[Laser] Aiming less one degree of freedom

[Bob Williams]

All this discussion of aiming has got me to thinking about one of those 
multifacetted mirrors that I pulled from a cheapy laser printer.  Some time 
back I was thinking about using the mirror to chop the beam of a pointer.  I 
had mechanical problems because I removed it from the original motor and 
tried to mount it - but it did work somewhat.  With good motor speed, I could 
produce a reasonable tone.  In theory, it should produce not a spot but a 
line - mine produced several lines because of wobble.

Would this be a way to produce at least a tone modulated signal in which 
aiming problems could be reduced to only a rough azimuth and then fine aiming 
in the elevation plane?  I think that average power in the receiver would be 
reduced below 50%, but peak power would still be 100%.

Is it peak or average power that makes for signal detectability?

Bob AA1ZC
Colchester, CT