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- Newsgroups: rec.scuba,rec.answers,news.answers
- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.kei.com!nntprelay.mathworks.com!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-pull.sprintlink.net!news-in-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!208.10.128.37!news.emi.net!scifi!njs
- From: njs@scifi.uucp (Nick Simicich)
- Subject: [rec.scuba] FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Scuba, Monthly Posting
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
- Followup-To: rec.scuba
- Supersedes: <1997.Nov.1.scuba.faq@scifi.maid.com>
- Sender: njs@scifi.squawk.com (Nick Simicich)
- Expires: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 05:00:00 GMT
- Organization: N.J. Simicich, Boca Raton, FL
- Message-ID: <1997.Dec.1.scuba.faq@scifi.maid.com>
- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 20:11:37 GMT
- Lines: 1350
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.scuba:155146 rec.answers:35192 news.answers:115948
-
- Archive-name: scuba-faq
-
- [dive flag] rec.scuba FAQ [alpha flag]
-
- The FAQ was htmlized on 25 April 1995, by [1]Nick Simicich.
-
- The master for this FAQ is now the HTMLized version. The current
- version of the FAQ can be fetched from
- [2]http://scifi.squawk.com/scuba.html. If you are reading a text
- version of this FAQ, it was prepared by running the FAQ through _lynx
- -dump http://scifi.squawk.com/scuba.html_. New email addresses for
- [3]scubasearch were added on 25 April 1995.
-
- A question on GPS was added in July, 1995.
-
- In October, an EPIRB question was added, and a new mail-to-news
- gateway was posted. A comment about commercial postings ws added as
- well. The charters of the subgroups were added in August, 1996.
-
- Please feel free to follow-up with comments or email them to
- njs@scifi.squawk.com.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Welcome to rec.scuba. The newsgroup is for discussion of scuba,
- diving, snorkeling, dive travel, and other underwater activities.
- Frequent topics are safety, equipment, and certification. We welcome
- postings from new folks and old hands.
-
- Where should you post? There have been two subgroups of rec.scuba
- formed. If your post has to do with equipment, consider posting in
- rec.scuba.equipment:
-
- CHARTER: rec.scuba.equipment
- This group is for discussion of all topics related to scuba
- diving equipment: its purchase, its use, and for the sharing of
- experiences that others have had with it. Infrequent
- advertisements from private individuals are acceptable but
- commercial advertising is not.
-
- If your post is more about where to go or the process of getting
- there, consider posting in rec.scuba.locations:
-
- CHARTER: rec.scuba.locations
- The purpose of this group will be to exchange information
- (preferably first-hand) about dive sites, dive locations
- (including live-aboards), dive operations at these locations,
- how to get yourself and your gear there, and where to stay/
- eat/play once you do. Commercial advertisements are not
- appropriate.
-
- If your post fits into neither of the above two categories, but is
- still scuba, snorkeling, or diving related, it should probably go into
- rec.scuba.
-
- Before posting to this group for the first time, please check the FAQ
- list (this posting), and also read the newsgroup
- news.announce.newusers, which contains many answers to questions about
- usenet in general.
-
- Are you a new poster? Or an old poster who frequently gets flamed?
- One-to-many communication on mailing lists or newsgroups is a lot
- different from the sort of communication you are used to. I strongly
- recommend the reading of [4]ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1855.txt for
- general guidelines about what and how to post.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Table of Contents:
-
- 1. [5]Differences between certification agencies. (PADI/NAUI/YMCA/SSI
- etc.)
- 2. [6]New Diver buying first piece of equipment.
- 3. [7]Author's personal opinion on mail order.
- 4. [8]rec.scuba archive sites and how to access them.
- 5. [9]How to find out about dive destinations.
- 6. [10]Basic discussion of thermal protection (wetsuit, drysuit,
- darlexx).
- 7. [11]Liquid breathing in the movie Abyss;.
- 8. [12]Scuba magazines and periodicals.
- 9. [13]Diving in contact lenses.
- 10. [14]What about Spare Air or Pony Bottles?
- 11. [15]What about Casio Dive watches and the depth ratings thereon?
- 12. [16]I lost my C-card. What do I do?
- 13. [17]I need a resort referral, cause I want to do my checkout dives
- on my upcoming vacation to TinyIsland. Who do I call?
- 14. [18]I think I got a shoddy course. What can I do?
- 15. [19]They are cutting off my rec newsfeed. How can I get rec.scuba
- by email?
- 16. [20]Is there an FTP site for scuba based software?
- 17. [21]Are there any good scuba URL's?
- 18. [22]What about Dive Computers?
- 19. [23]How about the Chipmunk Method of clearing your regulator?
- 20. [24]I have a medical condition. Is it safe for me to Scuba Dive?
- 21. [25]I have a great scuba related GIF/piece of software/sound
- sample. What should I do with it?
- 22. [26]I'm suddenly not getting my rec.scuba postings. What do I do
- about testing?
- 23. [27]Someone just posted about missing children/a revolutionary 30
- day diet plan/a multi-level-marketing scheme/then end of the
- world/how to get your green card on rec.scuba. What should I do?
- 24. [28]Can you use a GPS when diving?
- 25. [29]Can you use an EPIRB while diving?
- 26. [30]Some comments on commercial postings in rec.scuba and scuba-l.
-
- General Disclaimer:
-
- Scuba Diving is a dangerous sport which can only be performed in
- relative safety if you (a) get training (b) pay attention to that
- training and apply it (c) recognize that no matter who you are and how
- trained you are, there are dives which are beyond your personal
- ability, dives which cannot be safely done with your equipment, and
- dives that are beyond your training.
-
- Finally, some dives are just plain more dangerous. Your certification
- course should have trained you to recognize your limitations, or,
- conversely, to recognize the sorts of diving you were trained to do.
-
- Various people who post to rec.scuba discuss advanced diving. This
- stuff is just a discussion. It is not meant to be a replacement for a
- certification course with an instructor, and it is not meant to be an
- encouragement to you to go out and engage in similar diving without
- evaluating your personal skills, and/or getting the appropriate
- training and equipment, as required. Specifically, Cave or Wreck or
- Deep diving requires advanced equipment, training, and a careful self
- examination.
-
- Finally, it should be obvious that not everyone who posts their
- opinions to the net is or can be (a) an expert or (b) correct. It is
- likely that your instructor, for example, would disagree with a number
- of the points of view expressed herein, and would probably disagree
- with part of this FAQ.
-
- The fact that someone who identifies themselves as an instructor posts
- to rec.scuba does not create an instructional situation.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Frequently Asked Questions:
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I'm planning on getting certified. I've been to several shops, and they all
- offer different certifications. I've heard of PADI, NAUI, YMCA, NASDS and
- SSI. Which one should I go with?
