Hi Lawrie,I can see both sides of the coin on this issue. I like your idea and I think it has potential for a lot of value to both PSUBS and the community. Some of us (at least myself) would need some guidance on sensors to carry and how to conduct the tests such that the results would be accepted by the community. Also keep in mind that with limited budgets most recreational sub owners would likely only participate if the sensors and collectors were reasonable priced, donated, or something that they could fabricate inexpensively given a set of viable plans. This might be a good area for you to take lead on and see if we can put a program together that psubbers would be interested in.
We do have a public outreach program to educate and involve the public (www.psubs.org -> News & Events -> Public Outreach) but we need more people to participate. Alec Smyth has taken the lead here by supplying some educational multi-media materials and making his submarine available to educators and non-profit organizations free of charge within his local area. Alec has also been able to secure three booths at the US Science & Engineering Festival in late April of this year and will be bringing SNOOPY there for public display. The organizers of the event anticipate 6000 visitors per day passing by each booth so this represents significant visibility for PSUBS. I suspect SNOOPY is going to be a big draw. I've made myself available as a speaker and have been invited to address the NH Society of Professional Engineers this month. When the K600 overhaul is back on track I will take the same tact as Alec and make it available to various schools and organizations. I know JimK has offered to make Bionic Guppy available in his area for educational purposes and I know a couple of psubbers in the Michigan area that participate in local events. However I think we need more people participating in public outreach whether that be via sensors on subs, offering to present material to the public, or bringing their sub to a local school for show & tell. I encourage everyone who is willing to perform some kind of public outreach in their local area to send me info that we can add to our web site.
I'm also glad you raised this issue because I believe PSUBS needs to do a better job expanding our role beyond just a resource for fabrication and into a resource for operations. We have tons of participation regarding fabrication and only a small amount of participation regarding operations. Given the subs that have been built over the years we should have many more pictures, videos, and diving reports of subs performing operations. The number of hours spent underwater should be a badge of pride that people carry with them just like airline pilots because fabricating a submarine is only one part of the equation.
Regarding the OTHER side of the coin, I do think we need to be careful to keep our rights intact and not get into a situation where we have to trade services to use our submarines. I know we're not close to that, but there's value for the organization in also coming together and standing its ground when appropriate. We do categorize ourselves as participants within a "recreational" market and I can't blame those who simply want to build a sub for recreational purposes. In the absence of a clear safety or security issue we shouldn't have to fear arbitrary limits being cast on us.
Jon On 2/2/2012 6:1
Dear fellow PSubs members Once upon a time the horseless carriage had to be preceded by a man waving a flag and at night carrying a lantern because of safety concerns. I think that perhaps the time has come for Psubs.org to have an underlying purpose other than recreational and general interest of the ocean and waterways. Perhaps we need to think outside the sub and look at adding water quality sensors, salinity, pH, dissolved O2, and turbinity (the standard four) and conduct environmental assessments as part of our good citizen committment to become contributors to the knowledge base with regard to the health of our waterways and oceans. I am sure that there would be enough universities around interested in whatever data Alec and others can gather for them given the cuts to environmental programmes due to the economy. Once we have a purpose and recognised environmental sponsors for the data than Psubs.org as an organisation carrying out environmental monitoring on behalf of stakeholders including the community as a case to put forward for a permit to carry out water quality testing in the subject waterways now prohibited for subsea recreational use. Food for thought, what do you think? Best regards, Lawrie
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