Carnival Imagination and Inspiration - Now DMR

[avascan522]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to discuss what I found while scanning for cruise frequencies yesterday.

The Carnival Imagination made port in Avalon, CA on Monday and I was able to pick up the input to their new Mototrbo repeater.

Input freq: 467.800 (heard for sure)
Output freq: 457.800 (hypothesized - didn't actually check)
Color Code: 8
Slot: 1
Talkgroups Heard: 638 (Deck Department) - active during lifting the anchor and closing tender hatches.

Today, the Inspiration is in port, and I haven't been able to pick up their analog frequencies:

467.500, DPL 023 - Deck Department & Security
468.325, PL 77.0 - Shore Ex. & Guest Svcs

I monitored all morning and heard nothing. Normally, I hear anchoring operations on the deck channel. I normally see the shore security guards with HT1250's, but I haven't seen a single radio. They have been on their phones a lot, however.

I'll do more monitoring when I expect them to hoist the anchor. That should produce some radio traffic.

- Gabriel

 

[ecps92]

467.8000 would likely be 457.5750 for the output
467.7750 would be paired with 457.5500
and
467.7500 would be paired with 457.5250

Those two Analog Freqs for the Inspiration are part of the Generic Carnival radio network.
No one has/had been able to pinpoint the Repeater pairs for the Inspiration (or tried)

Sometimes you need to be CLOSE to the ship to actually get reception.
I know one USN UHF TRS, I had to be within 100' of the ship to hear the Control Channel, and depending
on how the ships system was designed, they generally don't plan for Off-Ship coverage.

Do you have all the UHF generic Maritime channels in ??

Hello everyone,

I'd like to discuss what I found while scanning for cruise frequencies yesterday.

The Carnival Imagination made port in Avalon, CA on Monday and I was able to pick up the input to their new Mototrbo repeater.

Input freq: 467.800 (heard for sure)
Output freq: 457.800 (hypothesized - didn't actually check)
Color Code: 8
Slot: 1
Talkgroups Heard: 638 (Deck Department) - active during lifting the anchor and closing tender hatches.

Today, the Inspiration is in port, and I haven't been able to pick up their analog frequencies:

467.500, DPL 023 - Deck Department & Security
468.325, PL 77.0 - Shore Ex. & Guest Svcs

I monitored all morning and heard nothing. Normally, I hear anchoring operations on the deck channel. I normally see the shore security guards with HT1250's, but I haven't seen a single radio. They have been on their phones a lot, however.

I'll do more monitoring when I expect them to hoist the anchor. That should produce some radio traffic.

- Gabriel

 

[avascan522]

467.8000 would likely be 457.5750 for the output
467.7750 would be paired with 457.5500
and
467.7500 would be paired with 457.5250

Those two Analog Freqs for the Inspiration are part of the Generic Carnival radio network.
No one has/had been able to pinpoint the Repeater pairs for the Inspiration (or tried)

Sometimes you need to be CLOSE to the ship to actually get reception.
I know one USN UHF TRS, I had to be within 100' of the ship to hear the Control Channel, and depending
on how the ships system was designed, they generally don't plan for Off-Ship coverage.

Do you have all the UHF generic Maritime channels in ??

I don't usually monitor with my scanner anymore. Since I already had the UHF frequencies for both ships, I switched everything over to my XPR 6550 to get better reception. When I heard silence, I got suspicious. That, along with the fact that I remember seeing (what I thought was) a mototrbo radio on one of the officer's belts. This was on shore about a month ago.

I use my XTS 5000 to scan the UHF maritime band. I have all the frequency pairs plugged in and scanning when I want to listen for a new ship (like a tanker, container, or cruise). I'll plug everything into the scanner and see what I can get. Now, with the new digital info, I will be using my XPR to listen (with TX disabled, obviously).

 

[avascan522]

Ship Monitoring

I spent the summer aboard a navy replenishment vessel and was able to pick up the entire UHF Hydra EDACS system. It uses ProVoice digital, with no encryption (which shocked me). Unfortunately, I don't own a ProVoice capable scanner, so I couldn't decode any digital signals. However, I was given a radio during watch. (I was onboard for a cadet internship)
Everything was in the 380-390 MHz range.

