strobe vs. sos

defloyd77

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Yes another thread questioning the usefulness of strobe and sos. However my questioning is why anyone prefer sos to strobe? Surely strobe will attract more attention, since sos has it's pauses. So really if you were say attacted and needed to attract help, which would make more sense?
 

jzmtl

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Honestly, I think if you were attacked, you'll be dead or the attacker is long gone by the time you managed to attract attention with either.

If you saw a strobe light at night do you think it's someone need help first, or do you think some dweeb is playing with his flashlight. Or do you actually count the flashes, short short short, long long long, short short short, oh that's SOS.
 

Sgt. LED

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They both suck. Sorry I don't want my light to blink unless I am doing something funky to the switch. If I had to choose one to live with it would be the strobe.

SOS mode = POS mode : )
 
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EVOeight

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Well, if you were lost in the woods and you were to just leave the light turned on, maybe pointed upward for aircraft, the SOS would make the battery last longer I would think. Isn't the runtime longer in SOS mode than Strobe mode?
 

1 what

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They both suck. Sorry I don't want my light to blink unless I am doing something funky to the switch. If I had to choose one to live with it would be strobe though.
+1
 

StefanFS

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After being first on the scene at traffic accidents at night several times I will never have lights without strobe in the car, ever. Potentially it can save lives and avoid further crashes. If you don't like the strobe feature don't buy the lights that have it. An annoying strobe makes most people slow down unless they are drugged. I can live without SOS.
Stefan
 

defloyd77

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Ok last night I was waling on a bike trail that by a major highway, let's say for whatever reason I had an emergency and needed to get the attention of a car for whatever reason needed. A lot of people wouldn't see sos and say "Hey that was 3 short flashes, 3 long and 3 short someone must need help. Good thing I'm driving 35 in a 60 mph zone so I could manage to see all of those flashes." I honestly don't think too many people would stop in the middle of nowhere just to investigate some flashes anyway though. Point being strobe (on my Jetbeam at least) is more consistant and rapid thus more likely to be seen. Oh and nevermind the setting sail for a 3 hour, the weather getting rough and the ship getting tossed to an uncharted desert isle and needing to signal a plane or ship, which sos would be more appropriate.
 

mchlwise

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Oh and nevermind the setting sail for a 3 hour, the weather getting rough and the ship getting tossed to an uncharted desert isle and needing to signal a plane or ship, which sos would be more appropriate.

A "three-hour tour" is, to me, the only reason for S.O.S.

In normal every-day kind of things, strobe can be useful. S.O.S. not.

But if you're on a deserted island, or in my case hiking, you get lost or stuck and need to get someone's attention that you need help, S.O.S. can be very useful.

Other than the dreaded emergency situation, it's pretty useless as far as I can tell. That being said... if you're in an emergency and need it and don't have it, it would really suck.
 

rizky_p

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Other than the dreaded emergency situation, it's pretty useless as far as I can tell. That being said... if you're in an emergency and need it and don't have it, it would really suck.

yup i hate those SOS and strobe but you will never know when you are in a dire situation. better have it when not needed than not having it when needed.

(sorry for confusing english if any) :) :sssh:
 

Mr_Dead

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I've said it many times before, others have come close to saying it here, but...

The answer to the thread-starting question is: the SOS is unambiguous.

The strobe MEANS nothing. Yeah, it might sort-of mean "I am here" on a dark highway, but, off in the distance, there's no reason not to ignore it, no compelling reason to respond. It's a freaking flashing light in a universe full of flashing lights. No inherent meaning.

The SOS is entirely different. It's a distress signal. It means that you are in dire need of help. It can have no other meaning unless it's misused.

Put yourself in the place of somone seeing each in the distance, on the water or in the mountains. Are you going to go miles out of your way to respond to just a flashing light, compared to a universally-recognized distress signal? Probably not. Are you going to call the Coast Guard, Rangers, police, whoever and report that you saw a flashing light? Get real. Report that you saw an SOS, and you'll be taken seriously.

Why "attacked"? If the only danger you can think of is someone attacking, I guess you've never been too cold, too hot, too tired, thirsty, hungry, sick, injured or in pain. Yeah, SOS may not be much use for the quick ones, but there are many, many slow ways to die.

Don't dismiss the implications just because you were born in the most protected cultures in the world, in the most protected generations that have ever existed on Earth, and you may not personally have ever been in the military, ever gone off the beaten path, been a Boy Scout or even really been camping or backpacking. Think it through for yourself. SOS works, and has for generations because it means something very specific.
 

NA8

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The answer to the thread-starting question is: the SOS is unambiguous.

+1

I see a strobe in your window at night, I figure you're just doing drugs.
 
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Bearcat

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A good argument could be made about run-time being more important than SOS and strobe combined, but most all of the talk is about outlandish brightness that will probably never be used or needed, unless you are a professional wall hunter or out to impress your friends. :whistle:
 

defloyd77

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Mr. Dead, you do bring up a good point about how meaningful SOS is, but the whole thing is you truly have to be able to see all 9 of the flashes before it means anything (unless you assume) and not every highway or whatever is perfectly straight, there are trees to block the light and other factors. I was just using attacked as an example, in America being a healthy 21 year old who is fed properly and is walking through a dark bike path in 65 degree weather, being attacked really is my only concern, be it person or animal.
 

mchlwise

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The SOS is entirely different. It's a distress signal. It means that you are in dire need of help. It can have no other meaning unless it's misused.

Excellent points... as long as the person seeing it recognizes it.

Unfortunately, Morse Code is dieing more and more, and les and less people even recognize the classic dot-dot-dot... dash-dash-dash...dot-dot-dot.

Regardless, if you're really in a bad situation and people are looking for you, the people looking will most likely be familiar with it and recognize.
 

Oddjob

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I don't mind them if they are like the HDS/Novatac and only accessible through a menu. I hate cycling through them so i avoind lights that make me do that.
As to which is batter, I think it depends on where you are. I would say that in the urban environment strobe is more useful (cyclists, auto accident scenes etc) and in the outdoors, SOS is more useful (being spotted like on a lake or from the air).
I used the strobe on my light once when I was at Disneyworld. It was night and I was waiting for my wife to come off a ride. I set the strobe on my light and she spotted me accross a busy wide open area. It wasn't strange having it on because there were so many kids with all kinds of flashing LED toys and necklaces but my light was brighter and noticeable above the other lights.
 

cave dave

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At least HDS does the SOS right. Most of the others are way to fast or way to slow. The Fenix has a five second delay between cycles. Woops there goes that airplane.

Anybody ever look at all the SOLAS "Safety of Life at Sea" approved lights in boating shops and such? They are all one blink per second.
 

defloyd77

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I guess a good rule of thumb would be if you can use a cell phone, use strobe, if you can't use sos. Considering how most people have cell phones these days, that makes sos even less needed.
 

ScubaSnyder

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I agree with most of the others, the sos and strobe were nice at first but after using lights with this feature for quite some time, they are nothing more than a pain in the ****, these cycles could have been used for something more useful perhaps lower outputs to extend battery life.
 
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