Diver rescued after drifting 16 hours near Bali

I am not sure about NOAA but since they are the registering agency in the USA they should have a listing. None the less the group that operates the system is Cospas Sarsat. They are the place to go for the information. Here is a link to the listing of their MCC's which are the place that receives the distress location information. You will see they list the contact information. They have been helpful to me in the past to confirm the correct contact information for the area in which I will be diving.

Mission Control Centres (MCCs)

As you can see from this page that details how the system works you can contact either the MCC of the country you registered your PLB or the country in which you will be diving. I would provide both numbers but make the primary my country of citizenship (which should be where you have registered your PLB).

http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/en/operatons/operations-concept/what-happens-when-i-activate-my-beacon

John

---------- Post added October 1st, 2013 at 08:55 PM ----------

You might think so but in my case I had both a red and yellow SMB and neither were seen by the boats or planes that crossed my path. They are great if they work and often they do but if they don't you will wish you had spent that money on a PLB which puts you in control of getting the message out that you need help and your location.

John

 

Dandy Don, I'd be interested in knowing more about the canister you found for the PLB. I've not been able to locate one, and it's the only reason I haven't added one of these to my kit. I found a cool brass one that fit one of the McMurdo PLBs a few years ago, but when I contacted the manufacturer in the UK, they told me they couldn't/wouldn't ship to "the colonies"...

EDIT: Then again, Google is pretty smart too...

http://www.customdivers.com/custom-divers-200210-fast-find-plb-dive-canister-337-p.asp

 

I have zero faith in a Nautilus Lifeline as a life saving device. Too many issues with range and putting your faith in somebody monitoring marine frequencies.

My wife and I both carry a PLB in a dive canister for a life saving, crap hits the fan solution. Here's info if you want it on the how to, pictures and costs.. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...rsonal-locator-beacon-how-never-lost-sea.html

The above thread has everything you would want to know about PLBs, how they work, how many people have been rescued using them, including a map showing their positions all over the world.

I take it with me anytime I'm on the ocean. When we went deep sea fishing 30 miles off the coast of Maryland I had it with me. On the way back, huge bang and boat surged to a stop. First thing I did was grab my PLB in it's canister. Luckily the only problem was the boat threw a prop blade, luckily when it threw it, it threw it down and away from the hull and we did't have a hull breach. I have it with me when we fly over water also. If we go down, I want to increase my odds of being found if I survive the crash.

 

Mike there linked to his thread where he used the ACR 2881, shaved a little off the antenna to get it to fit, and got it a Custom Diver canister - as well as how he got it in the US. Peter69_56 had a problem with his leaking, but that's the only bad report I've seen.

The McMurdo canister is made from a single piece of aluminum, quite sturdy, not heavy, slightly buoyant, and worked well for me. Here are a couple of quotes from my thread in General Travel - and there is a lot of discussion on both of those threads...

For possible O-ring replacement...

 

That's not how GPS works.

GPS receivers will only grab the coordinates from satellites. Full stop. What you get out of the unit is a string (RS-232, for those that care) of your coordinates. All you will get out of any GPS unit is "This is where you are and how fast you are going."

If you want to send that information to another system, you have to put that data into another signal. You can take that data and send it out over VHF, but that will require a paired VHF receiver. Some newer radios (i.e. not in the 3rd world) will be able to parse embedded GPS data inside voice, but again, that will still require a tuned VHF receiver.

You can send the position up via satellite, but that will require a satellite (obviously) that you can see from where you are. I've used ARGOS before for this, but unless you're a researcher it's tricky to get space on there. That also requires someone to be sitting near their satellite receiver to get that data.

So the short version is: you can't just send info back and forth from one GPS unit to another. TV gets this wrong all the time. (Although the blinking tracking devices is real -- a red LED has the same voltage drop characteristics as a regulator, but it's about a tenth the price.)

Some radios have switches that will let you run them at a higher power, which violates the FCC / IC rules for broadcast power. Like you, my attitude is, "you want to fine me? Okay, but you have to hand deliver the ticket."

 

Nevertheless, Magni, if a boat doesn't have a GPS device, it doesn't matter at all if it receives a transmission on a VHF device. Many of these boats navigate by landmarks and stars, so if they don't have/use a GPS, there's no point in even transmitting the data to them. The technical details of exactly how this information is sent and received don't much matter if the captain uses traditional navigation techniques. Most of the local boats here do exactly that, though the dive boats do have more advanced technology aboard, and usually somebody who can understand English, so even if you send an emergency voice message, there's a way to be understood, which is not at all the case if you're trying to radio a local fishing boat!

 

Ah, I totally misunderstood what you said. You meant that giving them the coordinates means nothing at all if they aren't using GPS, since they will get a very precise but unhelpful idea of where to go.

I thought you meant that their GPS receivers would get your signal directly, which is not what you were saying at all. I apologize.

 

Well at least they were found alive. Some have not. And THIS is another example of why I ALWAYS carry a flashlight along with a mirror rolled up in an SMB regardless of what time of they day I'm diving. If these two had had a light and or mirror the loitering aircraft may have seen them and rescue would have occurred earlier. B.

 

That is easy to say without the facts, lets wait for some more info before shooting the dm


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