Crusty's "devil" pics on our Cayman Aggressor trip was from his
webpage report which included pics of our party with Wayne and Anne
Hasson co-CEO/President of the Aggressor Fleet.

That prompted me to give Wayne a phone call to ask about certain
Aggressor matters and in the course of our conversation asked him
some questions about the EPIRB that will be used on the Aggressor.
From the info dispensed in THIS FORUM, it is pretty clear that NO
ONE had spoken to anyone in the Aggressor Fleet (if at all) who
has the CORRECT information about their units, because I got the
info from Wayne Hasson himself, who ordered the units and cited
facts and figures on top of his head without having to refer to
anything.  I consider him the authoratative source about the
units used on the AGGRESSOR FLEET.  :-)

This is NOT to re-open the can of dirty worms, but simply to TIE
UP some loose ends while giving this list some CURRENT INFO about
the unit itself and where it will be used that are until now
UNKNOWN to anyone of the list, not even in the News Release (else
I think someone might have reported it).


On Tue, 6 Mar 2001 10:40:04 +1100, David Strike <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>On Tuesday, March 06, 2001 3:02 AM, Lee Bell wrote:
>
>(technical specification info snipped)

We'll go back to those details shortly.  :-)


DS> OK!  I'll throw some burley into the muddy waters!  :-)
>
DS> Lee!  Until now, did you know for certain what unit the Agressor
DS> fleet had?


LB> I knew the first time I said I knew.  I checked with the
LB> manufacturer very early in the thread, a fact I mentioned before
LB> Bob claimed I did not know.

Mainly because no one had talked to anyone in the Aggressor Fleet
about it, until NOW.


Now let's cut back to some FACTS, stated in the post Strike snipped,
and correct them with what I learned TODAY from Wayne Hasson himself.


Date:         Mon, 5 Mar 2001 11:02:46 -0500
From:         Lee Bell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      EPIRB

LB> I got my information from ACR over the weekend, including
LB> information on the Mini B 300.  Here are some of the features
LB> listed:

LB> 1. The first EPIRB designed to operational pressure depths of
LB> 200 feet.

It's 300 feet, according to Wayne.  Apparently the salesman in ACR
didn't know as much as he thought he knew?  I said immediately to
Wayne, "Perhaps THAT was why it's called the Mini B 300"!  :-)


LB>  3. Long range, boats 5-8 miles, helicopters 15 - 20 miles,
LB>  commercial aircraft, 75 - 100 miles, SARSAT (search and rescue
LB>  satellites), world wide.

The RECEIVER unit on the boat is capable of all those ranges.  But
the diver units are SHORT RANGE.  About 5 miles from the boat and air.


LB>  4. Works with the Vectra hand held radio direction finder,
LB>  equipped with a highly directional antenna.

Wayne said "Vecta" -- he spelled it for me without me asking.  He
also volunteered that the Mini B 300 has NO GPS interface.  In short,
just as I suspected from the News Release (which made the error of
the 200 max depth too) that it is merely a SHORT RANGE gadget to be
worked with a powerful RECEIVER unit on the boat (which cost the
Fleet about $700).  But the Mini B 300 costs the Aggressor Fleet
only $120 per unit.  :-)  Now you can infer the profit margin when
ACR sells it to customers at the $200-$300 range.


Here's the NEW info:

The EPIRB units will SOON be in operation in the Palau Aggressor.
The only OTHER locations in which they will be used by the Fleet
will be on the TWO Aggressor liveaboards in Galapagos.

Makes sense.  Because those are the only Aggressor dive locations
that have fierce enough currents to take a diver out of the sighting
range of even a BIG sausage.

This exhausts my FIRST HAND knowledge from the President of the
Aggressor Fleet who personally ordered these units from ACR because
he now lives in a location very close to the ACR Headquarters.

I have NO OTHER INFO to offer, and I have NO desire to follow up
on this thread because I still have some very bad taste in my mouth.

-- Bob.

-- Bob.