outlawuk

"...fishing from the balcony". That made me smile. Perhaps not appropriate from a cruise ship. But of the amateur radio question generally. Why not? It's a technical hobby. It's interesting to those into it. It's relevant to disaster preparation or resilience. One of the sadnesses of the modern world is that many people no longer have hobbies. They 'consume', but they don't have hobbies. Hobbies can lead to bigger things. Surrey Satellite (or similar name) who are a major supplier of space vehicles for the ESA was developed out of work done by radio amateurs to design, build and get launched their own amateur radio satellites. Indeed there are numerous amateur radio satellites, free for amateurs to use, and a whole UK based industry was created from these people and their enthusiasm partnering with academia and then obtaining funding. It's part of the UK Knowledge Economy. I think hobbies are generally good and to be encouraged. Technical hobbies especially so :)

This is a long reply.

I've been a radio amateur for many years: for the technical experimentation aspect along with the fun of communicating, TOTALLY 'off-grid', with others. Amateur radio is indirectly regulated globally by the UN as an international radio 'service' and as with residents of every other country, I had to take exams to qualify for my licence. It was much harder from a technical point of view to qualify for an amateur licence than even a full HF long-range maritime licence (I'm not talking about Merchant Navy radio officers: wholly different category. If there are any left that is). I had to study for two written exams together with a trip to a coastal radio station (North Forland) to demonstrate that I could send and receive morse code at 12 words per minute without a single character error. Learning morse took me 7 months. So those who confuse amateur radio with CB do the former a disservice, not that I'd denegrate CB for those who enjoy it. Over time the morse code requirement has been removed and there are also lower introductory levels of licence available with much simpler training, but those licence holders cannot operate from a ship/vessel outside of national waters or from other countries. If you are interested in radio, for communication or for experimentation, the most basic level of licence training can now be completed in one full weekend. Have a look are http://www.rsgb.org.uk

Maritime Mobile operation has been recognised as a part of the amateur radio 'service' for time immemorial and such operation does NOT come under the remit of the ships radio licence. The amateur uses their own licence, as of right, as authorised (indirectly) by UN mandate. However... fast forward to the current real world... operation from a vessel is allowed subject to being given WRITTEN permission by the Captain/Master of the vessel. This is where it goes wrong because although you might see the Captain of Hotel Services easily, he or she is not the same thing. Not Cunard, not call centre, not Hotel Services. But get the Captains signature and there is no restriction (until he/she tells you to stop!). Sadly, 'health n safety' and corporate policy probably play a part now so for practical purposes it is not easy to get the necessary written permission. It can happen. If you know the captain, friend of a friend etc, but to most the Captain is inaccessible. In fact only the holders of the most advanced (full) licence are permitted maritime mobile operation so the majority, who now hold basic licences, are excluded. There are still good reasons to travel with amateur transmitting equipment however if one has a full licence, which is because many countries have a policy of reciprocal licencing. For example, throughout the whole of the EU region, USA/Canada, Australia/NZ plus many more countries, one can simply bring the equipment and operate it without further ado: indeed I can, and I do. Even taking the gear on airlines with never yet a single problem. That's quite a privilege in this spied-upon world. Radio amateurs would only be using specific authorised bands of frequencies and these would be most unlikely to cause any interference to ships equipment. In fact the study of interference plays a significant part of the amateurs training.

CB is wholly different. The EU has now approved and harmonised unlicenced operation on the same set of channels on the 27Mhz band as does USA/Canada but only equipment that is stamped with the relevant approval can be used. Amateurs don't have any of these restrictions: they can operate commercial or home-made or military transceivers so long as they only use the approved frequency bands. Amateurs have access to many bands right through from VLF(recently added)/LF/MF/HF(aka 'Short Wave')/VHF/UHF/microwaves.

