On Tue, 20 Feb 2001 17:33:36 -0500, Reef Fish
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
(snips)

> On Tue, 20 Feb 2001 21:34:51 +1100, Christian Gerzner
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Your definition is clearly NOT APPLICABLE to the intended use by divers
> of Palau Aggressor II, because it is NOT intended to be used in an
> "Emergency" in the usual sense.  It's more like a hi-tec sausage as
> I see it.  So, perhaps THAT's why the Aggressor used a DIFFERENT
> set of words for the acronym of which they must be aware.

*BULLSHIT* - why don't you RTFM before you FUC 7.6? As a generality of
course as far as that last is concerned.

Folks, sorry for the language. :-7

I suspect, I do NOT know, that you are not entirely aware of what
EPIRB's do. I get that impression from your response ... even though
(if I'm right) you would usually be intelligent enough to gather from
my earlier post that you are treading on unchartered territory.

Encapsuling an EPIRB (currently THE positioning beacon) in wimp-speak
is simply going to create more problems than the Aggressor people
(seems to me) envisage. IF that is their intent as you appear to
surmise then they are even more stupid than might have been thought.

AFAIK an EPIRB is an EPIRB, is an EPIRB. You set one of those suckers
off and the whole world will likely know about it. AFAIK it is NOT
designed to send a gentle signal to a boat a mile (or so) away with
nobody else being any the wiser. Not in the least.

EVER!

Allow me to tell you what I consider that an EPIRB is:

A 5-watt radio transmitter operating at 406 MHz in extreme conditions
A 0.25-watt radio transmitter operating at 121.5 MHz in extreme conditions
A GPS (Global Positioning System) Receiver (only) in extreme conditions

An EPIRB, *ANY* EPIRB is designed to save lives by producing the
greatest signal possible, at those particular CONSTANTLY MONITORED (eg
most aircraft, certainly all commercial aircraft) wavelengths, such
that it is heard as clearly as possible as far away as possible. In my
last post on this subject I suggested "line of sight" for planes. That
was wrong, that's, probably, the least distance, radio waves regularly
bounce off the atmosphere, indeed, Oz is probably up there with "Over
The Horizon" radar. Much the same thing I suspect (but don't know).

AFAIK there is no such thing as a "baby" EPIRB however I bow to your
superior knowledge, Feesh. :->

Yes, I know, you did not intimate such. Was it just possibly implied?

Or were you simply ignorant of EPIRB implications?

> >So what happens in the scenario that some panicky newbie with
> >a bit of a leg cramp not fifty metres from the boat decides to hit the
> >panicbutton?

> Did the Aggressor blurb say anything about its usage as a "panic
> button"?

No, of course not. Did I suggest that the Aggressor blurb had? Well,
did I?

I DID suggest that the average diver MIGHT, as it were, pull the plug:

> Its not going to happen? Hello? Is this the real world we're talking about?

So, are YOU going to tell me that the average newbie, armed with this
weapon, is going to know how (more importantly WHEN) to deploy it?

CORRECTLY?

As in, this turkey is in serious sh*t? Therefore he should hit the
panic button? Sorry, that's not real life. This turkey is more likely
to hit that button because, as I said:

>So what happens in the scenario that some panicky newbie with a bit
of >a leg cramp not fifty metres from the boat decides to hit the
panic button?

To repeat myself: BULLSHIT.

> >The Oz Navy, for one, leave alone the Oz taxpayer (ME!!!!) is going to
> >be seriously p****d off by that. ;-)
>
> I didn't realize the Oz Navy is stationed in Palau!  Are you quite SURE
> that the Oz Navy can pick up any of the EPIRB signals from the divers
> of the Palau Aggressor?

FUC 1.13

> That's right, Christian.  Even IF the Oz Navy can pick up the signals
> in Palau, what are they going to DO about it?  Get real!

FUC 1.13 ... Hello?

> >I do note that this Aggressor boat has decided to instal these devices
> >in an area where someone not that long ago managed to permanently
> >losea clutch (is that the right word?) of, I believe, Japanese divers?
> >That they happened to be Japanese is neither here nor there, they
> >were_divers_ and permanently lost at sea.
>
> You're obviously unfamiliar with the case.

Absolutely, did I say I was? Is your comment relevant? Is it?

> They were lost because the boat had NO RADIO.  NO backup
> motor.  NO means of communication with anyone.  It was
> accident waiting to happen, and it happened.
> That's all.

FUC 4.13

Not the point. I followed that (you snipped it) with:

> Yes, in that case an EPIRB would probably have been very useful
> indeed.

THAT (to use your type of emphasis) was the point.

> Obviously you have no experience with Palau diving.  :-)   General
> diving experience is not going to be of much help if you happened
> to be caught in a fierce current and surfaced a more than a mile
> from the boat and kept drifting away and no one is looking in
> your direction?

You're quite right, I've no experience with Palau diving.

Yet I have been in the odd current, but I have no way of knowing how
fierce mine were compared to yours. I've been in currents which, one
moment tugged you one way and the next the other, I've been in
upwellings and (nasty stuff that) downwellings. I have not (_*YET*_,
touch wood, my head will do) been in the scenario you describe above.
I think luck probably has a great deal to do with that, yet I am
absolutely paranoid about getting lost, which just might also have
something to do with that.

Indeed, I am generally somewhat uncomfortable when doing a drift dive
with overhead cover since I am not going to ascend from where I
descended. I just don't like that, not that it (usually) stops me.

You could call it an in-grained thing, I suppose. You can make of that
what you will.

Feesh, I much doubt that I will continue this thread for very long, if
at all, since its likely to get very tiresome very quickly.

Christian