To be honest, I couldn't give a flying **** how anyone spends their spare time. All I've tried to do, is point out the possible pitfalls, which the UK Govt feel strong enough about to post advice on their website. If people don't heed that advice then so be it. It is their advice, not mine.
I did point out that unless the person was wearing dark glasses, a grey overcoat and spoke in a dodgy accent then I wouldn't particularly take an issue with someone parked outside a high security front line fighter base listening to ops..................this isn't Greece,after all!
On the subject of distress frequencies, I quite agree monitoring them alone would make perfect sense. However, I would bet you would spend a long time dialled into 125.5 or whatever before you got a hit. Allied to that, my understanding is that once a distress is acknowledged, unless there is extenuating circumstances, the recovery op is run on a seperate frequency to leave the distress channel clear for the next poor unfortunate.
As a final point on scanners, whatever you do, don't programme your local plod frequencies in. If you and your scanner were ever to part company, you might find that the rozzers may well take an unhealthy interest.
Whatever, enjoy your leisure time. Life is too short not to.
as a final note, on the subject of the thread itself, SAR is a noble profession and I quite agree!