-
- This question has frequently come up in rec.scuba. One of the
- discussion threads has been summarized as whosbest.txt in the
- rec.scuba archives at ames. See the explanation of Peter Yee's
- archive, below, for how to access the ames archives. The short, widely
- agreed answer, is that agencies all must follow a minimum standard set
- by an industry organization, so they differ less than you might
- expect. However, instructors differ a lot, and you should try to talk
- to the instructor you will be taking the course from and determine
- exactly what will be offered, and how you feel about them. Finally,
- some instructors add significantly to the standard course (and may
- also charge more). You should ask exactly what you are going to get
- for your course fees, what else you will have to buy, and where you
- have to buy it.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I'm new to diving, and I want to buy some equipment. Which piece of equipment
- should be the first?
-
- There are two schools of thought on this. One is that you should
- consider only purchasing your personal gear until you are sure what
- type of diving you like. This school believes you should buy only
- mask, fins, and snorkel, for fit and sanitary reasons. The other
- school of thought is that the rental gear you can rent, especially in
- tropical locations, is second rate and poorly maintained, and that
- gear you purchase will be better and more reliable. Typically, people
- agree that you should not buy a tank until you believe that you will
- be doing a significant amount of local diving.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Where are good sources for mail order equipment? All of the local shops seem
- to be very expensive.
-
- The purpose of a FAQ is to answer commonly asked questions which have
- answers that can be agreed to by the majority of the group. There are
- many conflicting opinions on mail order that have little to do with
- scuba, and, after long consideration, I felt that it was impossible to
- write a mail order question answer that was informative, covered all
- views, and which generated more light than heat. I suggest a
- [31]scubasearch with:
-
- Subject: mail order
-
- before bringing it up again.
-
- It is my personal opinion that if you are asking this question in this
- group that there is a very good chance that you do *not* have enough
- knowledge or skill to safely purchase either life support equipment or
- equipment ancillary to that, and should reconsider doing so.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Are there any archive sites for rec.scuba? If so, how do I access the
- rec.scuba archives?
-
- The Peter Yee Archives.
-
- There are two rec.scuba archives. The first, and oldest, is maintained
- by Peter Yee. Peter has collected travelogues, equipment reviews, and
- so forth into pre-organized files. In Peter's own words:
-
- You can also use the SCUBA archives on ames.arc.nasa.gov. Send
- mail to archive-server@ames.arc.nasa.gov (or ames!archive-server)
- and use a subject with a line like "send scuba index". This
- will get you an index of articles in the archive. They are
- sorted by subject and you will that you get pretty much what you
- ask for. To get Florida info, try sending a subject of "send
- scuba florida.txt keys.txt".
-
- -Peter Yee
- yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov
- ames!yee
-
- Advantages to Peter's archives are that they are organized by subject,
- allow instant access if you have FTP, and are actually about the
- subject in question rather than just randomly containing that word or
- phrase. Follow [32]this to the ames archive.
-
- Scubasearch
-
- The second archive is maintained by (me) Nick Simicich. This is sort
- of a minimalist archive. There are over a years worth of articles in
- the backlog, and you can run an "egrep" against them and the responses
- will be organized and sent back to you. To use the archive, mail to
- scubasearch@scifi.squawk.com (if that bounces - a correctly operating
- scubasearch might take hours) scubasearch@scifi.emi.net.
-
- You can also run a scubasearch through the web if you have a form
- capable browser. To run a scubasearch through the web, click [33]here,
- which will lead you to
- http://scifi.squawk.com/cgi-bin/scubasearch-cgi.
-
- If submitting your search by email, place the search pattern you want
- in your Subject: line. The search is CaSe InDePeNdEnT. Up to 10,000
- result lines will be sent to you if you put in a general enough search
- pattern. As an example, to find articles which contain the string
- "dive watch", "diving watch" or close approximations, send mail to
- scubasearch with "Subject: div.*watc". "div.*wat" would not be good
- because that would get you "dive...water". Another bad search pattern
- is "cuba" because that will select every article, because cuba is part
- of scuba. Try "\<cuba\>" instead. Multiple level searches: Supposing
- you want to find a posting that mentions accidents in the Cayman
- islands. You could search for "accident.*Cayman|cayman.*accident", and
- that would tend to find some of them, but it wouldn't find postings
- where caymans was mentioned in the subject line (for example) and
- "accident" was mentioned somewhere in the body. To get around this,
- I've added a syntax that the shell script will use to run multiple
- grep passes. You just separate the arguments to the successive grep
- passes with an &. For our example above, you could code "Subject:
- cayman & accident". The shell script will run grep against all of the
- files with the argument "cayman" as he search string, and then run
- grep again with the search string "accident" against the files that
- result from the first pass. You can stack these to an arbitrary depth.
- You can also get as complex as you want using this feature. For
- example, you might want to do a search for articles that I didn't
- write with cayman in the subject. This pattern might do it:
-
- Subject: ^Subject:.*cayman & -v ^From:.*njs
-
- -v can be specified on a second or subsequent grep pattern (after the
- &, as shown above) and eliminates all articles that contain the grep
- target. This is not a hook for general grep options. This is a special
- option that changes the action of the shell script.
-
- You can limit your searching to a particular date range by specifying
- a line as follows:
-
- Searchdates: [fromdate] [;todate]
-
- The format of the date is pretty liberal, and can include patterns
- such as "01 Jan 91" as well as "1 year ago". You can leave out the
- todate, or leave out the fromdate just by starting with a semicolon.
-
- You can get further information about egrep patterns by sending mail
- to scubasearch with "Subject: help". There are more detailed
- instructions regarding the date and the inverse searching in the help
- file, as well.
-
- You can get a copy of this FAQ by sending mail to scubasearch with
- "Subject: FAQ". You can do a search for someone else by naming them in
- a reply-to line, either in your mail header or the message body.
-
- Advantages are that every posting is there. Disadvantages are that you
- will get random stuff which happens to mention your search string if
- it is not specific enough, and you might get tons of stuff you don't
- want. If you do make a successful scubasearch, consider editing the
- result and mailing it to Peter Yee for inclusion into the organized
- rec.scuba archives so that the next person has instant access to the
- information.
-
- Note that due to a problem on the scifi system, the entire old article
- database was wiped out on 8/21/94. The accumulation will start again.
- Unforunately, it was just too big to back up with my limited
- resources.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- What can anyone tell me about diving in [Florida, Cozumel, Belize, Bonaire,
- Great Barrier Reef, etc.]?
-
- Seriously consider doing a [34]scubasearch or looking in [35]the
- archives at ames before asking your question. If there hasn't been any
- conversation on your destination recently, then by all means ask.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I'm thinking about buying a [wetsuit/drysuit/diveskin/Darlexx skin].
-
- What are the differences between them, and what are they good for?
-
- Diveskins are typically made of Lycra or some other stretchy fabric.
- The warmth supplied is minimal. Typically, they are used to prevent
- stings from jellyfish, and to protect from accidental coral contact.
- Sport divers tend to wear skins in water warmer than 80F degrees, or
- under wetsuits, so that the wetsuit will slide on easier.
-
- Next up in warmth is the Darlexx suit. This is a suit that is similar
- to a diveskin, but which is made out of a fabric that slows water
- flow. There have been reported problems with the Darlexx fabric
- "delaminating" or coming apart. An alternative is made by Aeroskin,
- and uses polypropylene and lycra. Depending on how warm blooded you
- are, you might be able to wear Darlexx comfortably down to 72F. A
- Darlexx suit is a wetsuit. It does not fit like a diveskin, and is not
- really a substitute for a skin.
