Page 40 - Pinger News Today

Before. >> and then how many the frequency? >> there has been two contacts thus far. and they were early on in the process. and the precise times i havent got for you. but one of those contacts was two hours and 20 minutes. the other contact happened on the second run. so we can get the precise time for you. i would suggest its probably several hours later, given that it takes three hours to turn the whole setup around. and the other question you had? is that -- ive answered it. right. >> the pi...

Underwater microphone, a hydrophone, off the back of the boat as it moves farther away from a pinger thats already been submerged. and even less than 100 yards away, the ping starts to fade. distance isnt the only problem out in the indian ocean. there are other noises competing with the sound of the pinger, like sea life. one dolphin species sounds like a black box pinger, and this is the sound of rain under water. let me get away from the loudest part of the boat, so i can show you one of the ...

That torpedo-like thing -- thats the black box. thats yellow thing, thats a blue fin 27. its an automonous vehicle that is being brought to the area where the pings were located. it will sweep the floor for debr debris. take still pictures and use sonar to try to find the debris field and try to transmit it back to the ship. >> the reference to the haystack is we need to find the needle, which is the plane. its a vast area. were talking -- as far as how deep it goes, its 14,000 to 15,000 feet. s...

Wreckage? go ahead, steve. >> i think that, you know, they will deploy the scanning sonar and the other equipment, camera equipment, i think its -- im not an expert to speculate on that. it could be a matter of days. i still think this search area is enormous as compared to air france, this is is a way more difficult -- a way more difficult challenge. >> rob, your thoughts? >> you know, to tow the pinger locator across this area takes around seven hours to cross the hour and do a three hour turn...

So it is a very, very slow and painstaking process. we have the best in the world out there doing it, though. so were confident that if there is the pinger out there and its still radiating, were quite confident we should find it, weve got the best in the world engaged in this task. thank you, sir. >> thank you very much. [ inaudible question ] >> well, i think we just have to be very, very careful. because we need to confirm it, in my view, with imagery of wreckage. [ inaudible question ] >> i ...

Box noise. >> if the black boxes are somewhere in that area, why is there no evidence of debris anywhere around it because theyve searched a why area around that spot, right? >> and there you have put your finger on one of the most troubling aspects of the discovery. because they now have to triangulate, basically hear the pinger again and again and again. and by doing that, work out exactly where it is. and one would hope that theyre in the vicinity, the very close vicinity and not on the outer...

The rov, the unmanned submer submersible submarine, and down to the maximum depth of to a submarine, and coincidentally, that is the depth of the ocean right there, and so it is the limiting of the submersible vehicle. if they can go down there to begin to map out the bottom of the ocean, and see if they can identify anything that is unusual, any anomalies and if they can, is it in fact this particular ship. and now the pinger, as you know, it is on each end of these black boxes, and they are no...

And also, les abend. we were talking about those acoustic events that they heard. this is a chirp and a tone. lets hear the pure tone first. like an alarm. [ tone sounds ] >> this isnt the exact one but this is, youre getting us an example. >> correct. one that we can hear. the actual one is above our hearing but this would be something like a smoke detector telling you that its batteries are weak. a pure tone. the next one is one other way that they can program the pinger to put out a unique ty...

Here. let me see if i can get it up. it is a device made for shallow water work. its designed for a diver to go in at a few hundred feet and look for a pinger, look for some kind of emitting device in the water. so if you go forward and you think about this, youre putting this in the water. youre hoping you get a strong enough signal deep in the ocean. it is very low probability that you would actually see that. its not impossible, but its really a glimmer of hope you would say. given the strong...

On. we use these hydrophones to tag sharks or turtles and we run around with tenders and operations to track them for sciences. so the tools they are using, obviously they can use them too but i think they have more sophistication. >> i think the end of the story will be when we hear the next ping, especially in the same area the chinese claim they heard it. that will bring everybody together. and i think it will be more unified and everybody will be in the same direction and theyll be more beli...