Ship to shore VHS radio

My parents cruised princess to Alaska 25 years ago and my dad brought a ship to shore radio to hear the fisherman and other boats communicate. Apparently, not only was it allowed, but also a big hit with fellow passengers. Anyone know if this still would be allowed?

My parents cruised princess to Alaska 25 years ago and my dad brought a ship to shore radio to hear the fisherman and other boats communicate. Apparently, not only was it allowed, but also a big hit with fellow passengers. Anyone know if this still would be allowed?

VHF perhaps?

My parents cruised princess to Alaska 25 years ago and my dad brought a ship to shore radio to hear the fisherman and other boats communicate. Apparently, not only was it allowed, but also a big hit with fellow passengers. Anyone know if this still would be allowed?

Fishing vessels and other ships use VHF sometime. Many vessels now use satellite radio or UHF.

I have a handheld one that I have taken on cruises. As I don't have a licence I don't use it in Canada for transmission but there is not a licence requirement in the US. I use mine here in Sechelt to listen to the cruise ships as they move from Vancover traffic to Victoria traffic then on to Comox traffic. I also enjoy listening to BC Ferries, tugs and fish boats....it's very entertaining.

I wonder if bringing something of this nature onboard would raise any red flags in the post-9/11 world? The problem with checking ahead with Princess on things like this is that the right hand sometimes doesn't know what the left is doing there, unfortunately :(.

VHF perhaps?

Yeah, probably...

I wonder if bringing something of this nature onboard would raise any red flags in the post-9/11 world? The problem with checking ahead with Princess on things like this is that the right hand sometimes doesn't know what the left is doing there, unfortunately :(.

That's why I posted here to get an idea about if anyone has done it--- I certainly don't want it confiscated and not returned, nor do I really want to shlep it across the country multiple times and not be able to use it. Dad's already letting me borrow his binoculars; an unfortunate incident when I was about 8 years old and dropped his camera lens into a lake is preventing me from borrowing his good camera!! Some people really hold a grudge!!

Most VHF radios, at least in Europe - don't know about the US - now use a feature called DSC (Digital Selective Calling - that is what the MMSI number is for, it is quite simply the ship's VHF telephone number for DSC calling) so calls no longer get set up on Channel 16.

What this means for eavesdroppers is that you will no longer hear the call being set up (when the two parties to the call agree which channel to use) and you will need to scan through the ship to ship channels and hope you come across a conversation taking place. Having said that, most ports publish their 'listening channel' (often channel 10 or 9) so you may be able to listen in the ship to port conversations without too much searching.

Many organisations have a private channel assigned, to them - for example, many years ago, my yacht club used to have channel 101 assigned to them for race control, before the UK rules were changed to allow clubs to use the marina channel (37) for race control - and the UK Lifeboats use channel 0, which it is illegal to have fitted on your radio in the UK without permission, specifically to stop the press listening to casualty related conversations.

I would be very surprised if Princess does not have a private channel, probably the same one for all ships, which they use to communicate between the tenders and the ship which avoids the risk conversations between the ship and its tenders being accidently blocked by fishermen discussing anything and everything from where the fish are to where they are going to go for a drink after work or even having the channel blocked by a fisherman leaving the transmit button accidentally pressed.

Private channels do not come as standard and need to be installed by the manufacturer and, if Princess does have a private channel, you will need to have a radio which is set up for that channel in order to be able to listen in to conversations with the tenders.

So, by all means take your radio with you. You will certainly be able to eavesdrop on conversations between fishing boats and between the ship and harbour control / pilot cutter, but don't be surprised if you are not able to listen to conversations between the ship and its tenders.

just be aware some countries have strict rules against the radios with a license, several years ago my wife tried to take toy walkie talkies into South Korea and they were confiscated as potential spy devices.

Many fish boats and pleasure craft have VHF radios on board that aren't licensed . A license isn't required to operate on some of the marine channels.