-
- Wet suits are made of neoprene rubber. The suits serve two purposes:
- They reduce water circulation over your skin, and the air impregnated
- neoprene insulates you from the cold water. At the worst, a poorly
- fitting wetsuit can ruin your dive by letting you get so cold that you
- get hypothermic, or by being so tight that it cuts off your
- circulation. If you are not well fitted by stock wet suits, you can
- have one custom made. Custom made wetsuits are not that much more
- expensive than stock ones, and fit much better. Wet suits come in
- several thicknesses and styles. People wear different styles of wet
- suits between 32F-85F. Most people find that temperatures below 45-50F
- are not comfortable for longer than a few minutes in a wetsuit.
-
- Dry suits are used by prople between 70F-28F. (For extended commercial
- operations at near freezing temperatures, heated water is pumped
- through a special suit or underwear set.) (Temperatures below 40
- require special environmental protection for regulators, controlled
- use of inflators, and (hopefully) redundant breathing systems.) You
- should consider getting special training before you wear a drysuit.
- Even fitting the drysuit is not quite as straightforward as fitting a
- wetsuit. A drysuit is useful at a wide range of temperatures because
- you can vary the amount of warmth by wearing different underwear with
- the suit.
-
- The following discussion of drysuits is by mdm@yeehah.merk.com:
-
- What are the different types of drysuits available and what are the pros
- and cons of each type of suit?
-
- Drysuits fall into 4 main categories: foam neoprene suits, nylon or
- tri-laminate shell suits, vulcanized rubber suits, and crushed
- neoprene.
-
- Foam Neoprene Suits:
- These suits are very similar to wetsuits in they are made out of
- neoprene with the seams sealed. Even flooded, they will retain much of
- their insulating ability and buoyancy. At shallow depths, they are
- probably the warmest suits and will require the least amount of
- undergarment thermal protection. However, like wetsuits, at depth, the
- neoprene is compressed causing a reduction in both thermal protection
- as well as buoyancy. Also, they take a long time to dry, and can be
- very difficult to repair. Like neoprene wet suits, foam neoprene dry
- suits have a useful life of somewhere around 300 dives before the suit
- no longer retains sufficient thermal protection.
-
- Nylon or Tri-laminate (Shell) Suits:
- Shell suits are made out of various types of nylon. There is a wide
- range in the durability and resistance to abrasions of these suits.
- The advantages of these suits are that they are very light, easy to
- pack, dry very quickly, and are easy to don. They do not stretch so
- they must be large and baggy enough to allow freedom of movement. This
- can make them higher drag while swimming. They provide no thermal
- protection themselves, so appropriate undergarments must be worn. They
- are easy to repair in most cases.
-
- Vulcanized Rubber Suits:
- These suits have many of the same advantages and disadvantages as the
- nylon suits. They are relatively easy to don, they dry quickly, and
- repairs are easy. Depending on the thickness of the rubber will
- determine how durable the suits are and how resistant to abrasions.
- The most durables will be very expensive and the less expensive suits
- tend to need repairs often. The drag with vulcanized rubber suits
- tends to be high. These suits are often best for diving in
- contaminated water (with additional equipment and training of course).
-
- Crushed Neoprene Suits:
- These suits are neoprene suits which have been compressed. This means
- the suits themselves do not compress at depth so they do not lose
- buoyancy or insulation at various depths. The material is extremely
- durable and is very resistant to abrasions. The suits are somewhat
- heavier than nylon suits and take longer to dry (about 24 hours).
- Repairs can be more time-consuming because you must wait for the suit
- to be completely dry before doing the repair. The suits are very
- flexible, so they are easy to don and are meant to be form-fitting
- which reduces drag while swimming. They provide some thermal
- protection so you can generally wear less undergarments than with a
- shell or vulcanized suit. These suits tend to be the more expensive
- types of suits along with the heavy duty vulcanized rubber suits.
- Also, as of this year, crushed neoprene suits are available in women's
- sizes.
-
- What type of options are available with drysuits and what are the pros and
- cons of each?
-
- There are a number of other items to consider when purchasing a
- drysuit beyond the material of the suit itself.
-
- Boots: Most drysuits today come with attached boots. This avoids the
- problem of additional seals at the ankles which also make your feet
- colder and another place to leak. Some suits have latex or other
- sock-like boots. With these drysuits, you wear wetsuit boots over for
- abrasion protection and additional thermal protection. Pros are you
- can generally wear the same size fins, if your boots wear out, wetsuit
- boots are much cheaper and easy to replace. Cons are they can be less
- warm than attached boots worn with thermal undergarments.
-
- Wrist and neck seals: Seals primarily are either latex or neoprene.
- Latex is more flexible, is easy to don, but requires more care. Latex
- seals are less durable and need to be replaced at least every 2 years.
- However, latex seals are easy to repair and relatively easy to
- replace. Neoprene seals are more rugged, but most people find them
- harder to don and more uncomfortable to wear. Neoprene seals also tend
- to leak more than latex seals, but they are warmer than latex seals.
-
- Other items to consider: Suspenders will be very useful to keep the
- crotch of the suit from sagging. They will be helpful while swimming
- or walking out of the water and are especially useful when you remove
- the top part of your dry suit. Since one of the most expensive parts
- of a suit to repair can be the waterproof zipper, a protection zipper
- is very useful. In the case of latex seals, a warm collar is a nice
- option as is an attached hood.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I just saw a really great movie called the Abyss.
-
- In it, they had a rat breathing liquid. Is that really possible? Is
- there equipment like that for humans?
-
- Yes, it is really possible. The rat was breathing liquid in the scene
- you saw in the movie. No, it is not done with people (except with
- premature babies to replace missing surfactants - this has been
- reported on _Hard Copy_ a US TV tabloid news show, complete with
- pictures of the procedures and one of the surviving children). A
- widely cited study involved a single adult subject who had one lung
- filled with the liquid, but who had problems with pneumonia
- afterwards. It is considered highly risky. To pull an old thread on
- this from rec.scuba, do a [36]scubasearch with the subject:
- ^subject:.*liquid scuba
-
- The liquid is a chloroflourocarbon, like freon, but with a higher
- boiling point.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I want to learn more about diving, and read a lot of diving magazines.
-
- My local newsstand only carries Skin Diver Magazine, which I hear a
- lot of derogatory comments about on the net. What other
- Magazines/periodicals are there, how do I subscribe, and what is the
- orientation of these magazines?
-
- There are many, many magazines and journals. I've created a file
- called [37]scubamag.txt, which I have placed in the archive at
- [38]ames. This file, too long to place here, reviews many of the
- magazines which are around. At this point, many of the comments in
- this file are obsolete.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Can I dive in contact lenses (contacts)? Is it safe? Will I go blind?
-
- The safety of contacts revolves around several issues:
-
- Will nitrogen absorption affect the contacts?
