Eternalight (appraisal as SOS light?)

Following up on a post I made recently, I would like some appraisals from owners of this light as to it's real efficacy as an emergency (SOS) beacon. Is it really bright enough to be seen? Also, please, which version is best from this standpoint (EliteMarine or whatever?), and where is a good source for purchase.

Thanks.

I can tell you that in a sail boat race, it was stated that our light was visible at 5 miles. We of course only rate it at 3 miles. I can't tell you what mode it was in when it was seen or the ambient light conditions (very dark I would imagine).

I've never understood the SOS mode in the first place. I didn't know people even used morse for distress signalling any more, and it's hard to believe a few LEDs would do anything anyway.

Still, if they would, it's a lot more useful on the Eternalight than on the Photon microlights. Can't imagine you could signal anything with those.

If there was a translucent cover made I believe it would be more effective. The light cause its using LEDs is only bright if you are looking striaght at it, or shining up on an object.

Absoulutely "cuts" through the dark with the ability to be seen. The on/off of the LEDs just draws that much more attention to it. The ability to reduce the power levels renders what I'd say to be the longest runtime on any LED torch that's on the market.

The absoulute best model IMHO is of course their Elite XRay with included lithiums and all of the rest of the refined features that you can read about on their site: www.techass.com

I used to think that www.eppes.com had the best price on it ($50)...however:

You might want to email Randy at [email protected] and see what price he will give you. He carries the other models as well and is great at pricing for us CPFrs. You would also probably get it sooner from him.

SOS use in camp

Hello sotto,

I use the ExternaLight during camping. In my humble opinion, it is a great light. Lots of features to WOW your fellow campers, adjustable brightness, variable modes, etc.

We find that the strobe mode, dazzle mode, and SOS mode get used the most. We have done a whole camp fire skit using strobe mode with rave reviews.

I took the scouts on a night canoe excersion across the lake where we camp. I set the ExternaLight on dazzle mode on a stump to mark where we started from. We had no problems seeing the light from where ever we were on the lake. I do not believe that we would have had any problems seeing the SOS mode either.

These lights will not light up the other side of the lake, but you can see them from across the lake. Please note that this lake is in the wild and there are no street lights. In town, you have to be looking for the light to see it.

I have both the XRay and the Elite XRay. I take both during camp outs. I modified the Elite by removing the magnet.

I have modified (adjusted) both Xray's by adjusting the night beacon LED to shine through the case between two of the white LED's. This gives me a beam of night light which is just right for seeing your way around camp when there are no lights on. I'll have to post my "modification" on the mod page one of these days.

The XRay units have a translucent case that can spill light into your face. My solution (picked up here on CPF) is to carry it in my had sideways with my thumb over the side of it. My hand and thumb block all of the spill light.

You might want to wait a little bit before purchasing the ExternaLight, I understand that there is a new model just about to be released, and Mr ExternaLight is going to offer a CPF discount.

Tom

Re: SOS use in camp

As everyone knows, the only people that actually USE the SOS language, are Starship crew members from the future 25 century, when they get stuck in some situation, and they suddenly "remember" their morse code from their acadamy days.

Of course another crew member in another part of the ship, hears the morse code, and immediatly recognises and decodes some incredibly long messagage in about 3 seconds. The messagage is something long like:

"Help, Lieutanent Warf and 17 other crewmen are trapped in the Starboard Ne-cell Jefferies Tube, and aliens are invading the ship, but are invisible, because they live in a different, but parallel space time continuoum, and are draining our Warp core reserves, but they mean us no harm, because they need this to survive."

Re: SOS use in camp

Hello BuddTX,

I need to also mention that the ExternaLight has a momentary on function too (for signaling).

When I first got the XRay I took it on a camp out and had a young scout sit there staring at dazzle mode. I asked him what he was doing and he promptly replied that he was trying to figure out what the message was and could I please slow it down...

Now that I think about it, the ExternaLight would fit right in on Star Trek.

Tom

Re: SOS use in camp

BuddTX - you're cracking me up!

Re: SOS use in camp

For my purposes, SOS flashing would be good since anyone looking for me would be looking for that kind of signal.

Re: SOS use in camp

I have found a translucent cap for my Eternalight. Deodorant cap.