If you heard someone on-board talking into a walkie-talkie it is almost certain that this was NOT amateur radio or CB. It is most unlikely that any amateur would risk the loss of their licence. Cunard has a policy of allowing walkie-talkies (but not amateur radio). Thank you Cunard for that, well done, how enlightened, but why not allow amateur radio walkie-talkies at least subject to Captains written approval? Perhaps permit amateur passengers to enclose their licence in an envelope with pre-written approval waiting to be signed stating something like '2m Band only, to cease transmission upon verbal demand of any ships officer'?

What you've probably seen passengers using is this... The entire EU region has adopted the system known as PMR446 which (mostly as there is a new digital mode extension rarely heard) is a set of 8, UHF, numbered, unlicenced (ie: free unrestricted access) channels operated from transceivers that would be recognised by many as being 'walkie-talkies'. They are low power devices and unlikely to interfere with anything. The USA has a similar system called 'Family Radio Service' (FRS) which uses very similar frequencies. They are not the same though and an FRS radio is not legal within the EU and a PMR446 radio is not legal is USA. I will be corrected if I am wrong, but outside territorial waters there are no restrictions so effectively PMR446 can be used on any vessel within EU waters, or on land within the EU, without any restriction whatsoever. Once the vessel leaves waters of any other country PMR446 could still be used. Where you could not use it is inside territorial waters of a non-EU country. The same principles apply as regards USA Family Radio Service radios. OK inside USA and their waters and ok outside USA but NOT within waters or land of any other country. Sorry, it's all rather detailed.

The summary of this is that PMR446 and Family Radio Service radios can be used in international waters and in their respective home areas and it is a credit to Cunard that they place no restrictions on their use. Indeed I took PMR446 radios on my recent QM2 trip and used them to communicate both with my partner on board and to a friend ashore as we were leaving Southampton. There are many non-legal radios out there that look like PMR446 and I'd suggest you buy from a proper UK based supplier (Maplin or the specialists Nevada come to mind). If you are from the USA, I understand that FRS radios can be bought in bubble-pack packaging from supermarkets.

PMR446 I found to work tolerably well given the low power output. They worked fine out deck from one end of ship to another, and mostly from inside the ship if on the same deck. It's a LOT cheaper than sending a text over the $$$ ships mobile phone system! The signal does not travel easily through metal so up/down inside the ship isn't much good. Where PMR446 are handy is to take ashore within the EU to avoid roaming phone charges while keeping tabs on friends etc as you explore. That said, PMR446 and FRS are not CB. They share the characteristic of being licence free but are used for different purposes. CB tends to be used to contact strangers who might be on channel available for a chat, whereas PMR446/FRS tend to be used within groups of friends/family by people who know each other, though the channels are available to all and here in the UK, PMR446 is sometimes used on channel 8 (with CTCSS tone turned off) to make contacts with strangers who might be listening. Indeed this could be a good way for youngsters on-board to make new friends and develop an interest in radio.

Is this a sad case of an 'Acid Queen'? I really do not want to be, or appear, discourteous - but I read the initial post in this thread in utter disbelief. Was it a troll, I wondered? Evidently not. I feel having read the review once more that I must leap to the defence of the crew on QM2. I went on a 3 night mini-cruise on QV last Summer, then spent 21 nights from Southampton to Dubai (first sector of world cruise 2015) in 2015. This was our first ever real cruise experience. My partner and I were in an inside cabin on deck 6. We got it for an almost obscenely cheap price I think and although there was some noise above us (from Kings Court crew area) I'm not going to complain. One thing I did see on the ship however was frankly too many people, who really should know better, walking about with facial expressions like they were chewing on broken glass. Quite a few of them seemed to regard the crew as little better than serfs. Shame on them. Honestly, with an attitude like that I think they got the response they deserved. I however went with an open mind and a pleasant attitude and can honestly say that every crew member we encountered was almost magnificent. They came and chatted with us, smiles, courtesies, drinks offered, more chatting with us, more drinks offered. Even the (sunglasses wearing) security officers at the entry/exit were smiles and friendly to us. I have never been so well treated in my life. The experience was so good that I will never forget it. I'm late 40's and my partner early 50's, so we were somewhat younger than most. The only (almost) insult was when a passenger in the theatre asked if we were crew! Hah!! She muttered something about younger people not being able to afford world cruises - it makes me smile even now to think of this. Actually, on reflection, I encountered quite a few discourteous passengers. But...the food in Kings Court was pleasant and mostly good, the staff there incredibly efficient. I really just wonder if the original poster was on some parallel universe, or perhaps chewing glass all the time! I do not mean this as an insult. Further, I'd add that IT'S A SHIP! If you want the sea totally engineered out of the equation, why not travel with some ghastly other company. I saw constant re-painting, constant cleaning.... . The stinging criticism of the Entertainment Director is wholly unjustified. I could go on and on.... but I will leave it there. I hope that readers will see a different perspective. Is this a case of bad Karma or 'attitude'. My lack-of-attitude was, I feel, repaid in spades! I will definitely be traveling on QM2 again, if I can save the many required pennies to do it that is.

