[PSUBS-MAILIST] Submersible Standards/Guidelines

["Jon Wallace" <jon@psubs.org>]

Hello psubbers,

Over the past year, we have been working on a PSUBS sponsored project to
establish a set of guidelines and standards that will encourage and
facilitate self-enforced safety practices for designers, builders, and
operations of human occupied submarines for personal use.  This is an
ongoing project that will result in revised standards and guidelines as
technology advances and new products appear that justify such revisions.
The project is available at http://www.psubs.org/guidelines

The project is currently divided into two parts.

1) US Federal Regulations
We have searched for as many federal laws and regulations that affect your
right to design, construct, or operate a submersible for recreational use.
In the US, there are very few such restrictions and they are codified in the
following documents (links available on website).
	A. Guidance for Certification of Passenger Carrying Submersibles
	B. U.S. Code, TITLE 46, Subtitle II, Part A, CHAPTER 21, 2101
	C. CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Title 33, Parts 155, 159, and 173-183

Note, that for those psubbers outside US jurisdiction, we will be happy to
include links to your country's laws regarding "personal" or "recreational"
submersibles if you send us pointers to that information.


2) PSUBS Standards/Guidelines
The standards and guidelines content generated by this PSUBS project has
been divided into three manuals.
	A. Design Guidelines for Personal Submersibles.
	B. Construction Guidelines for Personal Submersibles.
	C. Operating Guidelines for Personal Submersibles.

Each manual has a designated "revision" so we can keep track of the latest
copy.  Since the project is just beginning, the content of each manual is
primarily composed of material already referenced in other public domain
sources (US law, USCG regulations, etc).  There are numerous chapters in the
manuals that have no content at all, due to the newness of this project.


The PSUBS manuals will be freely available via the PSUBS.ORG website, and
licensed so that they can be copied, published, and distributed in an "open
source" type manner.  Your participation is critical in helping us mould the
guidelines into a respected set of documents that we can all use for
self-regulation, rather than have the government do it for us.  Many of you
have talked to me at conventions about the need for more safety content in
PSUBS discussions and practices.  Here is your chance to lead us in the
right direction.  The best standards and guidelines come from those who are
actively involved in the submersible community.  We encourage you to
participate in the evolution of these standards and guidelines by
contributing proposals for new items, and suggesting modifications or
deletion of existing items when appropriate.  The current content of the
manuals is slim, so almost any suggestion would result in an overall
improvment.  The process is simple:

1) Download http://www.psubs.org/guidelines/PSUBS/psubs_guideline_form.txt
2) Fill out the form.
3) Mail the form to standards@psubs.org
4) We will create an RFC (Request for Comments) and distribute it to the
mailing list.
5) We will take comments from the general community for 30 days.
6) If approved, we will add it to the appropriate manual.


And to the general community at large, please take time to read any
standard/guideline RFC requests that come through the mailing list or appear
in the webforum.  These are standards and guidelines that could affect YOU
at some point in time, so it is worth you commenting on them BEFORE they are
adopted.  Stay involved and we will all benefit from your particular
expertise.


Thanks
Jon







************************************************************************
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.  Your email address appears in our database
because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages
from our organization.

If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the
link below or send a blank email message to:
	removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org

Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an
automated process and should be complete within five minutes of
our server receiving your request.

PSUBS.ORG
PO Box 53
Weare, NH  03281
603-529-1100
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
************************************************************************