- It is possible that non-gas-permeable contacts will get bubbles
- under them. For this reason, if you do wear contacts, they
- should be gas permeable or soft, or they should have holes
- drilled in them.
-
- What is the likelihood of losing a contact under water?
- If you get water in your mask, and you open your eyes, you
- might lose a contact. It might stay in your mask, in which case
- you can possibly recover it. If you will be dangerous to
- yourself without contacts, (not able to see well enough to find
- the boat, and not used to dealing with things by sound) then
- this could be serious. You also have to consider the
- possibility that your mask will come off underwater, and that
- you will have to open your eyes to find it and replace it, and
- that your contacts might come off during this process. Losing
- contacts in the water has happened to a number of people.
-
- What about the possibility of infection?
- You are always at increased risk of eye infection when you wear
- contacts. There is some possibility that there are bacteria in
- the water that will increase the risk of eye infection. Quick
- treatment in the case of contact related infection is
- important, and you are not likely to get that treatment on, for
- example, a liveaboard.
-
- At least one study has indicated that there is an increased
- possibility of Acanthamoeba infection when swimming with
- contact lenses. Other practitioners, who do prescribe soft
- contacts for swimmers, claim that there is no proof that the
- contacts were the proximate cause of the infections, but give
- no arguments as to why they feel that there is no correlation.
-
- Are there any special considerations regarding soft contact lenses?
- Yes. Dr. Soni, Associate professor of Optometry at Indiana
- University has participated in a study which showed that 100%
- of soft contact lenses used in pool swimming were contaminated,
- when cultured. Normally, soft contact lenses are made up of a
- certain percentage of water. They absorb this water from your
- tears, and the amount of water they absorb is at least
- partially dependent on the salt content of your tears. When you
- swim with contact lenses, and you open your eyes, the lens
- readjust to the water content of the liquid you are swimming
- in. This causes them to stick to your corneas. It is claimed
- that it takes 1/2 hour after swimming for the lenses to
- equilibriate to tears, and that removal of the lenses before
- they equilibriate can damage the cornea, creating a "clear
- passage into the cornea for the bacteria from the contaminated
- lenses, which will cause infection." Even practitioners who
- strongly believe in swimming with contact lenses feel that
- disclaimers should be given when prescribing the lenses for
- this purpose. The lenses are not approved by the US FDA for
- swimming, but this may be just because no tests have been done.
- Some of the above information was extracted from an article
- from Eyecare Business magazine, the June '91 issue.
-
- Now, many people wear contacts in the ocean without problems, whereas
- others prefer prescription masks. If you have simple myopia, there are
- several brands of masks with snap in lenses that can be made up
- quickly in your dive shop. If you have a more complex prescription,
- there are optometrists who can glue lenses into your mask. Many people
- seem to really like these.
-
- Whatever you do, please avoid asking this question in rec.scuba. It is
- a very frequently asked question. Do a scubasearch on "contacts" or
- "prescription", and you will get many thousands of lines of opinion.
- People should follow up to this question by email if it is asked again
- [IMHO], unless they have new study information or something to quote
- that is substantive. (If it is substantive enough, I'll put it in as
- part of the FAQ answer.)
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I'm thinking of getting a redundant breathing system,
-
- in case I have a hose failure or run out of air, and can't find my
- buddy. I've heard about something called "Spare Air", and also "Pony
- Bottles". Should I buy one? Or is there something better?
-
- First off, carrying a redundant breathing system is a good idea. There
- are a couple of important questions.
- 1. What are the [39]types of redundant systems, and how much do they
- cost?
- 2. [40]How much air do you need to be safe in case of a problem?
- 3. [41]How likely are you to carry your redundant system with you
- when you dive and vacation?
-
- Types of redundant systems.
-
- What sorts of redundant systems are there? First, by "redundant
- system" I'm referring to a system that will continue to work no matter
- how catastrophic the failure of your main system. Thus, I won't
- consider a Y valve a redundant system because of the fact that a burst
- disk could rupture or an O-ring could fail and exhaust your entire air
- supply, or, that because of an error or a bad gauge, you could exhaust
- your entire air supply. The three most frequently used redundant
- systems are
- 1. the bailout bottle,
- 2. the pony bottle and
- 3. the independent twin tank.
-
- Some British BCs have a small air bottle attached to the BC. With
- proper training and practice, it is possible to use this air for
- breathing. But since this isn't a straightforward regulator system, we
- won't discuss it here either.
-
- The bailout bottle is available in sizes as small as 1.2 cu ft, and as
- large as 3 cu ft. The best known brand is "Spare Air". The bottle has
- a regulator that must (for older models) be switched on before use.
- Bailout bottles can cost between $200-$300. The ones sold at a
- discount by mail order houses are typically smaller bottles of older
- design.
-
- The pony bottle is a smaller spare tank that is actually a small
- standard scuba bottle, and attaches to a standard regulator. Many
- people use an inexpensive regulator on their pony bottles. You also
- need some sort of mounting system. Pony bottles can cost between
- $250-$350 depending on the regulator selected, the size of the pony,
- and the care you take while shopping. You can get a 13 cubic foot pony
- (in 2000 PSI and 3000 PSI models), a 17 cubic foot pony, a 30 cubic
- foot pony, a 40 cubic foot pony, and some other sizes.
-
- The independent twin tank is a second tank which is the same size as
- your first tank, and which has its own regulator. Since the two tanks
- fit into a single double tank bracket, they may look like a set of
- doubles, but, in fact, they are two separate tanks. The independent
- twin tank is a good option for certain specialty diving, like wreck
- penetrations or extreme deep diving, but I won't discuss it further
- here. Costs vary widely depending on how much the mounting costs, the
- type of tank, and so forth.
-
- How much air do you need to be safe?
-
- The following chart was produced by Dave Waller, and presents a
- picture that I feel is conservative. You should probably assume that,
- in an emergency, you will be breathing at one of the higher breathing
- rates. It also assumes a 60 fpm ascent rate, which is considered too
- fast by many computer models and some training agencies. Therefore,
- these numbers should be considered minimums, and any deviation from
- these conditions would be likely to cause these numbers to increase.
-
- #
- Total consumption (ft^3) # Total consumption (ft^3)
- without 15_ft Safety Stop [1] # with 15_ft Safety Stop [1,2]
- #
- Consumption rate (ft^3/min) # Consumption rate (ft^3/min)
- Depth | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 # 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0
- -----+------+-------+-------+-------#-------+-------+-------+------
- 60 | 1.66 | 3.32 | 4.98 | 6.64 # 2.75 | 5.50 | 8.25 | 11.00
- 80 | 2.33 | 4.66 | 6.99 | 9.32 # 3.42 | 6.84 | 10.27 | 13.69
- 100 | 3.10 | 6.21 | 9.31 | 12.41 # 4.19 | 8.39 | 12.58 | 16.78
- 130 | 4.45 | 8.90 | 13.36 | 17.81 # 5.54 | 11.08 | 16.63 | 22.17
- 150 | 5.48 | 10.95 | 16.43 | 21.91 # 6.57 | 13.13 | 19.70 | 26.27
- 200 | 8.48 | 16.96 | 25.45 | 33.93 # 9.57 | 19.14 | 28.72 | 38.29
-
- Notes:
- [1] Total consumption includes 30 seconds at indicated depth, and
- a 60_ft/min ascent rate.
