Walkie Talkies?

[yorkshire1975]

I read a tip saying take a 2 way radio, after our last cruise I can see it would be a good idea. Anyone do that? If so do they work well, most have a few mile radius. For £20 I think it might be worth a try?

I normally wake up to find my husband gone and he is on deck "somewhere" watching the sail in. More then once I was back and forth looking for him.

[Tom Baker]

I wouldn't bother, tried it didn't work. The ships made of metal and blocks radio signals with 20 feet (ish) OK for open decks, but once you are inside forget it. Crew use powerful radios designed for the job.

 

Arrange to meet at a certain place at a set time or use the numerous telephones to phone the cabin. :)

[jeanlyon]

I can normally always find mine if I wait for meal times :-)

[NL2134]

I was debating walkie-talkies for my next cruise because we are going with a group of about 40 family members. Most of the reviews I've read said you need relatively powerful, more expensive ones to get any decent signal on the ships. And even then, enough people have them and there are so few usable channels that you are constantly having to listen to everyone else chatter on them. After looking into it I decided it wasn't worth it. We can find other ways to meet up or plan ahead to check in with each other at certain times if needed. I already have a decent set with 30 mile range that "should" work and I'm even debating if I should even bother taking those now. It seems like more trouble than its worth, one more thing to carry around, and they cost enough that I'd be upset if they got lost (about US $100).

[winchman]

I would have thought the ship will have a repeater system that's amplifies the signal so allows the crew ones to work.

Now if you knew what frequency they use yours would also work if they are the same

Most radios you buy in Europe operate on PMR446

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMR446

 

You cant use them in the US and you cant use the US ones in the UK as they interfere with the emergency services

[KarateMan]

I don't know how it works but sometimes instant messaging programs on your laptop or pad can send messages to each other when you are hooked up to the ships wifi signal but not logged into the paying internet. We would need an expert to explain how this works. I have travelled with someone last year on P&O and we were both logged into the same Skype account when we were not connected to the net and were able to instant message each other.

[dsrdsrdsr]

I would have thought the ship will have a repeater system that's amplifies the signal so allows the crew ones to work.

Now if you knew what frequency they use yours would also work if they are the same

With the possible downside that if they find out who is broadcasting frivolous messages over their vital network, they may just ask them to leave the ship.

[winchman]

With the possible downside that if they find out who is broadcasting frivolous messages over their vital network, they may just ask them to leave the ship.

I asked on board, they have a private UHF band that's amplified so not much chance of over the counter stuff working

We managed with texting and arranged meets as the ship has a mobile mast

[Thejuggler]

With VOIP and wireless connectivity radios are disappearing in favour of mobiles.