Re: [IRCA] Cruise ship dxing

[Volodya S]

Right you are, Colin!   I've done many cruises, and always bring along a
radio, including SDRs at times.  If you have a balcony, great.  Trying to
DX from within is a wasted exercise, mostly.  Too much noise within the
ship.  One can try to tape a magnetic loop on a window, but it's a poor
second choice to being outside, where you can DX with the whip (or a random
wire, or magnetic loop outside).  I've never had any issues with crew, but
I have heard of others being ordered to remove any wires.  No issue on HAL,
my usual cruise line.   Another good spot is at the aft end of the ship
where there's usually lots of open space, and little noise.  I DX'd there
crossing the Pacific a few years ago, with excellent resultsjust about
froze my **s off, though, trying to do the same in Greenland this past
summer!SDRs are a good option.  I brought an Elad FDM S2 with me on our
last across Pacific cruise.  It was great to record the entire band, and to
then also do some FM DXing (along with RDS) in exotic locales like
Vanuatu.   There's a start.  Oh, never, ever, had any questions from the
airlines or security about modified portables.   All good there.73,
Walt

On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 8:46 AM R. Colin Newell 
wrote:

> Walt Salmaniw is the global cruise expert -- he'll likely chime in shortly.
>
> On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 4:09 AM Carl DeWhitt  wrote:
>
> > I will be going on a southern Caribbean cruise soon.I plan to take along
> a
> > newly acquired C.Crane Skywave SSB,a Grundig 2 and possibly a Tecsun
> PL-380
> > to do some dxing onboard.Our room has a balcony which.might be good to dx
> > from.Has anyone in the group done any cruise ship dxing ? Do you have any
> > recommendations ?I plan to concentrate on AM and FM and possibly some
> > SWBC.Thanks.Carl DeWhitt,KI5SF
> > ___
> >
> >
>
> --
> Colin Newell - Editor and creator Coffeecrew.com
>  and
> DXer.ca  -
> Ham Radio VA7WWV | Twitter @CoffeeCrew | Victoria - B.C. Canada
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Re: [IRCA] Cruise ship dxing

[R. Colin Newell]

Walt Salmaniw is the global cruise expert -- he'll likely chime in shortly.

On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 4:09 AM Carl DeWhitt  wrote:

> I will be going on a southern Caribbean cruise soon.I plan to take along a
> newly acquired C.Crane Skywave SSB,a Grundig 2 and possibly a Tecsun PL-380
> to do some dxing onboard.Our room has a balcony which.might be good to dx
> from.Has anyone in the group done any cruise ship dxing ? Do you have any
> recommendations ?I plan to concentrate on AM and FM and possibly some
> SWBC.Thanks.Carl DeWhitt,KI5SF
> ___
>
>

-- 
Colin Newell - Editor and creator Coffeecrew.com
 and
DXer.ca  -
Ham Radio VA7WWV | Twitter @CoffeeCrew | Victoria - B.C. Canada
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Re: [IRCA] Cruise ship dxing

[James Renfrew]

When I visited the Dominican Republic many years ago the MW band was awash
in Venezuelans,  I'm not sure that as many are on the air any more.  Jim
Renfrew, Clarendon NY

On Mon, Nov 4, 2019, 07:09 Carl DeWhitt  wrote:

> I will be going on a southern Caribbean cruise soon.I plan to take along a
> newly acquired C.Crane Skywave SSB,a Grundig 2 and possibly a Tecsun PL-380
> to do some dxing onboard.Our room has a balcony which.might be good to dx
> from.Has anyone in the group done any cruise ship dxing ? Do you have any
> recommendations ?I plan to concentrate on AM and FM and possibly some
> SWBC.Thanks.Carl DeWhitt,KI5SF
> ___
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> IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers
>
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>
> To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
>
>
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[IRCA] Cruise ship dxing

[Carl DeWhitt]

I will be going on a southern Caribbean cruise soon.I plan to take along a
newly acquired C.Crane Skywave SSB,a Grundig 2 and possibly a Tecsun PL-380
to do some dxing onboard.Our room has a balcony which.might be good to dx
from.Has anyone in the group done any cruise ship dxing ? Do you have any
recommendations ?I plan to concentrate on AM and FM and possibly some
SWBC.Thanks.Carl DeWhitt,KI5SF
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Re: [IRCA] Cruise ship DXing

[Gary DeBock]

Thanks for the detailed report from the cruise ship, Walt!

<<< In many ways, I was envious of Gary Debock who was safely on the
ground in the Cook Islands while we were heaving in very rough seas north
of New Zealand. With his setup, he could escape the noise completely, and
DX some very awesome targets, that I can only dream about here. On the
other hand, we are traversing many thousands of miles of ocean, enabling
some armchair copy of stations rarely heard, or very difficult catches,
especially while in port. On those days, I’d let the mp3 recorder run all
day, while on an excursion, so it’s fun to have a 5 to 7 hour recording of
a local MW station (540 Samoa, 558 Radio Fiji 1, 990 Fiji Gold, 621 Radio
Tuvalu to name just a few). >>>

After recalling our email correspondence just before your cruise, I'm kind of 
kicking myself for not sending out the new 7.5" loopstick PL-380 model through 
Vancouver Customs, and taking my chances that they wouldn't delay it for a week 
(like they did with Colin's package in December). After spending over 10 years 
attempting to chase DX on U.S. Navy ships your description of the challenges of 
maritime DXing sounded all too familiar. Shipboard radar and other RFI sources 
made it tough to chase DX at sea, while the salt spray corroded any type of 
exposed antenna elements.