Most VHF radios, at least in Europe - don't know about the US - now use a feature called DSC (Digital Selective Calling - that is what the MMSI number is for, it is quite simply the ship's VHF telephone number for DSC calling) so calls no longer get set up on Channel 16.

 

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This feature is used Canada but more for communicating with ships within their company's fleet. For navigation and safety purposes vessels in a specific area do need to hear transmissions between vessels s to their navigation intentions and alike.

Many fish boats and pleasure craft have VHF radios on board that aren't licensed . A license isn't required to operate on some of the marine channels.

The radio is no longer required to be licenced however the operator must be so in Canada.. see bottom of this attachment.

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/h_sf01775e.html

I have brought aboard on all of my cruises, a handheld broadband radio scanner. It is sometimes the best entertainment listening to the bridge communicate with security during the running of the drunks when the ship is ready to depart port. The following site is a good resource to find out the channels (frequencies) that the ship uses. http://scanmaritime.com/frequencies.htm

JEM4205, can you tell us what model scanner you use, and what frequency ranges you have found being used?

Thanks to all for the good information. As long as it's allowed, I will likely bring it and hope I can get some use and enjoyment from it.

I have brought aboard on all of my cruises, a handheld broadband radio scanner. It is sometimes the best entertainment listening to the bridge communicate with security during the running of the drunks when the ship is ready to depart port. The following site is a good resource to find out the channels (frequencies) that the ship uses. http://scanmaritime.com/frequencies.htm

Thanks so much for this link!! I have saved it to my vacation file. I have no idea what the numbers are, but I'm sure it will make sense when I have the radio in hand.

I usually carry my Radio Shack Pro-60 handheld portable scanner with me, and have no problem. But on a cruise about a year ago, the check-in security at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal confiscated it at the scanner, and told me they would give it to ship's security for safekeeping until the end of the cruise. (This was on an NCL cruise).

Once on board, they directed me to the security office, to 'plead my case' to use it on board. They told me they do not allow marine band transceiver's to be used on board by passengers. After a long bit of convincing, that my radio was strictly a scanner-receiver, and not a transceiver, they got permission from the bridge (security officer?) to let me have it back.

I have taken an RCI cruise from Bayonne since then, and had no questions asked. Should be interesting Saturday, to see how I do at Brooklyn, boarding the Regal Princess.....

I have brought aboard on all of my cruises, a handheld broadband radio scanner. It is sometimes the best entertainment listening to the bridge communicate with security during the running of the drunks when the ship is ready to depart port. The following site is a good resource to find out the channels (frequencies) that the ship uses. http://scanmaritime.com/frequencies.htm

I've brought one before, and keep forgetting to bring it other cruises. It's definitely interesting to listen when you're getting close to the end of the port stay, you can often get the communications from the shoreex team to know what's going on. I need to remember to pack it for my next cruise.

Personally I wouldn't take it off the ship in various ports, even as a receive only, I'm pretty sure there's some countries that it's illegal to use, but I'm too lazy to try to figure out the rules for the various countries, and don't really need it off ship anyways.

I think mine's a uniden bc346xt or something like that. It does take some programming ahead of time to get the right channels into it.

Should be interesting Saturday, to see how I do at Brooklyn, boarding the Regal Princess.....

Can you please report back?

This feature is used Canada but more for communicating with ships within their company's fleet. For navigation and safety purposes vessels in a specific area do need to hear transmissions between vessels s to their navigation intentions and alike.

Not sure of the relevance of this:

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.

(Having said that, I must admit many years ago, before we all had radar, I was crossing the English Channel when we suddenly ran into a bank of fog just as we got to the shipping lanes and I put out the following message on channel 16, "This is the yacht X in position Y steering 005 and making 5.4knots. Would any vessel transiting the shipping lanes who requires me to alter course, please call me on channel 16". I received an almost immediate response from the Cherbourg to Poole ferry, confirming that they had me on radar, that I was not on a collision course with any vessel, that I should hold my course and they would monitor my situation whilst I crossed the shipping lanes. I was however BREAKING THE RULES by putting out what was, in effect, an 'All ships' broadcast call in a non-distress situation.)

