Viewing Single Post From: Functional Sea Trooper

Viewing Single Post From: Functional Sea Trooper
BadGass	Jul 29 2007, 04:12 AM
Newbie Posts: 3 Group: Members Member #332 Joined: July 29, 2007	I am a newbie but I was drawn to this topic as I am by trade a commercial "Hard hat" diver. So on a few of the ideas technical issues I might be of use, I'd really love to see a working system. * Presumably the Sea Trooper is expected to be covert in many operations. This goes hand in hand with your idea about using a rebreather for the gas system. Apart from the training rebreathers are usually pretty expensive however there are military type pure O2 units available, mainly from Itlay, which are somewhat cheaper. They are employed in final approach/beach recce's by the forces and because of oxygen toxicity are limited to a maximum safe depth of 6-7msw. There is an even cheaper option, build your own...... there are one of two websites dedicated to this activity. I think most of the surv iving members have almost all their own brain cells left. http://www.divesafe.net/omg_military_rebreathers__cmk4_.htm http://users.bigpond.net.au/harry_online/r...ther%20page.htm Search for OMG as they produce a varietry of compact rebreathers & historical artices on Itallian ARO models. * The Mistral is a nice retro looking piece, I've not tried one but it has the beauty of rear exhaust bubbles. However the price is steep but less than a rebreather. * On the mask front most rebreather divers recommend a seperate face mask so you can switch easily to open circuit in an emergency. There are "docking" systems around to fix the rebreather loop to a standard half mask though & a couple of Scandinavian firms make rebreather full face mask for cold water diving. If you don't go down the rebreather route there are several full face masks that could be used as part of the rig quite easily, Avon military, AGA diviator 1 or 2 or the Exo 26 commercial are fairly common. However the Oceanic Neptune 2 has something of the Sea trooper look and is designed for ease of use with recreational dive gear. For reference you use a snot block in a fullface/hard hat to equalise, usually this is a metal rubber block you press you nose against whilst clearing your ears. Inevitablly the last guy forgot to clean it after use. It's possible to learn how to equalise without holding your nose anyway. I would recommend against using a full commercial "hat" be with a neck dam (or even a band mask model) for several reasons; expense, availiblity, bulk/weight and they really require a tender (assistant) to dress in/set up correctly for safe use. They also tend to increase gas comsumption partly because of the large internal volume and the regulators often have a lower cracking pressure and free flow readily as a safety measure as a working diver in a hat is basically on an unlimited gas supply from his umbilical. Best of luck.


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