-
- [2] Assuming a 1/2 consumption rate during a 15_ft safety stop
- for 3 minutes.
-
- The numbers beyond sport diving depths are here only for reference,
- and not to encourage you to dive those depths. Redundant air only
- reduces one of the dangers you would face in diving to those depths.
-
- The largest Spare Air holds just under 3 cubic feet. The smallest
- available pony bottle holds 13 cubic feet. You can look at the chart,
- estimate your surface consumption rate, try to estimate what it would
- be in an emergency, and see where you fit in.
-
- It is almost certain that if you were diving deep, you'd want more air
- than the chart shows, as you might need to make a longer decompression
- stop.
-
- While some people have tested bailout bottle ascents from as deep as
- 100 fsw, it should be emphasized that these tests were not performed
- under stressful conditions. Typically, they are already neutrally
- buoyant, ready to ascend, and are consuming less air than they would
- in an emergency. Referring to the above chart, you can see that this
- would be possible for a diver who had a consumption rate of 1/2 cubic
- foot per minute, and who left immediately upon switching to their
- bailout bottle rather than taking time to get settled.
-
- How likely are you to carry your pony?
-
- People who prefer bailout bottles to pony bottles say that a pony
- bottle is too cumbersome to transport and wear and in fact is not
- carried, making it a useless boat decoration. Pony bottle proponents
- who carry their pony bottles with them when they travel say that they
- don't have a problem carrying them, and many wear them all of the time
- when they dive. They disagree that it is too hard/painful/time
- consuming to dive with a pony bottle.
-
- Opponents of bailout bottles believe that bailout bottles are useless
- diver decorations, mainly because the bailout bottles do not contain
- enough air for an emergency. They argue that from the time you switch
- to the bailout bottle, you have only enough air to ascend directly to
- the surface. You have no time to solve problems and little or no air
- to make yourself positively buoyant. A final argument is that a
- bailout bottle might actually give you a false sense of security, and
- make you less safe than you might be without one.
-
- Perhaps the final judgment should be made using the above chart, and
- the depth to which you plan to dive. If $$/cubic foot is a
- consideration for you, then you would probably prefer a pony bottle to
- a bailout bottle. Many people do all of their diving between 15-40
- feet, and never dive deeper than 60 feet. These people would probably
- find the largest bailout bottle useful. If you go deeper, or if you
- might go deeper someday, consider a pony bottle of the appropriate
- size.
-
- There have been rare occasions (one reported, at the Hong Kong airport
- only) where people have been told that they simply can't bring their
- scuba bottles on their flight, valves on or off, and have had to
- abandon them at the airport. This would probably equally apply to
- bailout bottles and pony bottles. You should plan on draining your
- bottles of any type completely before flying to comply with airport
- regulations, and you may have to remove the valves to prove to the
- airline's satisfaction that the bottles are completely drained. It is
- a violation of US FAA regulations to transport a bottle on an airliner
- pressurized to more that 41 PSIA. Airlines may have more stringent
- regulations.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- My Casio dive watch flooded.
-
- It was rated to 50M and I was only at 15M. What gives?
-
- The Casio dive watches are supposedly rated in static pressure, not
- dynamic pressure. The act of swimming, moving your wrist, bumping the
- watch, using the controls, etc., causes large amounts of dynamic
- pressure, which can flood your watch.
-
- Casio used to rate their watches by activity. 100M watches were rated
- for snorkeling, and only 200M watches were rated for scuba diving. 50M
- watches were for showering.
-
- Net experience seems to indicate that your 50M watch is quite likely
- to flood if you use it for diving, your 100M watch is somewhat likely
- to flood, although some people have used 100M watches for diving
- successfully, and your 200M watch is probably not going to flood. A
- few people have used 50M watches for diving, but pushing the buttons
- at depth, accidentally or on purpose, may flood the watch.
-
- Given that a Casio G-Shock is only about $50 at a discount store, and
- that a regular 200M Casio is likely to be around $40, many people seem
- to think that skimping further than that (since that is about the cost
- of a dive) is false economy, since, if your watch was your only timing
- device, you'd have to abort if it flooded.
-
- There are people who believe that this means that some watches are
- rated in "marketing meters" and others are rated in "real meters".
- Regardless of that, 200M Casios seem to work for scuba and others are
- marginal.
-
- If you are interested in information on the Citizen Hyper Aqualand,
- and you are not happy with the software you got with your watch, you
- might try the following URL:[42]
- ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ca/cader/scuba which contains information and
- utilities to dump the Citizen Hyper Aqualand.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I've lost my C-card. What do I do?
-
- Um, how long has it been since you have done any diving? And how much
- diving did you do when you were current? If it has been a long time,
- maybe you should consider taking a new certification course. Your old
- certification card may still be good, but equipment changes all of the
- time, diving practices and techniques change all of the time, and
- unless you've been keeping up, you may find yourself either at a loss,
- or not diving as safely as you might without current training.
-
- Now, the first step in replacing your C-card to consult your
- instructor, or the dive shop you were taught through. They should have
- a copy of your records. If you can't contact them, calling the
- certification agency might well be your best bet. Here are some
- certification agency numbers.
-
- Scuba Schools International (SSI)
- +1 (303) 482-0883
-
- The Italian arm of SSI can be contacted through:
- [43]http://www.tizeta.it/info/ssi/
- SCUBA SCHOOLS INTERNATIONAL ITALIA
- Via Bergami 4
- 40133 BOLOGNA - ITALY
- tel. +39 51 383082 - fax +39 51 383554
- E-MAIL ssi.italia@pt.tizeta.it
-
-
- National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI)
- (800) 553-NAUI (USA) or +1 (714) 621-5801
- NAUI Canada: Call NAUI in California.
- Email: naui.hq@genie.geis.com or nauihq@delphi.com
- [44]http://www.naui.org
-
- Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA)
- +1 (714) 498-6128
-
- Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)
- USA (714) 540-7234
- [45]http://www.padi.com
-
- National Young Men's Christian Association SCUBA Program (YMCA)
- (404) 662-5172
-
- American Nitrox Divers Inc. (ANDI)
- (516) 546-2026
-
- International Diving Educators Association (IDEA)
- (904)744-5554
-
- National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS)
- The phone number for NASDS is
-
- 800 735-3483 [(800) 735-DIVE]
- 901 767-7265
-
- Professional Diving Instructors Corp. (PDIC)
- (717) 342-9434, Fax (516) 546-6010
-
- The address of CMAS is:
- Viale Tisiano 74
- 00196 Roma
- Italy
-
- tel. +39-636858480
- fax. +39-636858490
- "Contact by Phone is known to be Erratic"
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I'm going to somesmallisland, and I'm looking for a shop that will complete a
- referral from (NAUI/PADI/SSI/etc). Can someone suggest one?
