I recently returned from a 10 day trip to Bonaire with my wife and father-in-law. My father-in-law recently purchased a Sport and Bonaire was the first trip that it was used on.
The Sport transmitter and receiver came packaged in a padded Pelican case with all the needed batteries. The Pelican case with transmitter and receiver weighed approximately 5 pounds. The transmitter and receiver are both approximately 2.5" x 5".
The batteries are easy to install into both the transmitter and receiver after you figure out how to open the end caps. Battery life seemed to be pretty good. We used the Sport on 4 dives and the low battery indicators never came on. The receiver was turned off until it was needed to save as much power as possible.
I attached a bolt snap to the transmitter along with a short piece of nylon line for clipping the transmitter off on the mooring bouys at the dive sites. The receiver was then clipped off on my BCD. The receiver is a little large, but it is not too noticeable on a hip D-ring.
We used the Sport by clipping the transmitter to the mooring bouy on the edge of the reef. When we were returning, we would turn the unit on. The directional signal of the receiver was easy to read, and the hi/lo switch helped alot with getting a little additional directional accuracy. Please note that we were using this in water with visibility from 60-80 feet and natural navigation on Bonaire is prety easy as well. The device seemed to lead us right back to the mooring bouy. When used with natural navigation, it made it extremely easy to return to the bouy.
We also did several night dives with the Sport and had similar results. I am eager to try it out in water with lower visibility to see what the unit can really do.
I do not think that it would be a good idea to solely depend on one of these units for navigation, but with that said, it seemed really easy to return to a specified location when using it in additon to natural navigation and a compass.
Overall, I think that the Sport is a really cool tool that is user friendly and could be very nice to have in unfamiliar areas with poor visibility.
The Sport transmitter and receiver came packaged in a padded Pelican case with all the needed batteries. The Pelican case with transmitter and receiver weighed approximately 5 pounds. The transmitter and receiver are both approximately 2.5" x 5".
The batteries are easy to install into both the transmitter and receiver after you figure out how to open the end caps. Battery life seemed to be pretty good. We used the Sport on 4 dives and the low battery indicators never came on. The receiver was turned off until it was needed to save as much power as possible.
I attached a bolt snap to the transmitter along with a short piece of nylon line for clipping the transmitter off on the mooring bouys at the dive sites. The receiver was then clipped off on my BCD. The receiver is a little large, but it is not too noticeable on a hip D-ring.
We used the Sport by clipping the transmitter to the mooring bouy on the edge of the reef. When we were returning, we would turn the unit on. The directional signal of the receiver was easy to read, and the hi/lo switch helped alot with getting a little additional directional accuracy. Please note that we were using this in water with visibility from 60-80 feet and natural navigation on Bonaire is prety easy as well. The device seemed to lead us right back to the mooring bouy. When used with natural navigation, it made it extremely easy to return to the bouy.
We also did several night dives with the Sport and had similar results. I am eager to try it out in water with lower visibility to see what the unit can really do.
I do not think that it would be a good idea to solely depend on one of these units for navigation, but with that said, it seemed really easy to return to a specified location when using it in additon to natural navigation and a compass.
Overall, I think that the Sport is a really cool tool that is user friendly and could be very nice to have in unfamiliar areas with poor visibility.
