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For next summer looking for a crew to dive Baltic and Black seas... Unknown WWII wrecks. With boats permits and airfair - looking at $2500 each per diver (14 day trip) - ANYONE INTERESTED????BigJetDriver69:The Soviet Socialist Republic's philosophy was that their equipment, be it re-breathers, aircraft, tanks, or assault rifles had to be (1) reliable, (2) simple to maintain by the draftee from the far reaches of the hegemony, (3) able to resist incredibly adverse condiditions, and (4) easy to produce.
Consequently, their stuff is not fancy looking, (even down-right crude looking at times), but it is double-tough and as reliable as a John Deere tractor.
The problem is, as has been pointed out, that some of these re-breather units are not suitable at all for re-habbing and conversion.
Those that are suitable require a lot of sweat equity, some extra parts, and a fair amount of DIY skill.
I greatly admire those folks who can build one of these into something that (1) works properly, and (2) is as safe to use as any ordinary piece of diving equipment.
It is more like a Ferrari: it does not need a gaugecaveseeker7:Then again, if your Italian gauges are as accurate than the ones in my Fiat Spider were ...
PAdiver93:WOW - So much anger!!!
H2Andy:ok... maybe things have changed since the fall of the Soviet Union, but when
I was growing up in Cuba, all the Soviet goods we got SUCKED
radios broke in a few weeks, t.v. sets in a few months, refrigirators were
a 50-50 thing: they either worked well, or they blew up
their cars were pieces of crap (Ladas and Muskovits alike)
so... if it were me, i would be very cautious of buying any Russian stuff... unless
they have changed things radically over the last few years
they had quite nice engineering, but their quality control sucked (i mean, these
guys could build the Su-27 and the MIG-29, it's not like they didn't have the
know-how)
Anthony Appleyard:Someone told me that the IDA71 in its original Russian mode lasts for about 4 hours on a filling. He said that if both of its canisters are filled with sodalime, and a second oxygen cylinder is put in the bottom of the backpack casing (in the empty space intended for an underwater ultrasound communicator), it would last 8 hours.