Scuba diver's Personal Locator Beacon - how never to be lost at sea

[Ron Lee]

The EPIRB canister you have is looking smaller and more attractive than past options. It will be interesting to see how you mount it. For us an EPIRB would be a nice compliment to a DSC equipped radio.

Just a nit. We are discussing PLBs, not EPIRBs or ELTs.

 

[mathauck0814]

I'm sorry, but I land on a completely different solution to this problem. If you do your job and navigate well (or if you can't you stay close enough to swim back to the boat) and the Op does their job and doesn't sink the boat, you're all solving a non-issue.

Protecting against yourself is a waste of energy. Protecting against the op is a retroactive bit of due diligence. No amount of equipment cures stupid.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

I think the above has three ifs. failure of any one of them you are screwed.

Sent from my DROID X2

 

[mathauck0814]

I think the above has three ifs. failure of any one of them you are screwed.

Sent from my DROID X2

And yet, somehow, the vast majority of us come back every time.

 

[oerentals]

I think it comes down to how much effort and money is it worth to you to be even safer. Personally, I like the piece of mind knowing that I have a device that provides a very very good chance of rescue if by some strange reason all the other precautions I take fail.

A handful of people are attacked by bears while out hiking in Montana/Wyoming each year, among the thousands and thousands. You can travel in groups, make lots of noise, pay attention to Ranger reports, being 100% diligent. But I still carry bear spray - on the very slim chance I'll need it, its worth the $50 and extra weight strapped to my belt. Others may have a different opinion though.

 

[Ron Lee]

I just had several phone conversations with the agencies involved with the search and rescue (SAR) mission. I will do my best to accurately report essential info but if I am incorrect on some aspect, that is my fault and not that of anyone I spoke to.

Excluding polar regions, if you activate a 406 MHz beacon (PLB, EPIRB, ELT) then the SAR folks will know about it within seconds to minutes. If you properly register your beacon, they will know who you are and can begin the procedures associated with a beacon alert/signal.

Applying this to a diver in the water near Cozumel, they will know who you are and once your PLB inserts a latitude/longitude in the signal, they will know where you are.

They have contacts for a signal picked up in Mexico (the Mexican Navy as I postulated earlier). So they will do what they have to do to alert the Mexican Navy (perhaps via diplomatic channels) and in some period of time rescue folks should be on their way. I do not have details on how long that process takes but I got enough warm fuzzies that had the Scuba Mau channel crossing folks had a PLB, they should have been picked up in less time than the reported ~4.5 hours.

The number of PLB alerts/signals each week is low. It is reasonable that each one is taken as a true distress and someone will be on their way quickly.

 

[Peter_C]

Just a nit. We are discussing PLBs, not EPIRBs or ELTs.

I fixed it for you and changed it to PEPIRB. Happy?

Also thanks for the update on SARS

I'm sorry, but I land on a completely different solution to this problem. If you do your job and navigate well (or if you can't you stay close enough to swim back to the boat) and the Op does their job and doesn't sink the boat, you're all solving a non-issue.

Protecting against yourself is a waste of energy. Protecting against the op is a retroactive bit of due diligence. No amount of equipment cures stupid.

We dive from an unattended boat most of the time. It is very common in our area, and there are no dive ops on the North Coast. Even running a line there is still a chance we would not be able to make it back to the boat. Plus owning a boat a PEPIRB would be a good investment when going further offshore whale watching and such, and I can list the boat during registration, as I did with my Nautilus. Now that technology has produced a much smaller unit allowing for a reasonable sized canister, and I want my partner to carry some type of location device like the PEPIRB. After it is confirmed the unit will fit in the canister, we will pick one up for her.

They have a coupon available for the units offering a $50 rebate or $110 in safety gear. It expires 5/31/2012.
SPRING EPIRB PLB Promotion / Cobham - Beacon Solutions

 

[Ron Lee]

I am wondering if the ACR ResQlink could be made flotable by adding some sort of buoyant material to the back. Since it is 0.6 inches shorter than the ResQLink PLus, that would solve vertical clearance issues.

The other aspect to fitting an ACR ResQLink Plus in the smaller canister is that perhaps the lower loop could be cut off. I am not sure how that would impact use in non-diving applications but it looks from the internet that you might gain an eight inch or so vertical clearance.

 

[Mossman]

I've known about EPIRBs for a long time which are devices that send a signal to a satellite to give your GPS location to help search and rescue find you, however the problem with them has always been that they aren't designed to go to depth, so they wouldn't work for a diver, that is if the diver wanted a device actually on his person at all times.

If that's true, then what are the devices that they fastened to my BC when I dove the Galapagos and on the Tahiti Aggressor in the Tuamotus?

"Second, the Aggressor had issued to each diver a personal EPIRB unit (it’s a transmitter that sends an emergency signal to the skiff, to the Aggressor, and to anyone else in the area monitoring EPIRBs) to be used if you hadn’t been picked up within 30 minutes or so." -- Tahiti, 2003

"Personal Epirbs and Dive Alerts for drift dives" -- Vessel Details

 

[oerentals]

I am wondering if the ACR ResQlink could be made flotable by adding some sort of buoyant material to the back. Since it is 0.6 inches shorter than the ResQLink PLus, that would solve vertical clearance issues. [\quote]

There is a Floating Pouch available for the ResQlink - a small neoprene case the PLB slides into, that enables the unit to float. Its made and sold by ACR.

We bought a bunch separate so that our rental units always include one, but we also have noticed that ACR appears to be shipping the ResQlinks with the pouch in the box now, as recent orders included it without ordering or paying more.