Even in the Cook Islands our motel was an RFI generator, so it was necessary to 
walk about 50m down to the lagoon beach for noise-free DXing. But then a 
bizarre new problem showed up-- the enhanced ocean beach propagation boosted up 
multiple stations at once, so that they tended to blank each other out. I also 
tried for 1566-Norfolk Island, but the mega-pest 3NE seemed to own the 
frequency. When it took a rare fade two other DU English stations mixed at a 
near S9 level, making it very tough to decipher the programming. These were 
almost certainly the very low power 4GM and Norfolk Island, but it simply 
sounded like a snarled mess. I didn't know at the time that Norfolk island was 
relaying RNZ, or I could easily have checked a parallel.

The sunrise gray line propagation was seriously slanted toward east Asia, but 
it shut down Japan almost completely. Obscure stations like 693-Bangladesh, 
918-Cambodia and 1431-Mongolia sounded much stronger than the ghostly 
774-JOUB-- the only Japanese to show up at all. Bizarre! Have a safe cruise to 
Hawaii, Walt.

Gary

> On April 23, 2018 at 6:58 PM Volodya S  wrote:
>
>
> *Musings about DXing aboard a cruise ship*
>
>
>
> Having spent a month now aboard the Holland America Line cruise ship,
> the Noordam, and now 5 days out from Honolulu, I thought it might be
> interesting for some to read about my experiences with DXing from a large
> cruise ship on the open ocean. This isn’t the first time I’ve DX’d, having
> done so about 9 years ago on almost the same voyage between Sydney,
> Australia and North America. On that first voyage across the Pacific, I
> used a brand new Gary Debock furnished Eton e1 ultralight receiver,
> modified with an external ferrite rod, with an adjustable coil. From
> within the ship, of course, reception is near impossible. On that voyage,
> I DX’d from the aft end of the ship, high up on near the pool, in the open.
> Most of my DXing occurred after dinner, when the area was deserted. I
> recall the noise to be very low, and results very good, especially around
> New Zealand, where I was able to confirm most stations (on MW) on the air. I
> did no recordings, but posted occasionally to DX lists. In those days, SW
> was more widespread, so I also spent some time on those bands (recalling
> Radio Malaysia, for example, on 15295 in English after sunset), using about
> 20 feet of random wire attached by alligator clip to the Eton’s whip.
>
>
>
> Three years ago, we spent 35 days aboard another HAL ship, sailing
> from Vancouver, down the west coast of North and South America, around Cape
> Horn, to the Falklands, and finishing the journey in Buenos Aires,
> Argentina. On that voyage, I elected to bring along my original SDR-IQ,
> with an old Wind small laptop. For an antenna, I brought about a 50’
> length of random wire, through an impedance matcher, and into the IQ. DXing
> was done at the back of the ship, below the pool deck, along a very private
> area that virtually no one used, keeping me away from the many prying eyes
> and quizzical looks! Again, results were very good for more local MW
> broadcasts, and also for reception of LRA 36 on 15476 from Antarctica,
> which I enjoyed daily. Drawback was that I was limited to 192 kHz of
> bandwidth at a time.
>
>
>
> On this voyage, from Sydney to Tasmania, to New Zealand, and then back
> to Sydney, before proceeding to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, American
> Samoa, and upcoming to the Hawaiian Islands, and home to Vancouver, I
> brought with me my underutilized Elad FDM-SW2 SDR, and a pretty fast Asus
> U36S series 13” laptop, and a Wellbrook ALA 100 loop antenna. For the
> fi

Re: [IRCA] Cruise ship DXing

[Pete Taylor]

Walt,

Thanks for your comments on cruise ship DXing. Of particular interest was your 
statement: "There’s not any good way of knowing position, or predicted route.”

We go back and forth between Princess and HAL and in nearly all cases, there is 
a ship-produced TV channel which displays speed and coordinates. Only twice has 
this not been the case: (1) we left Ft. Lauderdale for Halifax but had to 
re-route because of a tough storm up there (not sure why they couldn’t 
reprogram it on board) and (2) on our December South Caribbean cruise, they 
were modifying the system. Shipboard Wifi is exorbitant and slow so we usually 
don’t bother with it. Instead, I use he Compass program on my iPhone to get 
coordinates whenever there is enough signal to do it (like, in or near ports 
where we use Wifi at Starbucks or McDonald’s).

My DX tools include a DX-398, a Gary DeBock FSL and a little cassette recorder 
which has line in capability. We always get a balcony and always request a room 
on the side of the ship which faces land the most. Thus far, I have not been 
sufficiently venturesome to lug the equipment anywhere outside the room. 
Likewise, FM is of interest too but I am not sure I would bother with it if it 
weren’t for RDS.

