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Not a bad idea to have more safety equipment...but a burning flare would be a lot more noticeable as a distress signal. I think they burn brighter as well... more reliable than anything needing batteries.....consider one officers experience with an electronic flare.
A marine police officer in a busy city harbor recently asked himself the same question when contemplating the purchase of an electronic signal device for his own boat. His concern stemmed from years of locating distressed boaters at night, and the difficulties therein—especially with the lights of the city in the background.
His personal (albeit unscientific) test concluded that most boaters do not recognize the SOS signal. The officer positioned his boat in the center of the harbor at dusk on a clear evening and stayed there until dark. He held his electronic distress signal by hand while standing near the bow of his 26-foot center console. Not a single nearby boater responded to his faux emergency.
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