User test of Sport Tracker system

[WOODMAN]

My friend Twisted Gray, who has been most helpfull in getting me my Sport tracker unit, has asked me to put up a little review on our experiences with it. So, here goes. I have designated my wife as senior navigator and custodian of the Sport reciever, and she keeps it on a tether and secured in one of her BC pockets. She claims no problems with this, and states she barely knows she is carrying it most of the time. When needed, it slips right out and goes to work with no fuss. We have had excellent results with it pointing the direction back to the liveaboard, which had the transmitter hanging from the side of the dive deck about 10 feet underwater. (The liveaboard people were highly interested in this, and were most accomodating with the whole business.) Some people have complained about the design of the retention clip which holds the battery compartments in place, but I have not experienced a problem (yet). Speaking of batteries, we found excellent battery life during a recent week-long trip, and did not need to change batteries once. (We did turn everything off between dives, and hauled the transmitter up out of the water) In conclusion, we are well pleased with the unit, and certainly would not dive without it in the future. Woody

 

[TwistedGray]

Thanks for the write-up Woody.

I, personally, don't like the retention clip because I don't have nails and typically have to pry it up with tweezers or a flat-head screwdriver. However, if you're out diving you probably have something in your "bag" that will easily get it up (a knife perhaps).

Anyways, we have looked into other ways of securing the cap down but their isn't really anything that works. Everyone has a great idea on how to make it work but if it ain't broke...don't fix it

I am glad it works well for you; I rarely (can't think of once) have ever heard anything negative about the Sport.

Battery Life: The smartest thing to do (I think your wife may already be doing it) is to turn the receive on, get your bearing/distance, turn it back off. Do this rather then leaving the receiver on and you should prolong the lifetime. Also you can slow the pulse rate of the transmitter by changing the switch setting on the inside of the transmitter. For more information on how to do that, you can download the full manual here: Desert Star Knowledge Base


Now, if we could just figure out how to keep them in STOCK we would be doing much better...