what safety strobe do you use?

[buddhasummer]

Ian, hi, I do some drift divivng and quite a bit of boat night diving so wanted the strobe on the off chance that my navigation is off and I surface some distance from the boat...Ive seen the movie open water...ha ha I am not a fan of tank markers often just annoying flashes of light in my peripheral...so just wanted for emergency purposes only. Thanks.

 

[ce4jesus]

The Fantasea 44LED has a selection for strobe. Might not be the brightest but the the burn time on 5 AA's is pretty impressive. Additionally it will function as a decent backup torch should you need it. Street price is about $50

 

[Whale Whisperer]

try tektite, available through lesure pro and other ways. There are several versions and they are waterproof.

Tektite Xenon Strobe 200 from LeisurePro.com

I'll second the Tektite Strobe 200 Tektite - LED Flashlights, LED Replacement Bulbs, Dive Lights, IR, Strobes, Marker Lights, UV, CSI, LZ kits, & Tekna Knives and lites I owned one for over 2 years, used it on over 120 dives and taken it down to 225' without a problem! Yes it's abit bulky but it will last over 30+ hours and can be seen for miles. I don't know about you but I want to be seen! I do carry a glo tube and it's better than nothing at all, but not to sure if it can be seen at 1000 yards, and I've had one flood out on me but they replaced it withing a few months lol.

I don't leave home without it! :no or my safety streamer, or my whistle, or my signal mirror, or my.... well you get the picture. I'm such a

 

[Whale Whisperer]

The Glo-Tube and the Lazer-Stik are not suitable for emergency location, way too dim

Like that Jotron AQ-4 JOTRON AQ-4 Personal Strobe [Light-Jotron-AQ-4] - $119.00 : Tech Diving Limited - Home of Nautilus Dive Planner .. might be a little big for a pocket on a BC

Oooooh I want one!

 

[Bonuss]

I ordered the Jotron AQ-4 from this company a few days ago for $85.99.
Marine electronics by Marine Wholesales.

Bob in CO

 

[HenrikBP]

Great thoughts and recommendations on strobes - and good point on Glo-Toob visibility at distance.

I'm not one to skimp on safety equipment, but a 2 x C-cell strobe seems like a big piece of one-purpose kit. Of course, should I ever need it, it could be the size of an AL-80 and I'd still be happy I brought it

Just remembered equipped.com. Some good, if a bit dated, reviews of strobes as well as some interesting thoughts on battery powered signaling:

EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm) - SIGNALING GROUP

oh, and whistle reviews further down the page.

Henrik

 

[D_B]

This seems to come up quite often and I've gathered what appears to be the best ones ...
and Henrik ...

EVERYONE ... you need to save this, a very good, if long, read on rescue trials conducted in the Scapa Flow in real world conditions ...
... How far can you see me? ... Diver location trials: Introduction

.. Surface Survival Primer ... Surface Survival Primer

.. Equipped to Survive ... EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm) - SIGNALING GROUP
and the rest of the website is a treasure trove of info ... Survival Gear and Equipment Evaluations - EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm)

 

[HenrikBP]

Thanks for the links D_B. I think I've seen you post them in other threads and read them all.

Henrik

 

[Whale Whisperer]

I'm not one to skimp on safety equipment, but a 2 x C-cell strobe seems like a big piece of one-purpose kit. Of course, should I ever need it, it could be the size of an AL-80 and I'd still be happy I brought it

I've been bringing my strobe on all my dives so I hardly ever notice it, and it fits perfectly in a spare mask bag from "Dive Rite" which also carries my safety streamer, whistle, signal mirror, and Dive alert. I call it my "emergency locater pack" which slips right on my back plate harness waist belt, or it can slip right on a weight belt. Not big at all! Well in my humble opinion anyway lol

 

[Bill51]

Another question to ask yourself is whether you only plan on using the strobe to be seen by your boat and civilians or if you want the best chance of being spotted by a military SAR team. We’re having a meeting with the AF PJs in a few weeks to discuss this as they are having much better luck finding people adrift with a red strobe rather than a white one at night because of the sensitivity of the FLIR they use. Many military strobes have a 3 way lens with white for normal daytime use, blue for daytime use in a combat zone (so you don’t get shot by the good guys thinking you’re shooting at them), and red for night or deep in enemy territory. They’re saying the red is the easiest for them to spot at night on the water because some of the filtering circuits in the IR unit don’t catch the white light reflecting off the water as well.

Hopefully we can talk them into letting us go out in the Pavehawks to do some real world tests.