The photos is of me, to show that I was actually on the ship.

Dominic (and Mike)

I was very recently on QM2 from Southampton to Dubai and I'm sorry to say that in the wrong places there is a lot of noise on deck 6. If you have a sheltered balcony cabin I think you'd be fine. The problem is not the passengers walking about, it's the trolleys bumping noisily over the room floor-joins (I am sure) in the crew-side/kitchens of Kings Court. In other words, it affects inside cabins in specific places. My experience was quite bad, with loud crashing and banging noises every night, and sadly throughout the night. It seemed as if the staff only came to life at night. So I presume it wasn't ordinary movements of food, it sounded more like batches of clinking crockery being re-located during the night. At times the noise was unbelievable and it woke us up repeatedly. During the first night my heart truly sank (I live next door to students!).

However, don't let that put you off. I had a really cheap price, much cheaper than many, and my gut feeling is that Cunard probably know which are the noisy cabins and they sell them off cheaply through 3rd party sellers. The overall experience of the holiday was wonderful and I would do it again, even in the same cabin: At that price. If I had paid 2-3 times the price for the same grade I would have been hammering on the pursers desk! I got what I paid for and I was happy. But yes, in the wrong places there will be awful noise. Bump...bump...bump...crash....pause a while... bump...repeat!!

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions. It's actually me that's traveling in QM2, but a couple of friends wanted to see me off. I will look on Google car view thing to see if it's possible to get to the end of the end of the QEII terminal, or if there's a security barrier.

Hello all, does anybody have any useful suggestion as to where friends can see the QM2 leave Southampton this Saturday when she leaves for the World Cruise? I see QM2 is due to depart from QEII Cruise Terminal (berth 38/9). Any ideas? I believe QE leaves Southampton an hour later though I don't know if the two ships plan to leave in convoy, or if QM2 just heads off alone at speed? Also, any ideas as to the route: be it East or West of the Isle of Wight? Thank you.

I've seen people asking before about the QE2 special on Keeping Up Appearances. I see it's on the Drama Channel (Freeview Ch 20?) today, Boxing Day, at 17.40. I hope someone finds this useful. Only a fortnight now to my QM2 trip.... exciting.

Well I like my communications, amateur radio is my hobby. At the risk of sounding like an advert, which I promise I am not, there are a couple of communications products you might not know of. If you don't want to talk to anyone, but want the ability to let them see where you are on a map, plus let specific people know you are OK, or if not OK to call for distress via a distress calling centre you could consider a SPOT satellite tracker (look for 'SPOT Gen3'). I had the original SPOT model for 2 years and it was great. Be aware though that it uses the Globalstar satellite system which is not actually totally global! Bear in mind that for all satellite-based systems you have to be able to see the sky. It's not too expensive either. There is a coverage map on their site. But I now use the much better, but more expensive (always the way!!) 'DeLorme InReach' (search for it) which uses the Iridium satellite system which is absolutely, positively, 100% global, so long as you are outdoors or can see the sky. It's like SPOT except that you can also receive text massages and send them back straight from the device, so it's really like doing SMS/texting from a mobile phone. It also does the distress alerting thing just like SPOT. Because there are 66 satellites moving over the planet all the time there is always one above you and even if your sky view is a little blocked, a satellite will eventually come into view and the inReach then sends the messages or track-points in the outbox queue. In fact it's so effective at this that it even managed to successfully send out a tracking trail through an aircraft window over a thousand mile flight and do two-way text messaging. Maybe it's an expensive toy, but then again it might save my life some day and frankly having also used satellite phones in the past (Globalstar [not at all global] worse than hopeless, Iridium [global] great but $$$ and Inmarsat IsatPhone [almost global] quite ok) for most peoples communications needs when on an ocean the inReach ticks all my boxes. At least you can say 'I'll phone you 8am tomorrow morning when I'm in port'. Sadly I'd be the one screaming into the phone in the Chart Room! Except I can't and besides I'm too polite, because an Inmarsat IsatPhone only works with a direct view of the satellite (Inmarsat uses geostationary sats so they are fixed position above equator, like sat TV, so if you can see the sat you can make/receive calls, so you could use an open window).

