Ship to shore VHS radio

[bob brown]

One thing I have noticed on recent cruises, is that most employee's on board now carry Company cell phones that connect them with the ship's internal system for non-navigational communications on board. These can't be monitored by scanners....

[bob brown]

Can you please report back?

Sorry to take so long to "report back" on this 2.5 year old thread...but I just bought a new scanner, and was seeking some current channel info, hence found this old thread.....

as to what happened in Brooklyn....nothing that I can recall...so I guess I took it on with no problem...:)

[pablo222]

Nobody should be making 'broadcast' calls about their navigation intentions. All non-distress calls should be ship to ship, or ship to shore, and never general broadcasts.

 

M/V Diver Dan, ... M/V Drunk Skunk .... one whistle, captain.

 

One whistle, sir.

 

Apparently the people doing this don't read cruise critic.

[chengkp75]

M/V Diver Dan, ... M/V Drunk Skunk .... one whistle, captain.

 

One whistle, sir.

 

Apparently the people doing this don't read cruise critic.

 

Yeah, reading back over this thread, I've been 42 years at sea, and never seen DSC used on the bridge. Every meeting engagement between ships is initiated on VHF 16 as one ship calling another (now simplified by the use of AIS information from the radar) and setting up a "working frequency" for the rest of the communication. VHF 16 is the international "hailing" frequency. But, all types of "navigational intent" messages are broadcast over channels other than 16, depending on how much radio chatter there is in the area.

 

As for carrying receivers onboard, they are generally fine, but you will likely have to "plead your case" as bob brown did, that it is receive only.

 

For transceivers, anything over 5 watts is required to be listed on the ship's radiotelephony certificate, so these are generally not allowed, even if properly licensed by the owner. The crew use UHF radios, as these work better for steel penetration, but they also have repeater antenna around the ship to boost the signal, and these are all 5 watt and above. Those ships that don't use UHF radios for communication will use push-to-talk phones.

[bob brown]

There was nothing really wrong with my old Radio Shack Pro-60, except that the plastic battery holder broke, and I could not find a replacement for it anywhere....RS is pretty much defunct, they no longer carry its parts, and the actual manufacturer, I believe to be Whistler, also did not have a holder for the six AA's.

So for just $75., I bought a basic Bearcat BC75XLT, which should fulfill my uses pretty well. And it only uses 2 AA's...

Will test it out next week aboard the Anthem of the Seas....:)