Using Flashlights As A Beacon

Hello all,

Just a quick question, what if I put a high powered flashlight/spotlight tail-standing shining straight up into the sky? Will it create a beacon like those searchlights at some events and stuff.. I am using it as a distress signal if I am in the wild. I would like to know where my tent is and follow the beam of light to get back to it. Also if I needed to notice pilots flying in distance so it gets their attention.

if someone have a high powered light, please try it out and let me know if you can see it from X meters.

best flashlights to use are: M2X-UT, M3XS-UT, (or preferably 800-1000m range)

Thanks,

I think a lot of it will depend on how dark the surroundings are (light pollution) as to how good you can see any flashlight or spotlight pointing straight up or not from a distance. The clearer the air is the less of it is scattered by the beam to the sides to see it and if there is moonlight out that will probably have your eyes adjusted to where it is a little harder to see. Searchlights have a huge amount of lumen output compared to flashlights and most spotlights I just read about a helicopter spotlight that has a bulb in it rated at about 60,000 lumens while unless you want to invest hundreds of dollars into a flashlight 2000-5000 lumens is probably what you are dealing with. The searchlights that are at events probably in the hundreds of thousands to millions of lumens range.

If you have a 60000 lm light, most likely, you've got a helicopter as well. No need to send distress signal

010112 said:

Hello all,

Just a quick question, what if I put a high powered flashlight/spotlight tail-standing shining straight up into the sky? Will it create a beacon like those searchlights at some events and stuff.. I am using it as a distress signal if I am in the wild. I would like to know where my tent is and follow the beam of light to get back to it. Also if I needed to notice pilots flying in distance so it gets their attention.

if someone have a high powered light, please try it out and let me know if you can see it from X meters.

best flashlights to use are: M2X-UT, M3XS-UT, (or preferably 800-1000m range)

Thanks,

Click to expand...

Did you see this thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?420301-Excellent-Flashlight-Adventure

If conditions are suitable, an intense light beam shone upwards will be visible from the sides as small amounts of light are bounced off humidity /dust in the air.However, to maintain a reasonable runtime at high brightness, you will need a large battery pack (heavy) and adequate heat-sinking (probably heavy) to insure the light doesn't cook itself while you're gone.There are lights which emit a dim flash every few seconds that will help you find a tent if you're in the general area. I've also seen an online company that sold laser pointers designed to be pointed up into the sky for the same application you suggested. Personally I think the lasers are a stupid idea...

I had an electronic 'flare' for my car. It had about a dozen red LEDs in a circle aimed outward and up at about a 15° angle. The electronics lit only one LED at a time in a rotating pattern so it looked like a rotating beacon. A setup like that on a table or pole with either red or white LEDs would be visible for quite a ways away, including in the sky. Since they are not high power LEDs, a set of cells should last for one or more days if needed. Even in daylight a flashing pattern like that would be noticed.

Remember, the light from a Photon II can be seen from more than a mile away under the right conditions.

Another option would be one of the strobe 'Personal Beacon' type lights. The one I had ran on one 'C' cell, and was definitely bright enough to be seen a long ways away. Any type of flashing light of reasonable brightness will be much more noticeable than a steady beam, just because it is not steadily on but is displaying a pattern that we are wired to pay attention to.

I think a 2W blue laser or a 200mW green laser will work better as a beacon

Just my thoughts;
Learn how to use a compass
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/...achian-trail-didnt-know-how-to-use-a-compass/
buy a GPS
If alone and in potential grave danger have a personal locator beacon
any blinking light is good for a tent locator, i use a Pak-lite
any plane at 30 angels is not going to see you

Air condition is huge. High humidity OR smoke and dust can make a 600 meter ansi thrower viable, if it can sustain that power. A pulsing light may help battery power, but to see the beam a mile away the intensity would need to be 1,500 meters ansi ~~~. Dedicated spotlight might work but because of earthquakes and unknowns, you'd have to have a person holding it up .

If it's dark, it will work. Did that tree years ago on a long fishingtrip. Our tent was well hidden in the rugged terrain, and i got to the camp before it was too dark. Put my quark turbo on beacon, and went outside and pointed it straight up. My friend was some kilometers away, saw the beacon, found the camp. Works so mutch better than shouting