Adios
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Just because of how annoying it is to find unfinished threads I'm reporting back what I've discovered on the web about this.
Legally in the UK as in the USA you can point lasers at planes with a reasonable excuse, life or death is top trumps of excuses so I guess its covered Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Act 2018
There is no legal restriction on buying, importing or using a laser of any power in the UK, but strong laws against misuse. Up to 5 years inside and unlimited fines. Accidentally pointing it in the wrong place has been removed from possible excuses.
It is possible to buy fully submersible pocket laser pointers, with a twist base rather than buttons, with a spreader lens producing a wide fan shaped line to make aiming much easier, with power over 1W ( 200x the power of the resecue laser), with 100% duty cycle and hour long run times. Which makes what I had in mind theoretically possible but at the moment nothing is for sale with all those elements in one device.
However all that power comes at a size (at least 23cmX3.5cm) and cost. The adverts for powerful lasers at small sizes and $50 prices, which got me thinking about this, are bogus sellers over pricing regular 1mW or 5mW lasers. It would have to be custom made at the moment and with most of the world much more strict on lasers the market will always be small so it is unlikely the price will ever come down. You could buy a PLB for the price of one laser which apart from the satellite network failing just as you need it, will be a lot more reliable means of raising alarm. So that seems to be that.
Legally in the UK as in the USA you can point lasers at planes with a reasonable excuse, life or death is top trumps of excuses so I guess its covered Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Act 2018
There is no legal restriction on buying, importing or using a laser of any power in the UK, but strong laws against misuse. Up to 5 years inside and unlimited fines. Accidentally pointing it in the wrong place has been removed from possible excuses.
It is possible to buy fully submersible pocket laser pointers, with a twist base rather than buttons, with a spreader lens producing a wide fan shaped line to make aiming much easier, with power over 1W ( 200x the power of the resecue laser), with 100% duty cycle and hour long run times. Which makes what I had in mind theoretically possible but at the moment nothing is for sale with all those elements in one device.
However all that power comes at a size (at least 23cmX3.5cm) and cost. The adverts for powerful lasers at small sizes and $50 prices, which got me thinking about this, are bogus sellers over pricing regular 1mW or 5mW lasers. It would have to be custom made at the moment and with most of the world much more strict on lasers the market will always be small so it is unlikely the price will ever come down. You could buy a PLB for the price of one laser which apart from the satellite network failing just as you need it, will be a lot more reliable means of raising alarm. So that seems to be that.
