US Divers Metal second stages, Why not?

[USdiver1]

Nem,

That's from your room at BA? Looks wet and stormy.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I’ll do you one better, Nemrod. I’ll dive my modified second generation Calypso. This regulator has the second generation Calypso second stage (the change in the first stage was to allow a standardized LP hose), with the original Calypso second stage on a long hose. The second generation Calypso (with that screw-on exhaust tee) is on a neck strap as my backup. Now, I’ve used this combo in fairly high current in the Clackamas River without problems. I put this combo together specifically to drive the DIR folks nuts.

Your storm is headed north, toward Florida as Hurricane Helene. ‘Hope that it does’t develop into a Category 3 hurricane, as is predicted. I have some good USAF friends sitting on the Florida coastal area.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Terry,

I'm not saying that larger exhaust openings are not good, just that we did do some rather rigorous dives in the 1968 using these regulators without problems. Here are some photos of a couple of those dives, which were not shallow dives, but did use the second generation Calypso regulators. These were taken in waters just off Okinawa, where I was stationed in that year.

I just measured the AMF Voit exhaust for their 40 Fathom regulator (equivalent of the original Calypso), and it was only 5/8 inch in diameter, along with a 4-point spider. A Dacor Dart 2 regulator had a 3/4 inch diameter exhaust. Neither of these are very large, and would cause respiratory fatigue, especially at depth. This is why it took a while for the U.S. Navy to approve any single hose regulator, and stayed with double hose regulators throughout the 1960s. It was only with the third generation Calypso, and the Conshelf (U.S. Divers Company) that the U.S. Navy approved a single hose regulator. That was followed shortly by the AMF Voit MR-12 regulator, with its larger exhaust.

We also used these regulators in our parascuba jumps, and for attaching the floatation collar to the Apollo capsule. So you can see that we did work pretty hard with these limited regulators. Again, they never got U.S. Navy approval due to high exhalation resistance. But we did use them for our training and missions.

SeaRat

 

[Nemrod]

I'm not saying that larger exhaust openings are not good, just that we did do some rather rigorous dives in the 1968 using these regulators without problems.

I have no doubt you did and you try anything nearly similar now and you will croak and I have no doubt of that . At 70 yo I need every little bit of help I can get. And ain't fooling around any more after my near drowning experience a few years back off Jupiter. Collecting is one thing but using some of this stuff is quite another. At the time that may have been all there was or we did not know better, now there is much better equipment and I think it prudent I am going to use some of it henceforth for actual dives.

My wife about to embark on a dive circa 1979 with the Calypso two screw 1085:



And a year ago shortly before she decided to quit diving. People evolve (their equipment) and note she is not diving a two screw 1085 or a farm rigged BC horse collar, that is an AL Legend and a VDH wing:



Some 44 years of equipment evolution. The equipment is better, cannot say the same for us . We ain't what we used to be, keep that in mind if you try to dive that old junker to 120 feet in current, that being possibly both us and the equipment.

 

[Nemrod]

Nem,

That's from your room at BA? Looks wet and stormy.

Well, I have been down here quite a while and had great weather and diving so now it is payback. Yes, it is stormy and should have brought my surfboard, next time maybe I will. The storm is headed to Florida and is going to impact some of my old time favorite haunts. The Big Bend area has seen these storms before.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Terry, one of the best breathing rigs I've ever used is the UDS-1 system, where the first stage in built into the manifold, with huge openings into the tank. I used the Scubapro A.I.R. I with that system, with its huge exhaust. My standard single hose regulators are some of the modern Dacor, an Aqualung and my Scubapro A.I.R. I and Pilot. So I am paying attention to the exhaust.

I'm now 78, going on 79 years old, and have become much more aware of my limitations. No near misses, but I did miss the entire summer of diving. Why? Well, I bit down on a potsticker, and broke my front tooth. It was damaged in an accident in 1971 (hit by a fire truck) and finally gave way. My orthodontist told me, "at least, you got 53 good years off that crow on that tooth." She also told me that I had "decapitated it." So my diving recently has been very limited, due to stitches in my mouth. I dive mostly solo, and in an agreement with my wife, I only dive when the AMR lifeguards are available at High Rocks. I missed Labor Day, where they usually have their last days, but due to hot weather, they said that they had extended their stay one week. So that Friday, with my mouth healed, I went to High Rocks, and...no lifeguards. I waited a long while for them to come, went down to the water and watched the salmon smolt jumping for insects, and still no lifeguards. So...I went back home. As my friend "Jaybird" said, I'm no longer a spring chicken.

So while I can post on the smaller exhaust, and if I want dive it, I haven't yet. I have some really nice regulators to use, and am going to do so. By the way, the UDS-1 came out with an updated metal second stage, based on the Conshelf/Calypso stages. Those have the larger exhaust, and are quite nice breathing regulators.

SeaRat

PS, unfortunately, I cannot get my UDS-1 cylinders because they are the older aluminum, and have a very large opening that very few hydro facilities will touch. So it hasn’t been diving for several years now.