Brunton’s also work well, but there is hardly anyone left that knows how to use one.
Years ago 5 of us were surveying a mile in a wet suit stream passage in Colossal Cave, Ky. Roger Brucker and Alan Hill went to the “end” to survey back, Art & Peg Palmer and myself started surveying “in”. We made good time and bragged about it when we met the other team. Their story was that the Brunton was dropped in a muddy pool, too muddy to see the instrument. When they finally fished it out of the drink it was full of water. But they used their carbide lights to boil out the water, and when dry enough they started surveying. Can’t do that today with LED lights. My 3 Brunton’s still work, long ago my 3-4 Suuntos clouded up and were no longer useful. - Pete > On Jan 30, 2022, at 1:20 PM, John Lyles <j...@losalamos.com> wrote: > > George, thanks for sharing this. Ben Meadows and FS used to be competitors. > I'm glad at least one is still going. I just tossed my old hardcopy catalogs > from them the other day. Around 2006 we started noticing that the face of > Suuntos was getting cracked frequently. They had changed to some different > plastic fabrication. It's possible that the earlier ones had a domed lens > where the newer ones were flat. Many cavers started gluing a thin sheet of > transparent polycarbonate over the lens, still admitting light of course. > Another solution was to always keep it in the pouch and add a thin piece or > Micarta or FR4 circuit board material 0.03 or 0.06 thick in the pouch on the > face side. > > The Nat Park at Carlsbad was slow at adopting this approach and those of us > who broke our share of government Suuntos were intimately familiar with the > problem. We carried them in small Otter boxes but it was inevitable that > someone would be shooting a station in a crawl and accidentally crawl to the > next shot with it hanging from neck, to then find that unmistakeable wet spot > on their shirt with that oily fluid. It wasn't abnormal to have one leaking > out of 4 that we took underground on camp trips, so extras were brought > along. I think the CRO had a regular annual budget item repairing them. > > On one trip we took a CRO staffer on the second trip up to OZ in Lechuguilla > Cave. Between three of us we had several Suuntos, despite my suggestion that > we bring extras. I think we managed to kill one, leaking fluid, tried duct > tape, hold it only face up, etc. We managed to survey with a bubble and that > finally changed the reluctance to install plastic guards on the Park's > inventory. > > Disto X2's also benefit from having a thin plastic sheet over the display, as > it can be cracked if pressed face against a rock, to ruin a $500 instrument. > I modified mine and the collection belonging to the Fort Stanton Cave Study > Project. > > John > On Jan 30, 2022, at 10:52 AM, George Veni <gv...@nckri.org > <mailto:gv...@nckri.org>> wrote: > While many cavers are now using DistoX2s for surveying, many of us still have > and use Suuntos. I was on trip yesterday and found the face of my Suunto > compass had cracked, creating a large bubble inside the instrument that makes > it hard to use accurately. Years ago, I’d send my Suuntos off to the Ben > Meadow Company for repair. I hadn’t heard of anyone doing that recently, so I > looked into it and am posting this note in case anyone finds it helpful. > > > > > Ben Meadows is now part of Forestry Suppliers. And they do repair Suunto > compasses and clinometers (among other things) for about $100 less than > buying a new one. For more information, go to > https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/RepairList.php > <https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/RepairList.php>. > > > > > George > > > > > ******************** > > > George Veni, PhD > > > Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) > > > and > > > President, International Union of Speleology (UIS) > > > > > NCKRI address (primary) > > > 400-1 Cascades Avenue > > > Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA > > > Office: +575-887-5517 > > > Mobile: +210-863-5919 > > > Fax: +575-887-5523 > > > gv...@nckri.org <mailto:gv...@nckri.org> > > > www.nckri.org <http://www.nckri.org/> > > > > > UIS address > > > Titov trg 2 > > > Postojna, 6230 Slovenia > > > www.uis-speleo.org <http://www.uis-speleo.org/> > > > www.iyck2021.org <http://www.iyck2021.org/> > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Southwestern Cavers of the National Speleological Society" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to swrcavers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > <mailto:swrcavers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/fb6b1c7a-3aee-46eb-8ee4-e6e02bda0664%40losalamos.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/swrcavers/fb6b1c7a-3aee-46eb-8ee4-e6e02bda0664%40losalamos.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
_______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
