Personal locator beacons

[Woz]

<font color='#000080'>I've contacted the UK distributor of the Sea Marshall PLB8-LD, the oil filled EPIRB made especially for divers.
Normally the RRP on these is 189 but they are selling them for 139 at the moment to try and get them introduced a bit quicker into the market.  They will also come even further down in price if I can place an order for multiple units.

Anyone else fancy one to drive the price down?

Sea Marshall website

[wreckweasel]

Stick me down as interested.... but not yet definite

[Alan57]

This interesting as it is depth rated to 100m.
However the literature is confusing in that it says automatic operation occurs when it is immersed in H2O for 17 secs. I usually hope to dive for longer than this!
Can you clarify this contradiction for me
Alan

[Fathoms Down]

You usually have them in a water tight canister and take them out when you need to activate them.

[wreckweasel]

This model is designed to operate without a waterproof can down as far as 100m (think I'd can it after 70, just in case).

The auto activate on immersion can be disabled for diving use....

[Mary]

<font color='#F52887'>From what I remember when he and I were chatting about this a few days ago you can either have it set to activate on touching water (ideal for sailing), or can over-ride that and set it to activate manually.

Think it says that somewhere in the blurb on the right of the pic.

HTH

[Woz]

<font color='#000080'>The unit is oil filled so in theory there isn't a depth limit to it. It works without an external canister and works in 2 ways- you leave it off then switch it on when you need it then manually activate it (which is how a diver would use it) or you switch it on then leave it on so it will auto activate when it gets wet (how a sailor would use it).

[Woz]

<font color='#000080'>I have 2 definites so far with a possible 3rd from zaksherlock- any more takers?

[Robert]

I'd advocate a bit of caution here - I looked into this last year and spoke to the owner of 'Sea Marshall Rescue Systems' who seemed to suggest that the oil-filled units were not particularly well-designed and went off quite frequently when diving (they're not made by the same people or modified or something). He suggested the basic unit plus cannister were the best option.
I might very well be wrong and I'll try to find out more but not tonight!
Regards

Robert

[Woz]

<font color='#000080'>I'll check this out myself too