-
- It depends. If you're looking for a referral, try talking to your
- instructor, or to your dive shop. Alternatively, a dive travel agent
- might be able to help you get into a good place, and arrange your
- checkout dives for you as well. Finally, do a [46]scubasearch for your
- area, and then maybe ask on rec.scuba.
-
- Also, the certification agencies maintain referral lists. See the
- answer to question 12, and call them. They may be able to refer you to
- an instructor or a facility that can complete your referral.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Um, I got certified, and I'm reading the stuff on rec.scuba, and I think that
- I got a shoddy course from my instructor. What should I do?
-
- Call your agency [47](see agency list above) and get the address to
- write to complain to them. The general rule is that they will
- investigate (especially if they get several complaints) only based on
- complaints in writing, and that they will not contact you to tell you
- the results of any action that they take. They will investigate one
- complaint, if it is really blatant.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- They are cutting off my rec.scuba newsfeed.
-
- What can I do to still get rec.scuba?
-
- There are two ways to get scuba related mail. Both involve the bitnet
- listserv system, and both are run from Brown University. The LISTSERV
- administrator there is Catherine Yang, but these things are designed
- to be administered automatically. The two lists are scuba-d, which
- holds the scuba digests that are constructed from the postings to
- rec.scuba, and scuba-l which is a completely independent scuba related
- discussion list. There are some scuba-d archives available at
- [48]http://scifi.squawk.com/digests.
-
- You never send subscribe or unsubscribe requests to the address of the
- list. In fact, if you do, they will be relayed to all of the people
- who get stuff from the list (and probably ignored). To sign onto or
- sign off from a listserv list, you send mail to userid LISTSERV. For
- example, to sign on to scuba-d so that you still get the rec.scuba
- postings, send mail to LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU, with the text:
-
- SUB scuba-d your name
-
- You must replace the string 'your name' with your own name. To
- subscribe to scuba-l, send the same message, but replace scuba-d with
- scuba-l.
-
- To find out more about how to use the listserv system, send mail to
- LISTSERV with a text line that says 'HELP'. For your convenience, the
- response to a HELP command is reproduced below.
-
- If you don't have the ability to post news to rec.scuba locally, you
- can mail your postings to [49]rec-scuba@scifi.squawk.com. (This is not
- a general mail-to-news gateway, it works only for a few groups in
- which I have a personal interest.) This is how someone with e-mail
- only access could post to rec.scuba after reading the newsgroup via
- the scuba-d mailing list. To post to rec.scuba.equipment, mail your
- postings to [50]rec-scuba-equipment@scifi.squawk.com and to post to
- rec.scuba.locations, mail your postings to
- [51]rec-scuba-locations@scifi.squawk.com.
-
- The process that produces scuba-d purposely tries to delay postings
- until it gets a complete thread. In particular, it will use the
- References: fields and commonality of Subject: contents to try to
- build a time ordered thread. It selects threads to put into a
- particular digest by looking at the age of the oldest posting in a
- thread. When a thread is selected for output, the entire thread is
- output. Thus, postings may not come out in an order that seems
- 'logical', especially if people follow-up to unrelated postings. There
- is a logic to it, however. A side effect of this is that the headers
- come out in a different order than the postings do, in any particular
- digest. All postings do eventually come out of the other end of the
- pipe. Under normal circumstances, as many as four digests may be
- posted per day.
-
- Revised LISTSERV version 1.7c -- most commonly used commands
-
- Info <topic|?> Get detailed information files
- List <Detail|Short|Global> Get a description of all lists
- SUBscribe listname <full_name> Subscribe to a list
- SIGNOFF listname Sign off from a list
- SIGNOFF * (NETWIDE - from all lists on all servers
- REView listname <options> Review a list
- STats listname <options> Review list statistics
- Query listname Query personal distribution options
- SET listname options Set personal distribution options
- INDex <filelist_name> Obtain a list of LISTSERV files
- GET filename filetype Obtain a file from LISTSERV
- REGister full_name|OFF Tell LISTSERV about your name
-
- There are more commands (AFD, FUI, PW, etc). Send an INFO REFCARD
- for a complete reference card, or INFO ? for a list of available
- documentation files.
-
- Postmasters are:
- Peter DiCamillo / ListMaint <CMSMAINT@BROWNVM>
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Is there an FTP site for Scuba based software?
-
- Jonathan: jong@halcyon.com says:
-
- I am hosting a diving software archive here at halcyon - if you want
- to put me in the FAQ as a site for scuba related software, feel free
- to do so. Its small now, but I am building it as I find more stuff. as
- of now, it is only PC based stuff, but I am looking for Mac/Unix/Amiga
- as well. contact me for more information if you need it.
-
- It can be reached through the web at :
-
- (changed on 18 July 1996:)
-
- [52]http://www.ssc.com/~jong/scuba/scuba.html
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Are there any good scuba URLS?
-
- Time for a shameless plug. The author's URL is
- [53]http://scifi.squawk.com/njs.html and there are some good links
- there. Stop by and light up the world!
-
- Also, the NOAA web site address is:
-
- [54]http://www.noaa.gov
-
- E-mail contact is noaa-www@www.noaa.gov
-
- Here are more interesting scuba URLs:
-
- * [55]http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~stimac/scuba.html - a list of
- other scuba urls.
- * [56]http://www.terra.net/aquanaut
- * [57]http://www.uq.oz.au/spra/uquc/home.html
- * [58]http://www.actwin.com/fish/species.html
- * [59]http://www.unlv.edu/SCUBA/idcr/index.html
- * [60]http://www.jake.com/DIVE/locker.html
- * [61]http://scifi.squawk.com/ned.html
- * [62]http://search.yahoo.com/. In this case, a search specifically
- about scuba related web pages will be done automatically when this
- link is selected.
- * [63]http://www.his.com/~tom/dc-scuba.html The dc-scuba web site.
- * [64]http://www.naui.org/ The NAUI home page.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- What about dive computers?
-
- Kevin Grover, grover@CS.UNLV.EDU, tells me:
-
- About the blurb on dive computers. The information is no longer
- preliminary. It is now in version 2.0 and is called "Internet Dive
- Computer Review" (IDCR for short).
-
- Also, it is a multipart HTML document with a main file of:
-
- [65]http://www.unlv.edu/SCUBA/idcr/index.html
-
- If you could update the rec.scuba FAQ it would be great. (BTW the
- above document also includes addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers,
- email/ftp/www addresses for manufacturers).
-
- (Currently there is no FTP file, I'm working on putting something
- together though).
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I heard someone mention the chewing or chipmunk method of clearing your
- regulator.
-
- I wasn't taught it. What does this refer to?
-
- There are actually several methods of clearing regulators. It almost
- seems that regulators want to be clear. The two that most folks are
- taught are exhaling and pushing the purge button. You can also seal
- around the reg mouthpiece with your lips and either use your tongue as
- a piston, or use a chewing motion. As your mouth volume decreases,
- water will be forced out through the reg exhaust, and as your mouth
- volume increases, air will be drawn in through the demand valve. In
- 3-5 quick cycles, your reg will be clear.
-
- This is handy if you've exhaled all of the way, and your hands are
- full, such as when you are doing a buddy breathing exercise. Try it
- sometimes, preferably in shallow water the first time.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- I have a medical condition. Is it safe for me to scuba dive?
