Best signaling devices from the searcher’s point of view - update

[CWK]

I just made a quick look up at Amazon.com & get the following price:
Safety Kit
1. 6’ DSMB with 100’ line in spool - $73
2. Dive Alert - $80
3. Signal Mirror- $10
4. Nautilus Marine Rescue GPS - $190
5. PLB1 - $245
6. Dive light - $15
7. Strobe - $50
8. Glow stick with 6’ string - $12
9. Leash with carabiners - $30
10. Dye Marker - $20
Total to about - $725.

You could save money by shopping around for less. Some include free shipping with my Amazon Prime. I got the PLB1 with $50 rebate. The item 9 (leash with carabiners) can be replaced with reef hook for less cost ($15)

BTW, thanks for starting this thread. I learned lots of interesting stuff.

 

[Dan]

There are places where snorkelling with mantas, whales, or whale sharks is permitted but not scuba so I like to have a snorkle with me. In some circumstances you may need to do a long surface swim to shore. This would be easier with a snorkel. Check out: Where the hell did our boat go?

Don’t get me wrong. I do carry my snorkel in every dive trip. It normally sits in my dive gear rack provided by the boat, together with other unneeded gear for that particular dive, like night dive marker, reef hook, etc. If the next one is just a snorkeling trip, then I’d just attach the snorkel onto my mask.

Last August, when I went to Flower Garden with Fling Charter in Gulf of Mexico, a manta was hovering around the boat during a surface interval. So, I just grabbed my snorkel, mask & fins from my dive gear rack & jumped into the water to swim with the manta. A dive buddy in the boat took time to also bring his GoPro & shoot the picture, below. You can actually see how close the manta was to the boat from looking at the boat ladders in the blue background.

 

[CWK]

There is another AIS product that is rated to 60m. See AIS Man Overboard Device | Automatic Identification System | SmartFind S10

 

[CWK]

For the moment, divers have to buy seperate PLB and AIS beacons. Mariners have EPIRBs that combines PLB and AIS technology.

 

[Dan]

There is another AIS product that is rated to 60m. See AIS Man Overboard Device | Automatic Identification System | SmartFind S10

Ferox provides S10 to all of her guests: Malpelo - Ferox new Colombian liveaboard

 

[Dan]

For the moment, divers have to buy seperate PLB and AIS beacons. Mariners have EPIRBs that combines PLB and AIS technology.

It’ll be great if MRG had PLB in it. For now, I do like the 2 separate devices so when one has problem, you have the 2nd one, hopefully, works.

 

[tcpip95]

I'm pretty anal when it comes to safety. I've mentioned here on the board before about my homemade dive canister that I keep my PLB and VHF radio in. It is strapped to my BCD on the back alongside the tank. It's going in the water with me first.

Nothing will get you rescued faster than the ability to vector in a rescue craft with live, two-way communications.

 

[Dan]

I'm pretty anal when it comes to safety. I've mentioned here on the board before about my homemade dive canister that I keep my PLB and VHF radio in. It is strapped to my BCD on the back alongside the tank. It's going in the water with me first.

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View attachment 452165

Nothing will get you rescued faster than the ability to vector in a rescue craft with live, two-way communications.

In USA, 2-way radio is pretty commonly used, not in a developing country like Indonesia, however. I dove in Indonesia for about 10 years, logging up about 500 dives, reading too many divers lost at sea. That’s why I’d like to gather best signaling devices that would be suitable there.

 

[CWK]

The 2 CR123 Lithium batteries are small, cost about $3 and take hardly any space in the waterproof pouch. Since they are easily replaceable, why not? You just never know how long the ones in MRG would last after a few tests. It’s a cheap insurance / backup on the battery life.

Isn’t it a good practice to carry spare batteries in a long (1-2 week) dive trip vacation anyway? I usually carry spare dive computer & camera batteries. So carrying spare batteries for the MRG should be any different than the other electronic devices.

What if I got blown away in the 2nd day of a 10-day LOB dive trip, launched my MRG alert, then the boat found me after a hour or two tracking the MRG GPS location using their AIS system. At least it’s good to have spare batteries to replace partially used batteries for the rest of the trip. I can swap the batteries while I’m back in the boat and keep the partially used ones as backup batteries until the trip is completed. Then swap the partially used batteries with new ones when I’m back home.

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You can also get batteries for your PLB1. See Ocean Signal PLB1 Replacement Battery Kit - Datrex

 

[CWK]

What @tursiops says.

When I hear & see an airplane coming towards me, that is when I spread the dye to help them spot me floating on the vast sea. I may not use it during the night. That’s when I deploy the twirling glow stick & strapping the strobe on top of the DSMB.

Hopefully I’d never use it. There is too much pollution in the sea already. I don’t want to add it if I don’t have to.

There are 3 possibilities:

1. A SAR air asset (probably a helicopter) is heading your way because they are responding to your PLB. The dye would be totally unnecessary because SAR already has your GPS coordinates.

2. A plane flies overhead, sees your dye, and makes an almost dry landing to pick you up. A seaplane flying overhead is a long shot.

3. A plane flies overhead, sees your dye, declines to make an almost dry landing and chooses to alert air traffic control instead, and air traffic control informs SAR. You already have a PLB to inform SAR, and the standard lost diver protocol also informs SAR. The value of signalling a plane (that is not a seaplane) is extremely marginal.

I guess you will always have more signalling gear than I.