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#216991 - 02/13/11 04:13 AM McMurdo Fastfind PLB Dive Canister - 150 meters [Re: Doug_Ritter]
rafowell Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 11/29/09
Posts: 258
Loc: Southern California
Originally Posted By: Doug_Ritter

Dive canisters are available for some PLBs. McMurdo makes one and ACR is planning to offer one with their latest PLB. Technically, an Otter Box is rated for 100 ft, as I recall, That may suffice for typical recreational diving, but I am not sure I'd bet my life on that. Typical dive canisters are rated for much deeper. The McMurdo is rated to 450 ft. giving plenty of safety margin.


Fastfind, Fastfind Plus and FastFind Max G PLBs

The McMurdo PLB Dive Canister Page says their aluminum canister is designed (and tested) to protect the McMurdo Fastfind PLB down to 150 meter (500 ft / 15 atmospheres) depth , so it certainly does seem like a good choice for a diver with the larger versions of the McMurdo Fastfind PLB, but if you have the smaller 200/210 model, see the PVC model below. It took me a while to find the McMurdo Fast Find PLB Dive Canister manual. This page says it will also hold the GME MT410/MT410G but not the KANNAD and ACR PLBs.

The Landfall Page says it is designed for the Fastfind, Fastfind Plus and FastFind Max G PLBs, and is slightly cheaper than the PLB itself. This page has what seems to be the same unit (same 150m depth cite), though they call it a "Revere(R) Dive Canister, with some larger images of the unit, a slightly lower price, and says the unit is 6.5"x3.75"diameter, adds 1 lb positive buoyancy. This vendor cautions that the Fastfind PLB must have the -20deg C battery, and this page is more specific about the " -20 deg C Non Hazardous Lithium Battery". This site has a nice photo I didn't see at the other sites, and also mentions the battery compatibility issue.

Fast Find 200/210

McMurdo recommends a cheaper canister for the smaller Fast Find 200/210 ( the 210 is the new lightweight unit Doug Ritter reviewed here ) which is "depth rated to 180 metres", is PVC rather than aluminum, and positive buoyancy with the PLB in it, which seems like a nice feature. I'd prefer a more visible color than black - preferably retroreflective so I can locate it with a flashlight at night or signal mirror by day, but some SOLAS retroreflective tape around the unit might address that. This McMurdo page says that unit is only available from Custom Divers. It is also a lot cheaper - the equivalent of $113 vs the $286 street price for the McMurdo canister. They also sell replacement O-rings and suggest you change them each season.

The McMurdo Fast Find 210 web page has a link to download the manual, and shows both the aluminum and PVC canisters on its accessories page.


Edited by rafowell (02/13/11 04:57 AM)
Edit Reason: Found lots more information
_________________________
A signal mirror should backup a radio distress signal, like a 406 MHz PLB (ACR PLB) (Ocean Signal PLB)

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#217044 - 02/14/11 02:32 PM Re: McMurdo Fastfind PLB Dive Canister - 150 meters [Re: falcon5000]
Tyber Offline
Sheriff
Enthusiast

Registered: 04/27/09
Posts: 304
Loc: ST. Paul MN
Actualy this looks like a great backup plan, but I would still have another backup plan past that like a PLB that can go diving with me just in case this doesn't work

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#217186 - 02/16/11 05:24 AM Re: McMurdo Fastfind PLB Dive Canister - 150 meters [Re: Tyber]
rafowell Offline
Enthusiast

Registered: 11/29/09
Posts: 258
Loc: Southern California
I'm no diver, but I did some poking around.

There is a nice, quite detailed article on the Nautilus Lifeline here: Alert Diver Online.

Originally Posted By: Tyber
Actualy this looks like a great backup plan, but I would still have another backup plan past that like a PLB that can go diving with me just in case this doesn't work


There's a good summary of the popular diving "backup plan" hardware at the Scuba STAR (Safety Tracking and Reporting) website.

On that site, they present the results of a number of their (quite interesting) diver safety surveys, but the most pertinent one to the Nautilus is here: Search this page for the "DEC/JAN '09 SAFETY SURVEY: Surface Signaling Equipment"

95% of the respondents indicated that they have needed urgent/abnormal pickup at least once (which I infer means they needed to use some of the hardware below). { I think this is an "opt-in" survey, so there is probably some selection bias - those who have had problems might be more likely to respond to the survey).

In summary, the signaling devices the responding divers carried most often (from most to least common) were:
Safety Sausage (nearly universal), whistle, flashlight, signal mirror, air horn and strobe.

What they most commonly actually used (from most to least common) were:
Safety Sausage, (whistle or flashlight) (2-way tie), (signal mirror | air horn | strobe) (3-way tie).

-----------
To indulge in my particular focus: it looks like about 1 in 3.5 signal mirror carriers received specialized training in their use, and no-one reported a signal mirror malfunction or failure.

(There's lots more info in the survey results - I encourage those interested to read the full article to get it w/o my filtering.)
_________________________
A signal mirror should backup a radio distress signal, like a 406 MHz PLB (ACR PLB) (Ocean Signal PLB)

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