-
- Scuba diving is a physically demanding sport, which requires a healthy
- heart, well able to tolerate exercise, and healthy lungs.
- Additionally, any illness which might incapacitate you, such as with a
- siezure, or with unconsciousness, such as uncontrolled fainting. There
- are many medical conditions which are considered disqualifying for
- scuba diving. The Diver's Alert Network (phone +1.919.684.2948) will
- provide over-the-phone advice about medicine, medications, diving, and
- their interaction, as well as assisting you in finding the appropriate
- chamber or a local doctor who is familiar with diving medicine and so
- forth, and is a worthwhile organization to join.
-
- Some medical conditions which are generally considered disqualifying
- (although there are exceptions for well controlled conditions, in some
- cases, consult your doctor) are [66]asthma, diabetes, epilepsy or any
- other siezure disorder, history of spontaneous (or, from some sources,
- any) pneumothorax, emphesema, heart illness which inhibits your
- ability to exercise to a certain level, and others.
-
- There is some experimental evidence that diving while pregnant could
- be dangerous for the fetus, so it is contraindicated. This is a
- compressed air issue, so shallow, reasonable snorkeling should be
- fine, if your doctor says you can tolerate exercise and swimming.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Posting Binaries
-
- I have a great scuba related GIF/piece of software/sound sample. What
- should I do with it?
-
- Please bear with me for a second. By convention, the net is divided
- into areas. There is an area for written discussion, an area for
- posting gifs, an area for posting binaries, and an area for posting
- sound samples. The total volume of postings in the net is very high.
- It is so high that many sites are picking and choosing the posting
- areas (rec, alt.binaries, etc.) that they want very carefully. One
- area that many sites have cut is binary postings. Many news
- administrators consider binary postings to be marginally useful, in
- comparison to their size. So they don't carry them.
-
- I suspect that many news administrators also consider rec.scuba to be
- of marginal utility. If rec.scuba becomes loaded with binaries, it
- will be considered a binary group, and will be dropped by those sites.
-
- Finally, many folks pay by the byte for their connections. If they get
- rec.scuba, they have signed up for discussion, not for binaries.
- Please respect their wishes.
-
- If you have a binary you wish to make available, contact [67]Peter Yee
- or Jonathan <jong@halcyon.com> and let them know. If you want to post
- it, post it to the right alt.sources or alt.binaries group, and post a
- reference to it here in rec.scuba.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- My rec.scuba stopped!
-
- For some reason, I'm not getting rec.scuba/scuba-l/scuba-d. What
- should I do?
-
- Well, there are many things you can do. You can contact your news
- administrator, who should know what to do about contacting your
- upstream sites. If you are on a pay service, contact your help desk.
- What you should *not* do is cluelessly post a test to rec.scuba. This
- is incredibly rude, as well as useless. What will probably happen with
- your test is that whatever is holding up your newsfeed will hold up
- your test posting, and no one will see it until the logjam is broken.
- Then it will be distributed, at just about the same time you start
- seeing postings again. Alternatively, it will be distributed
- immediately, because the blockage is one way, and people will respond
- to it, but it will all be useless, because you won't have seen the
- responses. You will be wasting your time, and everyone else's, as well
- as network bandwidth.
-
- Occasionally, a news administrator will have a specific problem with
- propagation of rec.scuba, and will have to post a test. Those postings
- are few and far between. If they ask for a response, respond via
- email. Generally, news administrators can use a group such as
- misc.test for testing.
-
- The above also applies to scuba-l. It is clueless, rude, and a waste
- of time for the average individual user to post tests in public
- newsgroups or mailing lists, and it is equally clueless, although less
- rude, to respond to them in public newsgroups. Contact the your news
- administrator if you think you are having trouble with news. Contact
- your postmaster if you think you are having trouble with email.
- Contact the mailing list maintainer if you think you are having
- trouble with a mailing list (typically at the listname-request
- address, or, for scuba-l and scuba-d, at listserv@brownvm.brown.edu,
- for automated help).
-
- It is a good idea to restrain yourself and not respond to these
- postings in public. In fact, it is a good idea not to respond at all.
- There are automatic responders listening to misc.test, just waiting to
- eagerly and automatically respond to your posting.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Someone just posted about...
-
- missing children/a revolutionary 30 day diet plan/a
- multi-level-marketing scheme/then end of the world/how to get your
- green card on rec.scuba. What should I do?
-
- This is called "spamming". More and more frequently, these days,
- people are putting this sort of stuff on the net in the hopes of
- making some money. Generally, the best thing to do is ignore it.
- However, if you feel that you must take some action, then mail to
- their postmaster. Include the entire message, including all of the
- headers, such as path, etc., to allow the postmaster to more
- accurately determine if it originated at their site, or was forged. Do
- be careful in your wording, however: Some of these postings are forged
- in the hope of causing a site to be flooded with hate mail.
-
- For my site, scifi.squawk.com, my postmaster address would be
- postmaster@scifi.squawk.com (me) or postmaster@squawk.com.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Can you use a GPS while diving?
-
- GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a system that was
- launched by the US Government to use in military applications.
- Additionally, For more information, see
- [68]http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html, or do a
- [69]yahoo search on the word GPS.
-
- An ordinary hand held GPS, with a directly attached antenna, will not
- work under water. The frequencies and signal strength of GPS are such
- that they will not penetrate more than a very thin layer of water.
-
- GPS accuracy is usually only a couple of hundred feet. It is affected
- by a number of factors including intentional fuzzing of the signals
- used by civilian units called Selective Availability or SA (since
- precise positioning is considered to be information that has military
- value), variations in the speed of light as signals pass through the
- atmosphere, and other [70]similar sorts of things.
-
- There are a couple of useful things that you can do with GPS regarding
- diving:
- 1. You can use it to position the boat near the dive site. You may
- not be able to actually drop an anchor after doing GPS
- positioning.
- 2. You can use it to log your dives if it will hold enough waypoints
- and has some capability to enter alphabetics.
- 3. You can play with it during the boring trip to the dive site.
- 4. There is a military GPS unit that has a floating antenna. It is
- designed to be used for combat swims.
- 5. You could keep it in a waterproof case and use it and your hand
- held marine radio to report your position to the Coast Guard after
- you drift away from your boat.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Can you use an EPIRB while diving?
-
- An EPIRB is an emergency radio beacon used in lifeboats and by downed
- airplanes to attract attention. They are used by divers who are
- worried that they might lose their boat because of current, or because
- of drift diving. Commercial divers who work in high current use them.
-
- Marine EPIRBs are designed to be used on lifeboats. They must resist
- immersion, and splashes, and must work when wet. Generally, they do
- not have to resist deep immersion.
-
- Transmission of an EPIRB signal is equivalent to the transmission of
- an SOS. The EPIRB signal will not be received if the antenna is
- immersed. If the Minnow had an EPIRB, [71]Gilligan would have been
- rescued. :-) (US TV Joke.)