 

[avascan522]

Carnival Inspiration DMR

I have a new evolution in this cruise ship DMR fiasco.

I picked up the following frequencies after 4 hours of constant monitoring:

457.575 (input 467.800), Group 678, CC 2, Slot 2 - Heard Shore-side Security
457.550 (input 467.550), Group 672, CC 10, Slot 2 - Deck Department during anchoring (Bridge, Station 1)
* I believe this frequency is affiliated with a radio display I saw that said "CH8 MOORING"
457.600 (input 467.825), Group 673, CC 11, Slot 1
457.550 (input 467.550), Group 677, CC 10, Slot 2 - Might be engineering dept.
457.600 (input 467.825), Group 677, CC 11, Slot 2

I couldn't decipher some of the traffic because the crew was speaking Italian and Filipino/Tagalog.

Hope this is a good start. I'll listen to these channels more closely when the ship returns next week.

 

[ecps92]

Yes, some of the USNS fleet use EDACS or Motorola trunking and others are conventional simplex/repeater

I spent the summer aboard a navy replenishment vessel and was able to pick up the entire UHF Hydra EDACS system. It uses ProVoice digital, with no encryption (which shocked me). Unfortunately, I don't own a ProVoice capable scanner, so I couldn't decode any digital signals. However, I was given a radio during watch. (I was onboard for a cadet internship)
Everything was in the 380-390 MHz range.

 

[ecps92]

Nice...

Guess my Winter project is to expand my web page
to begin to show TG, CC and Slots as the ships begin the DMR Expansion

I have a new evolution in this cruise ship DMR fiasco.

I picked up the following frequencies after 4 hours of constant monitoring:

457.575 (input 467.800), Group 678, CC 2, Slot 2 - Heard Shore-side Security
457.550 (input 467.550), Group 672, CC 10, Slot 2 - Deck Department during anchoring (Bridge, Station 1)
* I believe this frequency is affiliated with a radio display I saw that said "CH8 MOORING"
457.600 (input 467.825), Group 673, CC 11, Slot 1
457.550 (input 467.550), Group 677, CC 10, Slot 2 - Might be engineering dept.
457.600 (input 467.825), Group 677, CC 11, Slot 2

I couldn't decipher some of the traffic because the crew was speaking Italian and Filipino/Tagalog.

Hope this is a good start. I'll listen to these channels more closely when the ship returns next week.

 

[avascan522]

Carnival Imagination

More info for the Imagination


"Ch.8 Mooring": 457.625 (467.800 input) Group 638, Slot 2, CC 8

Engine Dept.: 457.525 (467.750 input) Group 632, Slot 1, CC 6

Shore Ex: 457.550 (467.775 input) Group 637, Slot 2, CC 7

Embarking/Guest Svcs: 457.525 (467.750 input) Group 636, Slot 2, CC 6

Unknown: 457.550 (467.775 input) Group 633, Slot 1, CC 7
- (heard "Radio check... radio check loud and clear.")

Pagers: 457.500


A lot of scanning and decoding today.

 

[N7VME]

I'll be on the Glory for a week starting 2/4. I'll update with any frequencies and modes I'm able to find. I have DMR capability, as well. Should be fun!

 

[avascan522]

Cruise Ship Scanning

Have a good time! Hope you are able to pick up the frequencies. I've noticed that the ships with digital systems are easier to pick up, if you have the right equipment. With so many repeaters onboard, coverage is great on and off the ship, and everyone is using repeater frequencies now. I'm able to receive better on shore than ever before.

 

[dave3825]

I will be on a cruise ship this August. Don't have the details yet but I will be bringing my Airspy and my laptop with sdrsharp. I will be in hunting mode and will report what I find here. I believe it's Carnival out of NYC.

 

[avascan522]

Using SDR# Dongle

A few weeks ago, I found a surprisingly efficient new way of using my RTL dongle. I bought a pack of adapters on Amazon and can use them with almost any antenna and my RTL-SDR dongle. It works great, and receives much better than the telescoping antenna that the dongle came with.