There is no switch more reliable than a mercury wetted switch. There are no
moving parts. The pole should be graphite and all the electrics should be in
the bottom, including a 406 MHz EPIRB. Store pole on the rail bottom up.
Steve

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...

"Larry" wrote

I just hate to think someone's life isn't worth more than a strobe from
the
flea market when this one is only $20. There's one on my Sospenders with
the 10 year Lithium D cell. I go all out when I'm drowning....(c; Why
not
use the same one on the pole?

Actually, it was a brand new bicycle light that I took apart for the pole.
Bike lights are subject to a lot of shock and weather and are a pretty
critical safety item so I don't think it's being cheap.

The real issue was weight. I could have bought a ready made MOB pole,
with a light even, but a lifetime of doing stability calculations told me
that the ones I saw in stores and catalogues were going to blow pretty
much flat in the water in heavy weather. I wanted to get the light high
and the center of gravity as low as possible. Now that we have GPS with
instant MOB waypoint input, the primary purpose of the light is to enable
the person in the water to find the pole. Trying to find a strobe
floating at the surface can be hard for a swimmer because half the ocean
seems to light up. Every foot of height counts. The super light bicycle
components with a large battery pack making up part of the ballast still
seems like a good solution.

The rest of the ballast is a length of steel pipe filled with lead. This
sucker is heavy but should stand up in any wind that the boat can work
against to get back to the person in the water.

I just need a reliable switch.

--
Roger Long