Re: Diving with Handheld GPS & VHF Radio - Red Sea Debacle at the weekend

Richard Faulkner wrote:
> I thought about DCS, but I understood that the code needed to be
linked
> to a particular vessel, and that it wasnt available in handheld - but
I
> will stand corrected.
I don't know. I suspect that like all handheld VHF radios it has to be
registered specially with the appropriate people if you are going to be
using it from more than one vessel, but I'm no expert in any of this
(the only qualification I have is that I'm thinking about it) so
contact the appropriate people and ask them.

> >> i.e. would they survive the depth/water pressure?
> >They probably wouldn't survive the pressure.
> >I think you'd need to put them in a box/canister that would,
maintain
> >1ata pressure.
> >
>
> This is probably the key to it - I wonder if there is a definitive
> answer somewhere?
Bear in mind that those bags are only good to 10m for cameras, and VHF
radios are probably pretty much the same. I expect the only certain
answer is to test it.
As a diver, I find it easy to forget just how much pressure 3 or 4 bar
is!
I've heard very recently on YD of somebody carrying one around his neck
under a drysuit - I'm sure you can find the thread if you have a look.

> I also thought about EPIRB, but this sends a signal to a satellite,
and
> anyone in the world can pick it up, thus resulting in a full scale S
&
> R.
A common misconception, and one I had myself for a long time.
I was confusing it with shipboard EPIRBs, which float and are designed
to release when the pressure increases (to indicate that it's about 2
metres underwater - the boat has sunk), float to the surface and sound
the alarm.
They're registered with the coastguard, they're expensive, and they get
a response if you set one off.
The kind of EPIRBs that divers carry are position indicators only.
They're a low power device to help the emergency services find you if
they're already looking for you (I believe, based on information in a
fairly old BSAC incident report, that a lifeboat DON'T monitor the
frequency unless somebody on your dive boat tells them that you were
carrying an EPIRB, although coastguard helicopters DO monitor the
frequency - but this information may be a few years out of date)
Alun Harford

<alunharford@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cfdsa1$7i6@odah37.prod.google.com...
>

> The kind of EPIRBs that divers carry are position indicators only.
> They're a low power device to help the emergency services find you if
> they're already looking for you (I believe, based on information in a
> fairly old BSAC incident report, that a lifeboat DON'T monitor the
> frequency unless somebody on your dive boat tells them that you were
> carrying an EPIRB, although coastguard helicopters DO monitor the
> frequency - but this information may be a few years out of date)
> Alun Harford
>

Commercial aviation monitors it though.