Gentlemen,
Finally aftera few years wait , it is available off the shelf.
I have good news for you hunters or even non spearo.
For the past many years I have been thingking how to make the most effective and long range "Diver to Boat" recall system.
I was almost drifted once and could be a statistic in 1997 and this is why I think hard how to avoid it.
That was the day I started to think how to have a marine portable VHF with me during a dive. Those days the portable VHF was bulky. In 1999 I experimented with a medium sized regular 144Mhz VHF, which I took to a friend shop and have the channel opened all the way for Marine. I housed it in a Underwater Kinetic 1200 ( 8 D cell ) torch. It was a mess, the VHF needed to be broken into a few pieces to be able to fit in. Cables running here and there and it was fragile during the assembly. I could not transmit voice when at sea because I could only set the VHF to turn on and transmit at the same time when the torch light switch get turned on, thus the VHF remained waterproof. I installed a beeping module to be "ON" at the same time when I switched the light switch. Thus a beeping tone on the agreed channel will mean, a diver has drifted very far. The only way to talk was to find shore and undo the torch. Inside there is a mic and an earphone with the TX/PTT switch bypass.
Later I got my friend to install a Si-Tex Radio Direction finder in his boat that has 5 degrees bearing accuracy. The system was tested well, but never really got be to used. No one drifted too far anymore.
I look around for possible over the shelf product like what I wanted and no one has it. All available ones are the EPIRB based transmitter. The only dive capable EPRIB was from Marshall of UK and ACR and it was a C class at 121 Mhz. The ACR even have a portable direction finding unit. I checked with the US Coast Guard and their website showed that class C is a piece of shit with 98% false alarm or a few thousand false alarm a year !!!! Also in 2006 it will be discontinued. The pin pointing accuracy is also bad, a few miles !!! The 416 Mhz EPIRB was the solution but not only it is big, it is very expensive.
I kept thinking, if say I can get a 300 feet rated housing for a 416Mhz EPIRB, it will not be effective for me. In most cases I can see my dive boat and they can't see me. I need a calling device which is immediate and to my dive boat, not the United States SAR HQ. If I use a damn good 416 Mhz EPIRB, the US SAR HQ will receive the signal in under 30 minutes. They will call my house as per the registration on the EPRIB card, to verify if it is a false alarm. Then they will need to call Indonesian SAR....bla bla bla. With the stinking poor facility of Indo navy, there is no way they will send out a ship for me or even a boat in under 5 hours, plus another 5-10 over hours by their slow boat from nearest navy station to my dive spot. Unless I am the president son, I think it will take hell longer than what I can predict. So there I am ...............drifting for over 12 hours and probably be shark food by then. Even if they find me, they probably going to bill me for the ship fuel....wha ha ha.
So in late year 2000, Standard Communication ( actually made by Yaesu) introduced the smalllest submersible VHF. Submersible means 1 meter deep for 30 minutes. I bought one from West Marine. I know soon Icom will not want to loose out, so here it is, recently released the Icom M-88 submersible VHF, damn small too.
I tested this last week and it was still nice and clear from 1.6 miles at low power setting of 1 watt and with that bent antena. I communicated from the water after a dive in full gear, simulating an emergency. I sat on my BCD and have my neck out of the water. I operate it with a fully wet glove but did not allow waves to spash the radio. I had a zip lock plastic bag for extra protection, the bag leaked actually, it was a used one. The charter boat was using another Icom M-88 and have only like 6 feet antena height with my friend standing on the boat.
I place the torch on my BCD tank band so that it will not interfere with my shooting. For freediver, maybe make a small camel back bag type. This torch handle can be screwed off and will be easier to pack.
I am very happy to report that the set up worked well. I think you spearos should all have one, all under US$400 for the radio and the Underwater Kinetic D-8 torch.
I use the UK D-8 as the housing because it is a proven housing/torch and very light weight.
The Icom M-88 comes with a fat 1,700 maH Lithium Ion battery. U can charge as when u please, unlike Ni-Cad. The battery last hell of a long time on stand by. In country like US, where all boats must carry a marine VHF and US Coast Guard being much more "facility-rich" than most country, this VHF will be very useful when you ever need it. And only marine VHF can be used to call other boats in the area.
I think currently there are only two super small submersible grade portable VHF you can use. This Icom and the Standard Communication, the rest are still big size.
Hope this is useful.
