DEMA 2003 Discoveries
Posted By Grant Graves on 31 October 2003
If you have never been to the annual Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, DEMA, show you have little idea how daunting the information and technology overload can be. A first visit to the show leaves you feeling like a kid in a candy store. You either leave having spent way too much money on way too many things or end up having not bought anything because it is just too hard to pick just one or two things. After several visits and years your eyes and appetite become less overpowering. You eventually find that if you pay attention to what is available in the diving industry there just are not many surprises at DEMA. Well, this year caught me by surprise.
I found a few gems in the rough. Through all the load of promotion, noise and hype I found a few items I had no idea were available. It had been years since I had been surprised this way. I found myself feeling a bit like a kid in a candy store all over again. That says a lot for someone as jaded as me.
One of the most exciting discoveries I made was a product called the
Fastfind. This is manufactured by Mcmurdo/Pains Wessex. This is what has
come to be called a PLB, Personal Location Beacon. What the FCC, Federal
Commerce Commission of the United States, is now calling emergency locator
beacon for individuals. These were introduced originally for boats as
EPIRBs, Emergency Positioning Indicator Radio Beacons. They now hold a
separate designation for individuals as PLBs.
For any technical diver conducting offshore operations this item offers a piece of mind that has not been readily available in this small and complete a package. In an emergency, you can signal for help if you are separated from your support with these units.
The Fastfind offers you the ability to signal for help globally via the COSPAS-SARSAT polar orbiting satellites at 406 MHz. This is the same frequency that the standard EPIRB uses. It also transmits at 121.5 MHz offering emergency homing in location and receiver reception by support or emergency personnel with the use of an emergency receiver and direction finder.
The Fastfind Plus offers the additional benefit of GPS acquisition and fix status. Upon activation, it will provide latitude and longitude coordinates to within 100 feet / 33 meters to a rescue coordination center within three minutes anywhere in the world.
Both models offer five years of standby battery life with user changeable
batteries and simple three stage manual activation. They float and are
water resistant. The company has already planned for the needs of divers by
having available a diving canister. The canister is good to well below 400
feet / 140 meters. It is constructed of anodized aluminum.
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