Nautilus Lifeline Radio

[CWK]

I just wish Nautilus would make a PLB rated to 100M. I'm diving too many places where I do not expect marine radios on local watercraft. Dive canisters for PLBs can be a pain.

 

[tursiops]

I recently went on a liveaboard (Palau Aggressor II) where the boat issued the new Nautilus Lifeline (without Radio) or what it’s now called Marine Rescue GPS (MRG), to everyone that would like to rent one for free. The advantage of MRG is half the size of the old Nautilus Lifeline, much simpler to operate & the battery is good for 5 year without recharging. It may no longer have the radio, but the MRG’s MMSI is logged to the diver who is carrying it. So within 30 minutes after launching it, the boat DSC will receive your distress signal, knows who you are and where you are. After 30 minutes, DSC will be sent to all ships.

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However if you have your personal MRG, then you need to reprogram your MMSI according to the procedure for the country you are diving at that time, as described, below, and coordinate with your liveaboard DSC prior to going diving with them, which is a bit of a pain in the rear.
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Since it’s a rent-free & pretty small device (about the size of my fist) I was gladly accepted it, signed the liability term, and stuffed it in my BCD pocket, next to my PLB1. I figured the more safety stuff I have with me, the less worry I’d be about getting lost at sea after reading about the fierce currents in Peleliu Express & Blue Corner.

On the other hand, if I had to spend $200+, to reprogram it every time I go somewhere outside USA and to coordinate with the boat DSC, forget it. I’ll stick with my PLB1.

Yeah, but: the boat carrying you has to have a DSC. The Indonesian boats I've been on recently often don't even have VHF radios, they use cell phones.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, but: the boat carrying you has to have a DSC. The Indonesian boats I've been on recently often don't even have VHF radios, they use cell phones.

Another reason to not get Marine Rescue GPS & stick with my PLB1.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Yeah, but: the boat carrying you has to have a DSC. The Indonesian boats I've been on recently often don't even have VHF radios, they use cell phones.

This can still work with only a PLB: Just provide an expected travel itinerary; the US Embassy 24hr phone number of the particular country that you're visiting; and the resort/dive-ops' base cell phone numbers that you plan on diving with to your designated PLB activation emergency contact -so at least your satellite GPS location can be relayed to all available national and local search & rescue assets either by cell phone or marine VHF radio.

 

[CWK]

I sometimes carry both the Marine Rescue and a PLB. In event of boat seperation in places where watercraft do have marine radio, the Nautilus would probably elicit a quicker response. Plus there is the matter of redundancy.

 

[billt4sf]

We each have one. In retrospect I would not get them. Note that it is essentially only useful if you get, and are able to communicate your lat & long to someone on a boat to come get you. We dive in Indo, by the time you (a) find a boat which has a radio, and (b) a clear enough voice signal to be heard (in a possibly noisy situation) and understood by someone whose native language is probably not English -- not that great a chance IMHO.

Just my opinion, but I think our chances are greater with a Dive Alert, and of course each of us already has a large SMB and a strong light.

Overall I think the most important safety "device" is the quality and training of the operator that you are diving with - especially outside the US.

I'm still not sure how well a PLB would work internationally.

- Bill

 

[Ankush Mittal]

We each have one. In retrospect I would not get them. Note that it is essentially only useful if you get, and are able to communicate your lat & long to someone on a boat to come get you. We dive in Indo, by the time you (a) find a boat which has a radio, and (b) a clear enough voice signal to be heard (in a possibly noisy situation) and understood by someone whose native language is probably not English -- not that great a chance IMHO.

Just my opinion, but I think our chances are greater with a Dive Alert, and of course each of us already has a large SMB and a strong light.

Overall I think the most important safety "device" is the quality and training of the operator that you are diving with - especially outside the US.

I'm still not sure how well a PLB would work internationally.

- Bill

I think this could be said for most of Asia.

 

[Kevrumbo]

We each have one. In retrospect I would not get them. Note that it is essentially only useful if you get, and are able to communicate your lat & long to someone on a boat to come get you. We dive in Indo, by the time you (a) find a boat which has a radio, and (b) a clear enough voice signal to be heard (in a possibly noisy situation) and understood by someone whose native language is probably not English -- not that great a chance IMHO.

Just my opinion, but I think our chances are greater with a Dive Alert, and of course each of us already has a large SMB and a strong light.

Overall I think the most important safety "device" is the quality and training of the operator that you are diving with - especially outside the US.

I'm still not sure how well a PLB would work internationally.

- Bill

. . .Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) are transmitters at 406 MHz, and are a direct alert and space uplink to a global & international treaty government-run emergency network satellite system (Cospas-Sarsat), continuously monitored 24/7, which is used worldwide to alert regional/local Search and Rescue gov't agencies in the event of a dire emergency. Activated PLB signals are identifiable to a specific individual, allowing rescue agencies to look up your emergency information in a database (including name, phone number, marine or land application, emergency contact, etc.). When your PLB transmits, rescuers know who you are and can phone your emergency contacts to verify your planned itinerary and local dive operation location/contact numbers. Your position is initially tracked to less than a 2 nautical mile radius with the 406 MHz frequency signal, with further GPS transceiver proximity enhancement to within a few meters or older technology analog International Air Distress (IAD) 121.5 MHz final homing directional finding search signal for rescue aircraft/ships to at most 30 meters. PLB's are your backup and the last best chance for rescue when all other local terrestrial based VHF marine search radio communication devices such as the Nautilus unit fail.

 

[Kevrumbo]

. . .
I'm still not sure how well a PLB would work internationally.

- Bill

. . .A Lost-at-Sea/Missing Diver can be considered a special case of a "delayed" MOB ["Man Over Board"] Scenario: Delayed in the sense that an elapsed normal recreational depth dive time is about 50 minutes to an hour -->if the Diver surfaces after an hour and does not see any sign of the diveboat, then the Diver has to manually call or activate a VHF DSC Distress Beacon such as the Nautilus Lifeline, but the caveat still being the limited range of the VHF signal along with hoping there are other boats or land stations in the vicinity with VHF transceiver capability. Again, if you're at a remote divesite hundreds of kilometers away from the commercial shipping lanes or land VHF receiving stations, then the satellite PLB is your last resort. . .

 

[Dan]

I can see the benefit of having the liveaboard issued Nautilus Marine Rescue GPS (MRG), where the boats would be on their toes to continually monitor the status of their MRG assigned to each of their customers (divers) like in 3 liveaboards I have been in (Spoil Sport, Galápagos Master, and Palau Aggressor II). As soon as one MRG distress signal is turned on, the boat will know within minutes who you are, where you are and how far you are lost at sea. Time is of the essence to receive the DSC signal within the detectable surface-surface VHF range (big waves & miles away distance may weaken the 1 watt signal to be detected by the boat).

If you have your own MRG, all bets are off, because of the various reasons as mentioned in the previous posts.

The PLB would send 5 watt signal straight up to the SAR satellites, regardless of surface conditions or how far away you are from the boat.