{"id":150,"date":"2015-01-29T00:05:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T08:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=150"},"modified":"2015-01-18T12:17:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T20:17:26","slug":"signal-mirrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/signal-mirrors\/","title":{"rendered":"Signal Mirrors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Using<\/a>Some people were discussing their experiences with long distance signaling using\u00a0mirrors, over on the Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation forum<\/a>. \u00a0Norm5710 reported signaling 31 miles from Mt. Wilson to the west end of the San Fernando Valley. \u00a0That reminded me of playing with mirrors and something called a heliograph<\/a>\u00a0as a kid. \u00a0Our heliograph was pretty crude and I no longer recall where it came from – end of that story.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, a signal mirror<\/a> is an item the armed forces\u00a0recommend for a survival kit. \u00a0Signal mirrors are widely available and often priced in the $10 to $20 range. \u00a0These mirrors have a hole in the middle that you can sight through so that the sunlight is reflected at your desired target. \u00a0Using them is simple and they normally come with instructions.<\/p>\n

While a signal mirror can be used to send morse code, that’s usually not necessary in a survival situation. \u00a0If you can see a rescuer, a car or airplane, you can aim the reflected light at them to get their attention. \u00a0If not, \u00a0you may need to flash the light across the horizon in an attempt to get someone’s attention. You\u00a0can target an airplane even if you can’t see the plane. \u00a0Just aim at or ahead of the sound you hear. \u00a0The reflected light is not a laser and will flash over a pretty broad area at long distances. \u00a0The diagram above shows how to aim with a signal mirror. \u00a0It comes from the U.S. Marine Corps Summer Survival Course Manual. \u00a0The manual is available for free to our Discover Club<\/a> members.<\/p>\n

If you don’t happen to have a signal mirror with you, don’t despair. \u00a0Any reflective material can be used. \u00a0A can lid, a space blanket, a watch crystal, a belt buckle, your knife or whatever you can find. \u00a0These items may not be as accurate or as bright as a miror, but the idea is to get someone’s attention and they can be sufficient for that.<\/p>\n

Ever tried signaling with a mirror? \u00a0What was your experience?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A signal mirror is an item the armed forces recommend for a survival kit. Signal mirrors are widely available and often priced in the $10 to $20 range. These mirrors . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}