Homing Beacon laser? Tell me your thoughts on this idea...

[Booshy]

I would like to build a laser to use as a homing beacon. I go camping in the desert and many times we are trying to find out way back to camp. We are coming in a sea of motorhome and trailers and everyone has lights on poles and on there RVs.

I was wondering if I could build a laser in a small box that plugs into a RV 12 volt socket for power. Maybe place it on the roof of he RV or in a pole when we park.

At night I would turn it on and it would pulse every 1 min for 10 seconds on and off.

I have lots of questions.

Could a laser handle that cycle?

What power laser would be visible from say 10 miles away?

Can I get in trouble pulsing a laser pointer straight up into the sky?

It would be cool to design a board so different users to choose different pulses.


Thoughts?

 

[Sigurthr]

Doable, yes. Legal in the USA, no. Aiming any laser into airspace without a FAA variance (might be using the wrong word there, but explicit permit for sure) is a major crime. Yes, they do actually crack down on it regularly. It's only the irregular nature of star-pointing that saves those who do it from persecution.