Back at the old Port of Tacoma yard yesterday and the new divers all have these slick digital comms rigs.

Made me remember wrestling with the old, crackly hardwire systems in zero viz back in '08, and honestly I'm curious if the new gear actually holds up when you're elbow-deep in a thruster wash.

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan4944h ago

Remember wrestling with those old hardwire units too. The new digital stuff looks great on the surface, but I've seen it fail in the muck. A buddy's fancy comms cut out completely when silt got stirred up, leaving him with hand signals. Sometimes the simple, tough gear you can bang on is more reliable than a screen full of static.

the_wren3h ago

Wasn't there a story last year about that cave rescue team up north? My friend was on a volunteer crew, and they had all this new wireless gear for the training dive. Looked super clean in the shop. Got into the actual cave, just normal flow, not even bad visibility, and the whole network just dropped. Complete silence. They spent twenty minutes fumbling in the dark before someone just grabbed the old backup hardwire reel. The tech guy later said something about the rock "blocking the signal" or whatever. Fancy screens don't mean much when you're actually in the goop.