I hope this wasn't too tedious, we go on holidays to get away from work etc. But I hope this is a brief potted description of the current sat comms options.

I'm new here and wondered if I should change this message subject title. If any moderator wishes to, please alter it or re-file this message as appropriate.

If anyone sees a guy using sat phone or tracker out on deck during the first leg of the QM2 world cruise next Jan it'll be me so do come and say hello.

Once you have the ships signal, your phone will probably keep it until the signal is lost, then the phone searches once more and connects to the strongest signal, or the network with the highest priority in the network list within the phone. I appreciate this might not sound much help to you if you are not 'into' mobile phone technology, but one suggestion is that if you can see land, go on deck then turn the phone off, then on again and with luck it will 'drop' the ships signal and register with the land-based (cheaper) signal.

If that doesn't work, you can always go into the phones network menu (it differs between phone makes/models) and do a 'manual network search' (or whatever your phone calls it. You will then after maybe 30 secs see a list of networks with the strongest signals towards the top and weakest signal lower down the list. Just select the network you want and your phone will then register with that network. It should remain on that network until the signal is lost, at which point it searches again. Sorry if this sounds confusing. It comes easy to me but is hard to explain. One trap however is that your home network might always be TOP of the list even if you are in a different country! That's because the phone (well, the SIM card actually) is programmed to always give priority to your home network, IF it is available. So in actual fact, the second network on the list is likely the strongest. Finally, when roaming abroad I always set my phone to only use 2G mode and not at all use 3G. There's a menu option for this in the 'network settings'. This generally makes the phone far more reliable in acquiring a phone signal, though you will of course loose your 3G data. Frankly, abroad, I find a non-smart phone with an antenna on the top far more reliable. I fear however I might have just managed to confuse almost everyone!

Thanks catherine. Most helpful.

Another question for you all. Thanks for the other answers. I know that ice cubes are available inside the cabin in the ice bucket late afternoon, but are ice cubes available from anywhere else upon request? Or is there an ice machine? I'd like to taken an occasional bottle of wine in an ice cube bag onto deck. Thanks

I'm traveling on first segment of QM2 world cruise in Jan 15 and have no idea how many youngsters there are likely to be on board. My problem is I can't swim and I'm nervous in deeper water. In about 1 metre I can happily float about but 1.5 metre is just too deep. Do adults ever use the QM2 minows pool? If children aren't using it, is this likely to cause offence or complaint? I'm sort of hoping that on this cruise there won't even be any children about who'd want to use it. Thanks

Thank you for all the helpful answers.

Hello everyone, I'm new here, thoroughly enjoyed a 3 night cruise recently on Queen Victoria (my first ever cruise on any ship) and have just booked first sector of QM2 world cruise Soton-Dubai on 10th January in cheapest cabin. Anyhow...

Are the pub meals free? I see prices on Cunard site for Todd English and speciality buffet areas in evening, but no mention of the pubs? On the 3 night 'booze cruise' (?!) the pub was so busy with World Cup revelers that I didn't even get to see a menu. In fact I barely even got a drink! Seriously though it was a fabulous experience. Thanks.