Re: Blue water White Death

[Subscuba@aol.com]

Thanks Phil, 

The solution is probably the thrusters. Interfacing with the control 
electronics would be easier for me. My boat is buoyed to be neutral with hard 
ballast. Turns out it is slightly positive at the surface. I used the 
Techspheres from Floatation Technologies embedded in an epoxy/microballon mix 
(syntactic foam) for most of my floatation. I haven't tested it at depth but 
suspect the boat goes a little negative at depth as you suggested. I will 
probably add the thruster later. Initially I intend to cruise and maintain 
depth.

I hadn't thought of using thrusters, thanks.

Incidentally, propagation of RF signals in a conducting medium, such as 
seawater loses strength as a function of distance to the third power not the 
second. It's also a function of frequency with less attenuation at low 
frequencies. Nukes sometimes use trailing wire antennas with VLF or ULF as 
you probably know. Above water the losses are primarily due to spreading 
losses and are to the second power. I worked on a communication system which 
used a simple audio power amplifier as the transmitter and a simple amplifier 
as the receiver. The biggest problems, aside from limited range, was noise 
pickup due to power line frequencies. Off shore this wasn't a problem but the 
system was almost useless near shore. We got a range of about 100 meters with 
one watt of power and an antenna spacing of about 3 feet. Antenna impedances 
are low, in our case about 1 ohm. 

We also found there was animals that produce electrical signals. We tested a 
Nurse Shark in a tank and found they produced electrical noise. I'm aware of 
other electric fish such as the electric rays, etc. Also corroding metals 
produce corrosion currents. 

I appreciate your response, thank you.

Ken Martindale