-
- The most apparently waterproof is the Litton Micro B. It fits into a
- BC pocket with the antenna folded over, and is hermetically sealed.
- The batteries must be replaced by the factory, after seven years. It
- is rated to 30 feet by the factory, but like the 50 meter watches,
- mine still works properly after deep immersion, and uses a magnetic
- through-the-case switch, so keep it away from magnets. It is
- positively buoyant (it floats).
-
- Every year, some divers are lost during lobster season here in Palm
- Beach county. They get blown away from their boats by current, or they
- separate from the other groups in their drift and the boats lose sight
- of their flag, and they don't get picked up, sometimes for days, if at
- all. A working EPIRB would get the Coast Guard on the scene, even if
- they couldn't be reported.
-
- It should be pointed out that your EPIRB requires an FCC license in
- the US and the license you already might own may have to be amended to
- include the EPIRB if you don't already have one. A single ground
- station and a satellite can triangulate your transmission to within 10
- miles.
-
- If you are not in the US, you should check with your local coastal
- marine authorities to see what licensing is required and if the local
- authorities will respond to the signal.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Some comments on commercial postings in rec.scuba and scuba-l.
-
- There has long been great controversy over commercial postings on
- Usenet and in the scuba-l mailing list. Commercial postings clearly
- generate more heat than light. Some people clearly appreciate
- commercial postings, while other folks are completely alieniated by
- them. Since the purpose of a FAQ is to reduce the heat in the
- newsgroup, I feel that I should present a compromise that I feel that
- most people are willing to live with, without generating heat.
-
- Generally, I think that the following is considered reasonable:
- 1. Set up a world wide web site. Since people visit your world wide
- web site because they want to, you can advertise as much as you
- want, on _your web site._
- 2. Make postings that are relevant and valuable in the scuba-l
- mailing list or rec.scuba.
- 3. Contribute generally to the discussion, not only to items which
- relate to your line of business.
- 4. Allocate one line in your .signature file to announce what you do
- and your web site's url. Appropriate examples would be:
- + See our dive travel specials at http://www.divetravel.com
- + http://www.tankblast.com - Special prices on tank
- sandblasting.
- + Special deals on fin straps at
- http://www.onramp.com/~me/scuba.html
- 5. Hold your whole .signature to four 80 column lines, or less. You
- will see people with huge block signatures from time to time. Be a
- good net citizen and avoid that practice. Avoid framing your
- signature, ascii graphics, and other irritating practices. Your
- goal is to get prople to visit your site and see your advertising
- and you will do that by being as unirritating as possible while
- impressing people with your general knowledge of scuba.
- 6. If someone asks a question about your product, consider answering
- them in e-mail. If you feel that you should answer in the open,
- post a a short factual answer and a reference to a URL rather than
- a sales pitch.
-
- If people believe that you are making irrelevant postings just to push
- your URL into their line of sight, they will be just as irritated at
- you as if you posted outright advertising.
-
- On the other hand, if you avoid irritating people, they will want to
- do business with you. That is what you want, and I believe that the
- redustion in the total heat will be what the folks in rec.scuba and
- scuba-l want.
-
- Finally, consider posting your announcement to the scuba-commerce
- mailing list. You'll find an audience that has signed up to see your
- commercial announcement, on a list where chit-chat is frowned upon.
- See the [72]scuba commerce web page for instructions on how to
- subscribe, or mail to [73]scuba-commerce-request@scifi.squawk.com to
- subscribe and for posting instructions. This is a closed list. You
- must be subscribed before you can post.
-
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- [74][back]Back to squawk.com home page
-
- References
-
- 1. http://scifi.squawk.com/njs.html
- 2. http://scifi.squawk.com/scuba.html
- 3. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SCUBASEARCH
- 4. ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1855.txt
- 5. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#DIFFERENCES
- 6. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#NEW
- 7. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#MAILORDER
- 8. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#ARCHIVE
- 9. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#DESTINATIONS
- 10. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SKIN
- 11. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#ABYSS
- 12. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#MAGAZINES
- 13. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#CONTACT
- 14. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#PONY
- 15. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#WATCH
- 16. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#LOSTCARD
- 17. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#REFERRAL
- 18. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SHODDY
- 19. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#MAIL
- 20. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SOFTWARE_FTP
- 21. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#URL_LIST
- 22. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#DIVECOMP
- 23. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#CHIPMUNK
- 24. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#MEDICAL
- 25. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#BINARY
- 26. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#TESTING
- 27. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SPAM
- 28. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#GPS
- 29. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#EPIRB
- 30. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#COMMERCIAL
- 31. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SCUBASEARCH
- 32. ftp://ames.arc.nasa.gov:/pub/SCUBA
- 33. http://scifi.squawk.com/cgi-bin/scubasearch-cgi
- 34. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SCUBASEARCH
- 35. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#AMES
- 36. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SCUBASEARCH
- 37. ftp://ames.arc.nasa.gov:/pub/SCUBA/scubamag.txt
- 38. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#AMES
- 39. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#PONY_TYPES
- 40. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#PONY_HOWMUCH
- 41. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#PONY_CARRYING
- 42. ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ca/cader/scuba
- 43. http://www.tizeta.it/info/ssi/
- 44. http://www.naui.org/
- 45. http://www.padi.com/
- 46. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#SCUBASEARCH
- 47. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#LOSTCARD
- 48. http://scifi.squawk.com/digests
- 49. mailto:rec-scuba@scifi.squawk.com
- 50. mailto:rec-scuba-equipment@scifi.squawk.com
- 51. mailto:rec-scuba-locations@scifi.squawk.com
- 52. http://www.ssc.com/~jong/scuba/scuba.html
- 53. http://scifi.squawk.com/njs.html
- 54. http://www.noaa.gov/
- 55. http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~stimac/scuba.html
- 56. http://www.terra.net/aquanaut
- 57. http://www.uq.oz.au/spra/uquc/home.html
- 58. http://www.actwin.com/fish/species.html
- 59. http://www.unlv.edu/SCUBA/idcr/index.html
- 60. http://www.jake.com/DIVE/locker.html
- 61. http://scifi.squawk.com/ned.html
- 62. http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=scuba&t=on&u=on&c=on&s=a&w=s&l=100
- 63. http://www.his.com/~tom/dc-scuba.html
- 64. http://www.naui.org/
- 65. http://www.unlv.edu/SCUBA/idcr/index.html
- 66. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/asthma.text
- 67. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba.html#AMES
- 68. http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html
- 69. http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=GPS&t=on&u=on&c=on&i=on&s=a&w=w&l=100
- 70. http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html#ErrorSources
- 71. http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Television/Shows/Comedies/Gilligan_s_Isle/
- 72. file://localhost/home/njs/http/docs/scuba-commerce.html
- 73. mailto:scuba-commerce-request@scifi.squawk.com
- 74. http://scifi.squawk.com/index.html
- --
- That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.
- That which does kill us makes us smell stronger, after a few days, anyway.
- Nick Simicich mailto:njs@scifi.squawk.com or (last choice) mailto:njs@us.ibm.com
- http://scifi.squawk.com/njs.html -- Stop by and Light Up The World!
-