mind some person in the water holding a hand held flare over his head….ouch! I would really want some other signal device in that situation.

Light pollution: One problem I am beginning to see, is the "Light Bars". These were first designed for off road. I heard of one boater recently who claimed to have four 12,000 lumen lights--if you know how bright a head light is Most are from 700 to 1400 lumen--so multiple your car headlights x 40 +. If you want to argue lumens, watts, CP, etc--all different things--see :
http://www.intl-lighttech.com/support/measurement-geometries-chapter-7-light-measurement-tutorial

We are now seeing many center console and small boats with light bars which are so bright, that it may accustom us to seeing lights which are as bright as this SOS light is. If you look at many of the seine boats or the squiders off the West Coast, this is an example, but put that type of light on a small boat! (Very bad idea). (I'll have to admit I put a 3 LED array about 700 Lumen light on the front of my C Dory 22 eyebrow, to fill in the hole where the old anchor, steaming light was. This is only used for docking, or in areas where I have illuminated something in the water with a hand held light.
 
Casey mentioned Luci Lights a while back. The regular white light is not expensive. These lights are great for reading ,they light up the stern. In addition to a stobe light ,I think these lights would be great in ditch bag ,reason being they are waterproof ,solar ,they float. They would recharge themselves everyday,they have a blinking mode. No fear of battery discharge. In addition the other model has about 7 colors that can change and blink. If you never tried the white light, I suggest getting one . I like them enough to be purchasing 2 more.
 
Luci lights or similar should never be considered as "Safety device". ACR makes some very good Strobes or strobe flashlight combo's which are designed for "locate" under search and rescue conditions.
 
My flares expire in Sept. How many folks have purchase the Sirius unit? I have not seen other e flares that meets the USCG requirements. It looks like he best price is $100. Anyone seen any deals? I missed the Active Captain deal for $80
 
BrentB":1yzskge7 said:
My flares expire in Sept. How many folks have purchase the Sirius unit? I have not seen other e flares that meets the USCG requirements. It looks like he best price is $100. Anyone seen any deals? I missed the Active Captain deal for $80
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Brent,

I was running into the same thing, pyrotech flares were coming due, so I opted for the Sirius LED electronic unit. And I put it into my ditch bag. I picked it up just after the Seattle boat show, for a boat show special price. I think it was $90. When I had my Voluntary Vessel Safety Inspection, the USCG Aux inspector had not seen one before, so I had to show him the paper work that stated it was USCG approved.

Having it on board, I still think that there is a good reason to have Ariel flares also.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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