Radio Scanner

[ericosmith]

Haven't ever seen this discussed, but has anyone ever taken a radio scanner on a cruise? I'm thinking particularly about the Panama Canal and scanning the ship to shore communication. GPS in one hand and scanner in the other and I'm all set.

[DrivesLikeMario]

The short answer is probably OK on board ships of any registry but I wouldn't make a show of it. Increased security makes some people suspicious. Not everyone understands a radio aficionado. I definetly don't recommend taking a scanner off board in a foreign country.

 

Bob Leef, founder

RCMA (Radio Communications Monitoring Association)

[Princess Chatterer]

I took a scanner a couple of times and my 2 meter handi-talkie. The easiest way for me to hear ship to shore conversations was to use a nearfield receiver like this one http://optoelectronics.com/xplorer.htm

 

As I remember the ship shore frequency was somewhere around 110 mHz give or take. The ship talked in Italian accented English and didn't have anything remarkable to say. The big scanning surprise was finding the wireless mic frequencies in the Princess Theater. Something like 650 mHz. I used an M1 to find those. http://optoelectronics.com/m1.htm BTW The singers sometimes lip sync as the booth adds orchestration and vocals from a tape.

 

On an Alaskan cruise I tried to pick up West Coast Canadian TV stations on a TV converter hooked to the stateroom TV but the results were poor.

 

It's fun to listen to FM radio on your headphones near foreign countries. Often they have better music that what you hear in the U.S.A.

 

I did enjoy working one of the Istanbul 2 meter amateur radio repeaters in English as we sailed away.

 

Bring your scanner and have some radio listening fun our your next cruise.

 

Michael R. - Radio Amateur W0KIE

 

hmmm: I wonder what the PL tone is so I can talk directly to my cabin steward's radio? What? You say he only carries a pager? ;)

[1FatPER]

I took my Radio Shack handheld scanner on a cruise to Alaska and enjoyed listening to the conversations among the CD and that staff. I believe it was on one of the Coast Guard non-emergency channels. My DW thought I was dorky. Perhaps.

[kf657]

I have a son with some disabilities, but he is a honorary member of our local FD and goes NOWHERE with out his fire department pager and his scanner, so he will be sooo interested in taking his scanner on the ship. You were so helpful THANKS!

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes absolutley take the scanner for the canal although most of the traffic will be in Spanish. :)

[Princess Chatterer]

Try scanning 450 to 470 Mhz. The best time to scan is one half hour before you shove off. It's great fun to hear bridge discussions about how many passengers might be left behind which they really hate to see happen. Most of the on board paging to the staff is digital.

 

Grand Princess:

 

156.75 Tender operations

156.85 Tours / excursions

457.525 ® / 467.525 Shipboard operations

457.55 ® / 467.55 Shipboard operations Ch. 1

457.575 ® / 467.575 Shipboard / Embarkation & disembarkation at Port Everglades

467.75 Shipboard operations

467.825 Shipboard operations

[BayCalif-Ariz R Us]

I usually have my scanner and all that is needed for most of the on board traffice is

 

457.525 Channel 1 Deck Department [ships Operations]

457.550 Channel 2 Engineering Department

457.575 Channel 3 Hotel Department

 

All of the Grand Class ships use the above. There are other frequencies in the 457 - 468 range that are used at times for casino, accomodation, maintenace.

 

Besides the typical Port and calling frequencies in the marine band, princess will use Marine channel 15, 68 & 69 for tender and shore parties and also 161.35 & 161.45 for shore operations.

 

Alan

[pedirn]

DH (N4HQN) has taken his radio on our last four cruises. Princess has been fine with it and we just had to show it to the radio dept for them to verify it. That being said, you have to understand we did everything by the letter as DH strung up a antenna on our balcony. I don't get romantic (flameless) candles. flags. banners etc to decorate the balcony. I get wire strung from one end to the other and back....but hey I'm on the cruise. I do have to say RCCL didnot even acknowledge our request to bring the radio...just played dumb and took it anyway. DH did not have much luck in the middle of the Pacific ocean or the middle of the Atlantic but was able to listen and join conversations when we were closer to land.

