A signal mirror is one of the many important survival gears every prepper needs. Though small, this survival gear can make the difference between life and death when used effectively.

Here is everything you need to know about a signaling mirror.

In this article:

• What Is a Signal Mirror
• When Should One Use a Signal Mirror
• How to Use a Signaling Mirror
• How Can I Improvise a Signal Mirror
• What to Consider When Buying a Signal Mirror

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Everything You Need to Know About a Signal Mirror

What Is a Signal Mirror

As the name suggests, a signal mirror is a lens specifically designed to signal for help when in distress. It is designed with a hole whose sole purpose of canceling out the flaw in the typical mirror while signaling.

This is because it is difficult to point a reflected light from a mirror to an object in the sky or air, even though you can easily do it from the ground. Therefore, the hole allows you to see through it as you aim the reflected light on your target, in this case, a rescuer jet or boat.

When Should One Use a Signal Mirror

If you’re stranded or lost at sea or out in the woods, a signal mirror can make the difference between life and death when used effectively.

There are two ways to use a signal mirror when in either situation:

Firstly, if you can’t see anyone in the distance, sweep the horizon with the mirror.

This way, you increase your chances of catching the attention of a rescue team that is yet to reach your visual range. Even better, consider spelling out an SOS message.

Secondly, if you can spot rescuers, aim the reflected light directly at them, and send a signal to identify yourself as a person out there in need of their help.

How to Use a Signaling Mirror

The hole in the mirror’s middle enables you to accurately shine the reflection on the aircraft’s window to indicate your location. However, signaling mirrors come with an instructional menu about signaling effectively.

Here is how to use this survival gear effectively:

• Firstly, hold the mirror in your fingers, ensuring your fingers tips are aligned on the mirror’s edges. This guarantees that most of the reflected light reaches the target.
• Next, ensure the mirror perfectly faces in the direction of the sun to create a reflection. You can use your inactive hand to shield your eyes from the intense sun rays.
• Using the hand that is blocking the sunlight, tilt the mirror to hold the reflection before focusing it on the rescue team or aircraft.
• Next, draw the mirror closer to your face, and while looking through the hole, aim for the aircraft above you by focusing the reflection towards it.
• While doing this, ensure that the aiming hole is where the bright light is. Alternatively, if the sun is not too bright or is lower on the horizon, stretch your arms outwards and aim with one eye shut.

Note: The instructions are more often than not written on the mirror’s non-reflective side to make using it easier for you.

How Can I Improvise a Signal Mirror

As important as a signal mirror is, especially during outdoor adventures, rarely will you carry a purpose-built one with you every time as it is easy to forget due to its small size. In that case, you can always improvise one when in distress.

Go through your belongings and look for a variety of shiny that can easily reflect light and catch the attention of rescues. Any metallic object with a glossy surface, such as belt buckles, shiny cookware, or emergency foil blankets, will do.

Hold any of these reflective objects in one hand and use them to reflect the light from the sun. This way, you will create a beacon of light that will signal your location to the rescuers.

Remember: It is vital to first locate the reflection and only point it to the sky when you have a vivid idea of where to focus it.

What to Consider When Buying a Signal Mirror

While you can use practically any reflective object as a signaling mirror, you have a better chance at contacting rescuers if you have a specialized mirror for that purpose. For that this reason, you need:

• A big enough mirror that can comfortably fit in your hands. A two-by-three-inch size is good enough as long as it has a small hole in the middle for you to see where you’re focusing your signal. This way, you’ll be better placed to capture the eye of a search team.
• According to experts, plastic mirrors are advantageous as they are light and can be manipulated with one hand without breaking. However, keep in mind that glass mirrors can reflect sunlight much farther than plastics.
• Thirdly, if you opt for glass mirrors, ensure you carry them in a bubble-wrap sleeve to prevent them from breaking.
• When shopping for a signaling mirror, always go for the best deal possible. For instance, some dealers have spiffy models that come equipped with a viewing window that has a superimposed red dot on your target.
• This way, you can point out the exact spot from which you are signaling. Others come with a whistle attachment to help rescuers zero in on you.

Note: Consider practicing how to use a signaling mirror before heading out for your next outdoor adventure.

Pro Tips

• When improvising a mirror, hold up your thumb and index finger in a V-shape and angle your reflective material. It ensures that most of the light goes through the V as this will help find the bead of light.
• Besides flashing the mirror, you can also send a detailed message with the mirror or reflective material using Morse code. You can find a cheat sheet on how to do this.
• If you choose to use a mirror, flash it towards your target and then turn it away from the target or cover it. Do this in quick succession three times. This is the international distress signal that is recognizable to the rescuer.
• Once you are sure that rescuers have spotted you and are zooming in towards you, it is crucial to stop signaling. Why? The reflected light may cause them momentary blindness and may cause more accidents.