We’re going on a South American cruise next year sometime. It should be 
challenging keeping notes since EVERYTHING will be (1) new and (2) in Spanish.


Pete Taylor
Tacoma, WA
12225w 4719n
HQ180 & ICF2010
Kiwa aircore & Palomar loops
DX398, SRF-59 & M37V
Eton E100 + Tecsun PL-300/380


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[IRCA] Cruise ship DXing

[Volodya S]

*Musings about DXing aboard a cruise ship*



 Having spent a month now aboard the Holland America Line cruise ship,
the Noordam, and now 5 days out from Honolulu, I thought it might be
interesting for some to read about my experiences with DXing from a large
cruise ship on the open ocean.  This isn’t the first time I’ve DX’d, having
done so about 9 years ago on almost the same voyage between Sydney,
Australia and North America.  On that first voyage across the Pacific, I
used a brand new Gary Debock furnished Eton e1 ultralight receiver,
modified with an external ferrite rod, with an adjustable coil.  From
within the ship, of course, reception is near impossible.  On that voyage,
I DX’d from the aft end of the ship, high up on near the pool, in the open.
Most of my DXing occurred after dinner, when the area was deserted.  I
recall the noise to be very low, and results very good, especially around
New Zealand, where I was able to confirm most stations (on MW) on the air.  I
did no recordings, but posted occasionally to DX lists.  In those days, SW
was more widespread, so I also spent some time on those bands (recalling
Radio Malaysia, for example, on 15295 in English after sunset), using about
20 feet of random wire attached by alligator clip to the Eton’s whip.



 Three years ago, we spent 35 days aboard another HAL ship, sailing
from Vancouver, down the west coast of North and South America, around Cape
Horn, to the Falklands, and finishing the journey in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.  On that voyage, I elected to bring along my original SDR-IQ,
with an old Wind small laptop.  For an antenna, I brought about a 50’
length of random wire, through an impedance matcher, and into the IQ.  DXing
was done at the back of the ship, below the pool deck, along a very private
area that virtually no one used, keeping me away from the many prying eyes
and quizzical looks!  Again, results were very good for more local MW
broadcasts, and also for reception of LRA 36 on 15476 from Antarctica,
which I enjoyed daily.  Drawback was that I was limited to 192 kHz of
bandwidth at a time.



 On this voyage, from Sydney to Tasmania, to New Zealand, and then back
to Sydney, before proceeding to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, American
Samoa, and upcoming to the Hawaiian Islands, and home to Vancouver, I
brought with me my underutilized Elad FDM-SW2 SDR, and a pretty fast Asus
U36S series 13” laptop, and a Wellbrook ALA 100 loop antenna.  For the
first time, we have a veranda room on the 7th deck, high above the water on
the starboard side of the vessel.



 The first issue was to erect a loop.  For this, I had brought some
speaker wire which I was able to erect in a fixed near square loop oriented
directly in the plane of the side of the vessel.  Drawback # 1:  Directionality
is fixed, wholly dependent on the ship’s direction.  The antenna and the
ALA 100 antenna head have produced all of the issues, and have not been
totally satisfactory.  Of course, there’s a certain amount of electrical
noise in the ship, but I think most of the noise I’m seeing is coming from
the antenna head itself.  Let me explain.  On to Drawback # 2:  The
balcony, despite being 7 decks up is exposed to a huge amount of salt water
spray and up to hurricane force winds.  Unfortunately, the salt water
infiltrated the antenna head, causing it to fail.  A quick email response
from Andy Ilkin from Wellbrook (and with the help of my wife) solved, in
part, the problem with the salt water contamination.  Having been unable to
find any isopropyl alcohol on-board, I used one of the little single shot
vodka bottles in the room fridge to soak the BNC connector for several
hours.  After drying, the antenna indeed came back to life.  Thank goodness!
Still, there remains more noise than I’d like to see, especially in the
upper half of the MW band, making it almost useless to monitor.  The lower
half of the band remains quite quiet, except for Drawback # 3:



 Whether it’s the ALA 100 antenna head, or just the design of the ALA,
the position of the wire is VERY sensitive.  The noise floor fluctuates
continuously, with the movement of the wires, and of course, I’m unable to
stabilize this sufficiently to eliminate this, due to the constant
wind.  Taping
to the plexiglass balcony ledge works temporarily but invariably, the wind,
and saltspray loosens the tape (old white surgical tape), leaving the loop
to flap in the wind (and with it major white residue marks on the
plastic…hope no one from HAL notices ;-) .  Here’s a screen capture of the
MW spectrum and noise floor:



IMage removed due to size constraints with IRCA



As you can see, the noise increases from a very respectable – 115 dB to a
noisy – 90 dB….not so good.  I might add, that the coax used is a small
diameter RG-174 50 ohm cable…perfect for the job of fitting under the
balcony door without damaging either the door, or crushing the cable.  I
wish I had brought another antenna head with me, but