What should happen in non-DSC calls is that the calling vessel addresses the called vessel on Channel 16 and they agree a working channel. The only other messages permitted on 16 are serious (Mayday) distress messages and certainly not 'broadcast' messages about navigational intentions, which would seriously clutter up what is designated world wide as the primary distress channel.

The point I was making is that, since the introduction of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) on 1st February 1999, all commercial vessels, and most fishermen and yachts (well certainly in Europe) no longer use channel 16 to set up calls.

Instead, the majority of calls in technologically advanced countries are set up using Digital Selective Calling (DSC), which is a non-vocal communication on channel 70, making it more difficult, but certainly not impossible, to find out which channel they are using.

JEM4205, can you tell us what model scanner you use, and what frequency ranges you have found being used?

I have an older Radio Shack 100 channel scanner. As to what frequency's are the most popular? It depends on the Cruise line, and the Vessel. For example, using the website mentioned before, the Caribbean Princess bridge ops. is on frequency 457.525MHZ, Engineering, is on 457.550MHZ. A quick scan of the website indicates that the 400 to 500 MHZ band is the one used the most. I hope this helps.

I have an older Radio Shack 100 channel scanner. As to what frequency's are the most popular? It depends on the Cruise line, and the Vessel. For example, using the website mentioned before, the Caribbean Princess bridge ops. is on frequency 457.525MHZ, Engineering, is on 457.550MHZ. A quick scan of the website indicates that the 400 to 500 MHZ band is the one used the most. I hope this helps.

The frequencies your referring to are called UHF not VHF. UHF is actually very short range (less than 5 miles) . They are used for local communications. They penetrate the steel of a ship quite well.

I have an older Radio Shack 100 channel scanner. As to what frequency's are the most popular? It depends on the Cruise line, and the Vessel. For example, using the website mentioned before, the Caribbean Princess bridge ops. is on frequency 457.525MHZ, Engineering, is on 457.550MHZ. A quick scan of the website indicates that the 400 to 500 MHZ band is the one used the most. I hope this helps.

These frequencies are UHF frequencies and not VHF frequencies. So, whilst you will be able to listen into conversations on these channels using UHF scanner, you will not be able to listen in using a hand held Maritime VHF radio as the standard VHF channels it is programmed to use all fall in the range 156MHz to 162MHz with 50KHz separation between channels.

I am aware the the frequency's mentioned are in the UHF band, I was attempting to give some information to the OP. In case you are wondering the old scanner that I use, covers HF 28-54 MHZ, VHF 108-136MHZ, 137-174MHZ, UHF 406-512MHZ, 806-824MHZ, 849-869MHZ and 894-960MHZ.

As you can see, these frequency's cover the spectrum from the lower public service bands, to ground-to-aircraft, aircraft-to-aircraft communications, land mobile, maritime mobile communications, and amateur radio.

I am aware the the frequency's mentioned are in the UHF band, I was attempting to give some information to the OP. In case you are wondering the old scanner that I use, covers HF 28-54 MHZ, VHF 108-136MHZ, 137-174MHZ, UHF 406-512MHZ, 806-824MHZ, 849-869MHZ and 894-960MHZ.

As you can see, these frequency's cover the spectrum from the lower public service bands, to ground-to-aircraft, aircraft-to-aircraft communications, land mobile, maritime mobile communications, and amateur radio.

Sorry poor grammatical construction by me. I understood that you were aware of the frequency bands. I was simply trying to make it clear to those talking about using hand held marine VHF radios that they would not be able to use them to listen in to conversations on these frequencies.

Sorry poor grammatical construction by me. I understood that you were aware of the frequency bands. I was simply trying to make it clear to those talking about using hand held marine VHF radios that they would not be able to use them to listen in to conversations on these frequencies.

Not a problem, you bring up a good point.

Can you please report back?

If I make it, I won't (would probably forget anyway), but if it gets confiscated, I will definitely remember to report back....;)