RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Home-Built Pinger

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

Hello psubbers,

I'm glad to see this discussion taking root.  First, thanks to Steve Pearce
for the depth limitations associated with the link to the hydrophone design
I provided.  That design is intended for shallow depths and essentially just
dropping the unit over the side of a boat or wharf to capture sounds from
the water.  The unit that David Bartsch provided to me is intended as
"proof-of-concept" only and would have to be contained within a much more
durable housing, which by the way Steve has provided CAD drawings of such a
housing at http://www.psubs.org/projects/bartsch. That said, David was able
to show that the concept of a home-built pinger is feasible and deserves our
praise for his efforts in that area.  Whether the design is practical (loud
enough, range of detection) remains to be tested.

It sounds like there is reasonable interest in this to continue
investigating it.  As you might have seen through the mailing list I've
contacted Desert Star and I am trying to work out discounted pricing for
their products.  In less than a half-day, they've responded positively and
indicated they are willing to work with us to come up with some kind of
price-point that would make this item affordable for the vast majority of
psubbers.  I'm glad Andy from Desert Star spoke up this morning.

Of course, the Desert Star solution likely will not be universally
acceptable for all applications so there appears to be value in continuing
development of the home-built solution as well as seeking out other
alternatives, especially for those who want to build a pinger into the sub
itself (via thru-hull?).

Al Secor's post was encouraging as well.  A combination communication/pinger
sounds like a promising option for our purposes.  We now have two teams
working on a communication solution.  Rather than looking at these as
duplicate efforts, I suspect we'll end up with two different solutions of
equal value.  In our target area of customized vessels, I think multiple
solutions are a good thing.

I also received a private email pointing me to another low-cost pinger
system and am following that up as well.  The end result is that we should
be able to come up with maybe three or four options, potentially of varying
capability and effectiveness, but with the common goal of providing another
level of safety as it pertains to disabled subs.  Which by the way, is not a
statement of concern, but a desire to be proactive.

Jon




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