Finally aftera few years wait , it is available off the shelf.
I have good news for you hunters or even non spearo.
For the past many years I have been thingking how to make the most effective and long range "Diver to Boat" recall system.
I was almost drifted once and could be a statistic in 1997 and this is why I think hard how to avoid it.
That was the day I started to think how to have a marine portable VHF with me during a dive. Those days the portable VHF was bulky. In 1999 I experimented with a medium sized regular 144Mhz VHF, which I took to a friend shop and have the channel opened all the way for Marine. I housed it in a Underwater Kinetic 1200 ( 8 D cell ) torch. It was a mess, the VHF needed to be broken into a few pieces to be able to fit in. Cables running here and there and it was fragile during the assembly. I could not transmit voice when at sea because I could only set the VHF to turn on and transmit at the same time when the torch light switch get turned on, thus the VHF remained waterproof. I installed a beeping module to be "ON" at the same time when I switched the light switch. Thus a beeping tone on the agreed channel will mean, a diver has drifted very far. The only way to talk was to find shore and undo the torch. Inside there is a mic and an earphone with the TX/PTT switch bypass.
Later I got my friend to install a Si-Tex Radio Direction finder in his boat that has 5 degrees bearing accuracy. The system was tested well, but never really got be to used. No one drifted too far anymore.
I look around for possible over the shelf product like what I wanted and no one has it. All available ones are the EPIRB based transmitter. The only dive capable EPRIB was from Marshall of UK and ACR and it was a C class at 121 Mhz. The ACR even have a portable direction finding unit. I checked with the US Coast Guard and their website showed that class C is a piece of shit with 98% false alarm or a few thousand false alarm a year !!!! Also in 2006 it will be discontinued. The pin pointing accuracy is also bad, a few miles !!! The 416 Mhz EPIRB was the solution but not only it is big, it is very expensive.
I kept thinking, if say I can get a 300 feet rated housing for a 416Mhz EPIRB, it will not be effective for me. In most cases I can see my dive boat and they can't see me. I need a calling device which is immediate and to my dive boat, not the United States SAR HQ. If I use a damn good 416 Mhz EPIRB, the US SAR HQ will receive the signal in under 30 minutes. They will call my house as per the registration on the EPRIB card, to verify if it is a false alarm. Then they will need to call Indonesian SAR....bla bla bla. With the stinking poor facility of Indo navy, there is no way they will send out a ship for me or even a boat in under 5 hours, plus another 5-10 over hours by their slow boat from nearest navy station to my dive spot. Unless I am the president son, I think it will take hell longer than what I can predict. So there I am ...............drifting for over 12 hours and probably be shark food by then. Even if they find me, they probably going to bill me for the ship fuel....wha ha ha.
So in late year 2000, Standard Communication ( actually made by Yaesu) introduced the smalllest submersible VHF. Submersible means 1 meter deep for 30 minutes. I bought one from West Marine. I know soon Icom will not want to loose out, so here it is, recently released the Icom M-88 submersible VHF, damn small too.
I tested this last week and it was still nice and clear from 1.6 miles at low power setting of 1 watt and with that bent antena. I communicated from the water after a dive in full gear, simulating an emergency. I sat on my BCD and have my neck out of the water. I operate it with a fully wet glove but did not allow waves to spash the radio. I had a zip lock plastic bag for extra protection, the bag leaked actually, it was a used one. The charter boat was using another Icom M-88 and have only like 6 feet antena height with my friend standing on the boat.
I place the torch on my BCD tank band so that it will not interfere with my shooting. For freediver, maybe make a small camel back bag type. This torch handle can be screwed off and will be easier to pack.
I am very happy to report that the set up worked well. I think you spearos should all have one, all under US$400 for the radio and the Underwater Kinetic D-8 torch.
I use the UK D-8 as the housing because it is a proven housing/torch and very light weight.
The Icom M-88 comes with a fat 1,700 maH Lithium Ion battery. U can charge as when u please, unlike Ni-Cad. The battery last hell of a long time on stand by. In country like US, where all boats must carry a marine VHF and US Coast Guard being much more "facility-rich" than most country, this VHF will be very useful when you ever need it. And only marine VHF can be used to call other boats in the area.
I think currently there are only two super small submersible grade portable VHF you can use. This Icom and the Standard Communication, the rest are still big size.
Hope this is useful.
