Swaygo makes the Site Lite Shield, available from IMO.

 

https://innermountainoutfitters.com/collections/survey-2/products/shield

 



 

From: Texascavers [mailto:texascavers-boun...@texascavers.com] On Behalf Of 
John Lyles
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2022 2:21 PM
To: George Veni <gv...@nckri.org>
Cc: Texas Cavers (Texascavers@texascavers.com) <texascavers@texascavers.com>; 
New Mexico Cavers (swrcav...@googlegroups.com) <swrcav...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] [SWR CAVERS] Suunto repair

 

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.

 

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/>  

 

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