it happens too often
Our SR22 was flying this morning, and also had a close shave with a Senaca.
She was doing some general training in the open FIR, at about FL40. They were monitoring Brize Radar, and heard the Senaca on frequency being advised (far too late it would seem) that they had traffic at 1 o'clock same level less than a mile.
At this time in the SR22, the SkyWatch system was already alerting, changing the target (closing head on at about 300knots) to yellow and screaming "Traffic Traffic" over the intercom.
Both our pilots started scanning ahead about 20 seconds before impact, and after aquiring the target visually took avoiding action.
I believe that if it was not for Skywatch and Mode C transponders, we would have had 2 mid-airs today.
We need better radar services or compulsory transponders....