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There is a guy here in California who is importing quite a few new units and
claims he has the manuals translated. He is supposed to be giving me a copy
although I'm not buying a unit. If I get it I'll copy it for you.

To be honest with you the people out here in CA selling them really can't
answer the technical questions I ask them and since they are trying to
profit from them all I hear is "blue sky sales" or the standard dive shop
attendant BS "I was a Seal so you could never understand this stuff like I
do" and this alarms me. I do know this - the systems don't switch from 100%
O2 until you go below 60'! You can't change this either and they have many
other alarming issues. Like everything in life - you get what you pay for. 

No training programs, military "acceptable" risk standards in their design &
operation procedures and the price allowing it to be sold to anybody looking
for a hip piece of diving equipment (the "magic carpet" as some call it)
reguardless of real knowledge combined with their growing availability will
end up getting innocent & misinformed or careless people hurt. 

Yes it does work and yes it is good at delivering "most" of the soldiers to
their mission but from what I know I don't really trust it at this point to
be a trusted tool for tekkies or especially as a recreational toy. Most
serious divers I know who have one own it as a novelty and only play with it
accordingly while genuinely mitigating the dangers (IE in the pool with
supervision). From what I understand the Russian military war stratagies are
very different from ours, instead of building a few very good although
expensive tools that bring back as many of our guys as possible while
completing the mission the Russian was more of send as many as possible in
tough, simple and inexpensive tools and enough will survive to get the
missions done, if they complain there's allways Siberia.  This might be fine
in a war where the country has more people than money but it really sucks if
your the guy strapping on the unit just for fun.

Learn everything about it and all rebreathers you can then buy one of these
for your office wall and another fully tested system properly designed for
your needs. Several legitimate businesses have spent alot of money examining
these units in hopes of profiting from distributing them in the US and
declined the opportunity, the only people importing them are independant
individuals with little risk exposure (few assets to loose from lawsuits)
and little technical knowledge of rebreathers. (I'm not talking about Didi
here but rather the people I know who are pushing them here in the US)

If you really know what your doing you can extensivly modify the system add
O2 sensors and a PPO2 display (very important! with any C2) and a lot of
other items to mitigate the risks. This might be fine for the novelty of
kicking it around at shallow depths where you can bail to the surface
immediately but I really believe if you need something for important,
taskloaded, or risky dives then it's better to get the right tool for the job.


At 03:18 AM 5/20/98 -0500, Phi Le wrote:
>Jeremy,
>
>I have searched the Rebreather Mail Archive List and found your name
>concerning the Russian Rebreather IDA-71U. I am interested in getting a unit
>from Didi in Switzerland.
>
>However, if you have any additional personal experience / information
>concerning this unit, I would appreciate your valuable input. Since the
>manual is in German, if you have an English translated copy, I am interested
>in obtaining a copy also.
>
>Thanks in advance for your assistance.
>
>Phi Le
>
>
>

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