For decades, audible altimeters have communicated with skydivers using a remarkably sophisticated language:
BEEP. BEEP BEEP. BEEEEEEEEEP.
And somehow, we've all learned to understand it. Three short beeps? Probably breakoff. One long beep? Hopefully you know what that one means. A weird sound you've never heard before? Well, that's a problem for Future You.
But audible altitude awareness is changing. The latest generation of skydiving electronics is moving beyond simple tones and alarms and into something much more intuitive: spoken altitude information. Yes, the Voice Audible Altimeter Madness has officially begun. Skydivers can now have an actual voice inside their helmet announcing altitude, providing jump-specific information, and in some cases communicating information from other devices in an integrated ecosystem.
Digital skydiving altimeters have continued to be improved upon the past few years, but the recent release of the DigiAlti plus the Dekunu One SmartAlti. Alti-2 Juno, and AON2 X2 has really shaken up the offerings for skydivers.
One by Dekunu is the first sport skydiving specific digital altimeter featuring GPS with 3D location tracking. After jump feedback includes jump-path mapping, G-force, swoop and landing zone analysis, which is all synced to the cloud to view, analyze and share. The AON2 X2 has similar GPS features.
The DigiAlti by Freefall Data Systems features a unique LED LightBar in addition to an LCD Digital display. The LightBar allows you to customize up to 33 different light alerts and affects.
So far, VISO II+ has stood strong and continues to be the best selling digital altimeter, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice specifically for you. Read on for a comparison of features to make that choice for yourself.
Skydivers in the U.S. essentially have 7 digital altimeters to choose from. So what are the features of each that would make you choose one over the other?
