Nautilus Lifeline - why no satellite communication?

[coolhandcarter]

I think that it is very unlikely to find yourself outside of the 8 mile range under most diving circumstances. 8 miles is a very long way on the open ocean especially for most dive boats being smaller and traveling slow IOT provide better comfort for the more weary divers.

Also the EPIRB is not a small device. Adding such capabilities to a device meant to be small and portable in the off chance that someone has a 1:100,000,000 chance of being out of the 8 mile range would probably make it less marketable to people looking for a small device more than it would be for someone looking for the EPIRB type system.

 

[bleeb]

It would be a much better tool if it was paired with the GPS satellite functionalities of the SPOT satellite transmitter....

Several people have brought up including one of various forms of SATCOM or EPIRB functionality. Purely for the sake of discussion, I'm curious how much people are willing to spend for the extra communications ability. At a WAG, something might add at least one if not multiple hundreds of dollars to the cost, and with something like SATCOM, there'd also be monthly service charges. Are there enough people interested in the extra functionality for it to be worth it for someone like Nautilus to add the extra feature, and at how much added cost?

 

[Wookie]

I spoke to Mike Lever (the developer of the Nautilus Lifeline) at DEMA where it was unveiled this year (2010). Mike has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into putting a radio in a waterproof case. I chose a different route, that is putting a PLB in a waterproof case. We made our decisions based on different criteria. I operate in the USA, where SAR is a phone call away. I dive in and near the gulf stream, where 8 miles of drift is not uncommon on a tech dive. Mike operates 30 hours from land, where calling in a chopper may take 3 days, and the batteries would be long dead by then. The Lifeline has DSC calling, so any vessel with a DSC enabled radio can receive the signal without further input from the victim. I expect to be able to find my missing divers in an hour, or have the US Coast Guard find them in 2 more. Mike is on his own for finding divers (with the exception of other boats in the area), so the most important thing to him is to be able to communicate with them. The Lifeline doesn't need the added complexity of a PLB/EPIRB. That isn't what it is designed for, and that's not it's strong point.

 

[fdog]

Personally I find the Nautilus to be a nice blend, with the option of selecting your "come help me level":

• (On a channel you've pre-agreed on, not Ch. 16) "Hey, I am a couple hundred yards off the stern - do you see me? I was blown off the darn wreck. Come get me when you recover everyone else".
• (On a channel you've pre-agreed on, not Ch. 16) "Hey, I just surfaced, and I don't see the boat. My GPS coordinates are: yada yada yada. Come get me please"
• (On Channel 16, after no response from above) "Hailing vessel Dive Boat. Wassup."
• (Chanel 16, not a vessel in sight, but otherwise OK) "Pan-pan, Pan-pan, Pan-pan. Drifting diver @ GPS coords yada yada yada."
• (Pushing DSC button, not a vessel in sight, hurt) "Mayday Mayday Mayday. Drifting diver @ GPS Coords yada yada yada".

I like this. I can pick from the menu. An PLB (small EPIRB) has only the nuclear option: activate the global sattelite system and launch multiple SAR assets.

If I'm going to be out of reach of VHF, and a long way off shore, I will take a PLB; but otherwise the Lifeline sounds like a better option. ...and where is mine? I thought they were supposed to be out by March.


All the best, James

 

[String]

8 mile range id say is complete rubbish. A VHF antenna thats covered in water on the outside and at most 10cm above sea level is not going to go that far. If you're trying to talk to a small boat with an antenna down low as well forget it. Id say under a mile.
Go get a VHF transceiver, shove it in one of the aquapac things, jump in the sea and experiment trying to talk to a small boat even half a mile away and you'll see...and a full blown VHF transceiver probably has a better antenna and circuitry than this.

DSC uses the same VHF bands and will have a similar or even possibly lower range (the digital bursts are short lived and dont cope well with interference or noise)

Id rather a big orange SMB to be honest.

I can see the point of 406MHz satellite EPIRBS for when it all goes horribly wrong but a very low range VHF system i dont think is anything like as useful.

 

[Akimbo]

All the EPIRBs (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons) I have seen are huge beasts, great for life rafts but too big and expensive to carry. PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) like the McMurdo FastFind in a housing are reasonable for a diver to carry if you are in a remote location far out to sea where not a lot of other radio-equipped boats are around.

As mentioned, VHF Radios with DSC are great for when all you want is to tell the skipper where to look and pick you up rather than calling out the Coast Guard (or equivalent) and embarrassing the crap out of him/her for losing a diver. Other boats in the area and the Coast Guard will respond if you push the DSC button in case you are out of range. I have been carrying a Standard Horizon HX850s with DSC in my kayak for about a year, but will probably sell it to non-diving yak owner and get the Nautilus Lifeline so I can carry it in the water.

The attached image is a FastFind in an OMS housing that is good to 200 Meters/660’. I will keep and carry it, maybe in addition to the Nautilus, for appropriate conditions.

OMS 660' Rated Canister


Edit: I am more concerned about getting lost in fog a half mile from the boat than being out of range. Any dive boat skipper will follow the current when you don’t show and get within a half mile unless you are diving in rinse-cycle currents. Even them, they will call for other boats to help if there are any around.

 

[Akimbo]

Sorry, dup post. Please delete.

 

[Crush]

Thanks, all. There are always cool new gadgets to buy and I wanted some good pros and cons. Thanks, all posters.

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Even if you do drift more than the 8 miles, I would think your boat would be traveling with the current to find you or at least doing large circles and you would eventually come into range.

 

[Wookie]

Even if you do drift more than the 8 miles, I would think your boat would be traveling with the current to find you or at least doing large circles and you would eventually come into range.

Maybe you've never been the captain of a dive boat that has lost a diver at sea. Maybe you don't know that it's the worst feeling in the world, not knowing whether to conduct a surface search for a victim, or a bottom search for a body. Maybe you haven't spent 5 days searching for a body that may or may not exist, 2 days after the Coast Guard called off the search. Maybe if the victim had a PLB, we'd have known if they were alive or not.