Watch this video as Canadian Prepper presents the complete guide to survival gear:



There you have preppers. Outdoor adventures should be as fun as they are responsible for ensuring safety. The only thing better than one outdoor adventure is another one, and a signaling mirror is just what you need to survive in case of distress to see another day.

What thoughts do you have on using a signaling mirror? Let us know in the comment section below!

Up Next:

• Winter Survival Kit: The Prepper’s Guide To Winter Survival 
• Planning Your First Car Camping Trip 
• How To Make A Moonshine Still 

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is all about the Great Reset agenda.  People must be dependent on the government for their very survival so they can force everyone onto a fully centralized and tracked and traced digital dollar that they control. In exchange for your slavery, you’ll get a pittance – as long as you continue to obey the masters.

Our leaders are killing the U.S. dollar, and it is being done to thunderous applause.

The House and the Senate have now both passed the 1.9 trillion dollar “COVID relief bill”, and it will go to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.  Of course, we don’t actually have 1.9 trillion dollars to spend on yet another “COVID relief” package.  In fact, we don’t even have one dollar to spend on another “COVID relief” package.  Every single dollar that is spent will have to be borrowed, and that will soon push our national debt beyond the 30 trillion dollar mark.  Sadly, our politicians seem convinced that giant mountains of dollars can be printed, borrowed, and spent indefinitely without any repercussions, and most Americans fully support what they are doing.  In fact, one recent poll found that a whopping 78 percent of all Americans support more stimulus checks…

A huge majority of Americans, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans, support the $1,400 stimulus checks President Biden is calling for, and his full $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal also has strong public backing, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The poll found that 78 percent of Americans supported the stimulus checks, including 90 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans — suggesting that Republicans in Congress who want to reduce the checks to $1,000 are out of step with their constituents on this issue.

If you are in that 78 percent, you are wrong.

Yes, it is nice to get a big, fat government check in the mail.  But in the process, we are rapidly destroying our currency, and what we are doing to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.

Previous COVID relief bills have had wide bipartisan support, but this one passed almost entirely along party lines…

The final vote Saturday in the Senate was 50-49 with all Republicans voting against the measure and all members of the Senate Democratic caucus supporting it. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, was not present for the vote. In the House, it didn’t earn a single Republican vote in the two times the bill came to a vote.

Biden ran on his ability to broker bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill, drawing on his 36 years in the Senate and eight years as vice president. Republicans have viewed the bill as a betrayal of the bipartisanship Biden embraced and spoke of during his campaign.

This is being called a “big win” for Biden, and when Pelosi announced that the bill had passed the House she did a little “shimmy“…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the 220-211 vote result from the chair, prompting the bill’s supporters to burst into applause. Just a single Democrat voted against it.

Her glee at the outcome was evident even though she had a mask on. She executed what her daughter Christine called a ‘shimmy’ as she gaveled down the vote in a chamber where a five-vote majority gave her very little wiggle room.

After the vote was over, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy referred to the COVID relief package as “socialism”…

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., described it as a “laundry list of leftwing priorities” that “do not meet the needs of American families.”

“It is very liberal,” he said. “They called this the most progressive piece of legislation in history. For those who are watching, progressive means socialism.”

He is right, but I just wish that he would have figured that out several COVID relief packages ago.

Because the truth is that what we have already done to our currency is absolutely nightmarish.  The following is the latest M1 chart from the Federal Reserve…

Thanks to our wild-spending politicians and unprecedented intervention in the financial markets by the Federal Reserve, we have now entered an era of hyperinflation.

It took from the founding of the United States to 2020 for M1 to get to 4 trillion dollars.

And then it took about one year for M1 to go from 4 trillion dollars to 18 trillion dollars.

This is utter madness.

Of course, the chart above doesn’t even reflect the impact that this new COVID relief package will have.  Another 1.9 trillion dollars is about to be poured into the system, and that will make things even worse.

Needless to say, most Wall Street investors are absolutely thrilled that another tsunami of money is coming.  One recent poll found that “37% of Main Street investors” plan to pour stimulus money directly into the Wall Street casino…

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So we will have to wait and see how all of this plays out.

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Just hours after the House passed the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion stimulus package (which will unleash another wave of “stimmies” that will inevitably find their way into millions of Robinhood and other discount brokerage accounts), President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would unveil “the next phase” of the US COVID-19 response on Thursday, which is also the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-inspired lockdowns in the US.

Even if more stimulus checks are not involved, any new programs that Biden announces will cost money, and that involves more borrowing.

We are printing, borrowing, and spending our way into oblivion, and we have nobody but ourselves to blame.

As I was preparing to write this article, I just kept thinking of the scene from one of the Star Wars movies where Emperor Palpatine announces that the Republic will be reorganized as “the first Galactic Empire”, and the Senate erupts in applause.

Our Republic is dying too, and our politicians are gleefully murdering the reserve currency of the entire planet.

This is not going to end well, but you already knew that.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial, or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Parler, and anyway that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

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