Can't hear my audible altimeter

[vanessalh 0]

Hi there,

I recently bought a Neptune N3 audible altimeter, and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. I did 5 jumps last weekend, and the first time I could hear the alarm was after I'd deployed and had begun to slow down. I could never hear it under free fall.

I had alarms set at 4500, 3500 and 2500 ft, and confirmed with my visual altimeter that I deployed around 3000. So I expected to have already heard two alarms.

Has anyone else had trouble hearing their audible?
Is there a brand of audible that's easier to hear?

I have a cookie helmet, and wear the audible in the little pouch next to my ear, so it's impossible for it to get any closer. I've tried turning it around in case the speaker is on one side of the device, with no luck.

I'm considering returning mine, since it's not much good if I can only hear it after I deploy.

[CarpeDiem3 0]

See the thread titled "Not noticing my audible in my new full face Phantom X?" about a dozen lines down. We just covered this.

[holie 0]

Quote

See the thread titled "Not noticing my audible in my new full face Phantom X?" about a dozen lines down. We just covered this.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4398094;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

[vanessalh 0]

Ahh, thanks - I Googled a bit, but only found old threads complaining about N3s, not this one. Very helpful, I'll try align it better.

[erdnarob 1]

I think that you can likely be under overloaded mind when doing free fall. At the point that you cannot hear your audible altimeter. You may have noticed that in free fall, you and everybody else has the tendency to concentratre on the jump and nothing else. That's why doing skydiving is so exceptional in removing all stress of the ordinary life like problems at work, in the family, with mates..etc Hearing your beeper will comme with time. Just a trick, set up the first alarm 500-1000 above the pilot chute launch time altitude, when you are not too disturbed yet. Then you can still count few seconds and relax to be ready for the deployment.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[mahonie10 0]

Is it the N3 or the N3A? Because if its the N3A it requires the use of headphones to here the alarms. I have the regular N3, but i use it as a visual, and can hear the canopy alarms, but never tried it as a audible. I have the L&B soloII and it works great, not too expensive either.

[vanessalh 0]

I've got the N3 - I've heard good things about the Solo2 as well - I plan to try some of the tips in the thread above (repositioning it, etc.) to see how that works.

[rmarshall234 13]

I believe erdnarob has it right. It's a matter of sensory overload and the mind is Triaging so-to-speak. Clearly what you are seeing and feeling is of utmost concern for your survival, and your mind has decided that the sense of hearing is of little use. My then-girlfriend and now wife, had the same problem for about 50 jumps. Her solution was to set the ditter to go off under canopy (when everything had slowed down) and then slowly move it up to where she wanted/needed it for the skydive. She basically had to condition her mind to hear it.