 

Chris

[bubbadog]

Yes bring it,you will have fun using it,Wokie..alot of the newer scaners are going digital,with multi-trunking,just a heads-up)))):D

[ecps92]

Always ! GPS and Police Scanner to listen to the Traffic

[both VHF Marine and the UHF Ships]

 

I bring an ear-piece which keeps the odd looks down.

 

PS, looking for Frequencies? See my personal web site at the bottom of my Signature line.

 

Haven't ever seen this discussed, but has anyone ever taken a radio scanner on a cruise? I'm thinking particularly about the Panama Canal and scanning the ship to shore communication. GPS in one hand and scanner in the other and I'm all set.

[Sherri1]

Thank you all for the post. You have just answered my question as to what to get my other half for Christmas this year !! He has just about

every other toy, why not a scanner for our cruise in March? We lug the

underwater metal detector every cruise we go on, what's one more thing. ?? Finally... after many cruises I have found myself packing less clothes, so it all evens out.

I will get the dual ear-plug headphone set to go along with it, so we both can listen :)

Thanks!!

[ecps92]

Don't go over-board , usually a simple basic scanner from the local

Radio Shack will be nice for the trips [bring batteries or get a charger]

 

RS will try and sell you the top of the line, trunking with digital. This is not needed for Cruise / Maritime monitoring. VHF/UHF works well

 

Thank you all for the post. You have just answered my question as to what to get my other half for Christmas this year !! He has just about

every other toy, why not a scanner for our cruise in March? We lug the

underwater metal detector every cruise we go on, what's one more thing. ?? Finally... after many cruises I have found myself packing less clothes, so it all evens out.

I will get the dual ear-plug headphone set to go along with it, so we both can listen :)

Thanks!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Don't go over-board

 

 

Probably not a good idea unless you have one of those waterproof bags. :eek:

[W5KAP]

I took a scanner a couple of times and my 2 meter handi-talkie. The easiest way for me to hear ship to shore conversations was to use a nearfield receiver like this one http://optoelectronics.com/xplorer.htm

 

As I remember the ship shore frequency was somewhere around 110 mHz give or take. The ship talked in Italian accented English and didn't have anything remarkable to say. The big scanning surprise was finding the wireless mic frequencies in the Princess Theater. Something like 650 mHz. I used an M1 to find those. http://optoelectronics.com/m1.htm BTW The singers sometimes lip sync as the booth adds orchestration and vocals from a tape.

 

On an Alaskan cruise I tried to pick up West Coast Canadian TV stations on a TV converter hooked to the stateroom TV but the results were poor.

 

It's fun to listen to FM radio on your headphones near foreign countries. Often they have better music that what you hear in the U.S.A.

 

I did enjoy working one of the Istanbul 2 meter amateur radio repeaters in English as we sailed away.

 

Bring your scanner and have some radio listening fun our your next cruise.

 

Michael R. - Radio Amateur W0KIE

 

hmmm: I wonder what the PL tone is so I can talk directly to my cabin steward's radio? What? You say he only carries a pager? ;)

Evening. I too am an amateur operator almost 30 years now. Did you find any 2 meter repeaters along the Alaskan coast or the Canadian coast. I think a little portable VE7 ot KL7 would be fun. Of course it is just one more thing to lug along!! Leaving Alsaka on the IP 22 June

 

73 de Kenn W5KAP

[Princess Chatterer]

I alway take my scanner on cruises. All you really need is a non trunked hand held scanner and some Princess frequencies you can find by googling. You can also scan on board passenger talkies if you like. I brought my 2 meter HT and a fold up twin lead dipole on a Princess Med. cruise and worked the Istanbul 2 meter repeater in English as we pulled away from the dock. Hmm, I'm heading to Asia on Princess in a few weeks. Maybe I should take my HT. I seriously thought about taking my Yaesu FT-897 to work the U.S. from Vietnam but the licensing was too big a hill to climb.

 

What I like to do is see how far from shore I can work cell phone towers. When Princess started installing their on board cell towers that screwed up that idea. You will be absolutely amazed that in the most god forsaken places they'll have cell phone coverage.

 

BTW: I took my Sirius receiver with me on a Princess Panama Canal cruise and was able to receive all of the Sirius satellite radio streams in the Panama Canal out on my Princess cabin patio much of the time. Is that cool or what?