Early USD Calypsos

[nikeajax]

Dec 23, 2019 15:31:03 GMT -8 crabbyjim said:

This is an old thread but I am trying to get a history of the USD Calypso regulator.  Some posted a picture of one in Vintage Diving in Turkiye this morning and it’s driving me nuts. The regulator in the picture looks like a first generation Calypso: one hp port, one lp port for the second stage. I have one of those as well as the Calypso J/iV.   Is there a series, i,ii,iii,iv,v and vi? 

CJ, I've started a new thread here for your question!

No, there was never a C-I, or II, but there was a III, so I started referring to the first two as Calypsos-I&II to hopefully avoid any confusion. The C-I if I remember correctly is the 1030, not a good or easy thing to remember.

Here's the valve body:











This would be the C-II:





The C-III is the piston model...

Hope this helps?

JB

[vance]

Nice! Thanks, JB!

[SeaRat]

Very nice, Jaybird. You have some very good representations of the first in the Calypso line of regulators.

Here's a couple of interesting factoids about these Calypsos.

--They are a direct dscendent of the Professional Aquamatic.
--The first Calypso had no provision for either low pressure hoses, or octopus regulators, as the attachment to the first stage was a hose permanently attached to the end cap.
--It wasn't until the second generation, with the more standard second stage, that the standardized hose attachment to the first stage was incorporated.
--Captain Jacques Cousteau used a first generation Calypso on some of his dives on Conshelf II in the Red Sea, as shown in the book, World Without Sun.
--The original Calypso first stage was the first to incorporate a balanced diaphragm into its design.
--The U.S. Navy, much to the shigrin of the Navy divers, whould not approve either the first or second generation of the Calypso because the exhaust was too small.
--The U.S. Air Force did not care about the Navy Approval, and local purchased Calypso regulators for USAF Pararescue. We started out with the first generation, and my first Air Force issued was a second generation (but I already had and used an AMF Voit 40 Fath).
--Bill Pitsenbarger was photographed early in his training wearing an original Calypso. Who is he? You'll see in January.


John

[crabbyjim]

Nice job, Jay!  I spent a few hours going through USD catalogues this afternoon and here is what I found:  your Calypso looks like the one in the 1965 catalogue. Sometime around 1968(?) the catalogue show a Calypso like yours AND a Calypso J with an elongated first stage which I think is a piston, not a diaphragm first stage. By 1974 the diaphragm first stage was a thing of the past and the Calypso IV/J was being offered with 2 additional lp ports. Which one is the Calypso III?

John, you posted while I was writing mine.  What is the difference between the first and second generation Calypso?

[SeaRat]

Dec 23, 2019 19:50:39 GMT -8 crabbyjim said:

Nice job, Jay!  I spent a few hours going through USD catalogues this afternoon and here is what I found:  your Calypso looks like the one in the 1965 catalogue. Sometime around 1968(?) the catalogue show a Calypso like yours AND a Calypso J with an elongated first stage which I think is a piston, not a diaphragm first stage. By 1974 the diaphragm first stage was a thing of the past and the Calypso IV/J was being offered with 2 additional lp ports. Which one is the Calypso III?

John, you posted while I was writing mine.  What is the difference between the first and second generation Calypso?

CJ,

As mentioned above, the first stage had only one change, and that was the hose attachment. The hose was a part of the first stage in the original Calypso, and in order to remove the hose, you had to remove the end cap of the first stage. For the second generation, the first stage screwed into the end cap the same way all hoses still screw into the first stage--it was the first standardization of the LP hose attachment.

The second stage was completely redesigned, and simplified. No longer was the exhalation valve in the diaphragm, but rather at the bottom of the second stage (where it is still located on most second stages). The lever system was redesigned to be much simplier, and to be oriented with the lever attached near where the hose attaches (see JB's photos above for the layout of the first generation). This eliminated a large piece in the second stage.

John

PS, I've added some links above, that you might wish to explore, but not about the Calypso.

PS2, I have several piston Calypso regulators. Anyone interested, send me a PM.

[snark3]

The USD 1970 and 71 catalogue shows the Calypso III. It has the "tire style" yoke screw, also the HP port comes straight out of the body. '72 USD lists a Calypso IV. It has the later style yoke screw (like those found on the last run of RAMs) also the HP port comes out of the body at a 45 degree angle. I have one of each I can dig them out and post a pic if you need it.

[vance]

My second regulator was the red label Calypso like Jay's. It replaced a Healthways ScubaStar TDQK. I still have both. The Calypso was a better breather and I never used my ScubaStar after I got it.

[SeaRat]

Dec 24, 2019 9:07:14 GMT -8 vance said:

My second regulator was the red label Calypso like Jay's. It replaced a Healthways ScubaStar TDQK. I still have both. The Calypso was a better breather and I never used my ScubaStar after I got it.

My Scuba Star was replaced by an AMF Voit 40 Fathom regulator. We both had the same idea, and basically the same regulator.

Here's two of my USAF buddies, Terry Wetzel and Stephen Samo, diving Okinawan reefs in 1968 with their second generation Calypso regulators.

PJ Okinawa Dive003 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

John

[SeaRat]

Okay, above I mentioned, about Bill Pitsenbarger, "...Who is he? You'll see in January." Last week, the premier showings of "The Last Full Measure" started showing in selected theators.



If you haven't yet seen it, please take a few hours and do so. It is critical that we get as many people to see it as possible. I just reviewed this film for "Rotten Tomatoes" and gave it five stars. Why? Because it does deserve it. Also, this is the last film that Peter Fonda made. What I said was that I was a PJ at the same period as Pitts, and crewed the same helicopter in Okinawa, Korea and Thailand. This film is technically very good, and tells the story completely, along with the politics that it took to turn his initial Silver Star into the Medal of Honor over twenty years later.

Pitts was very well known within the PJ (Pararasecue) community, and now we have a film about his life. He also is one of the genuine Vietnam War heroes, and should be well known, but still isn't. This film, by the way, is also twenty years in the making. Here's the trailer for the film:



John