What Radio Systems Should I Expect On The Carnival Celebration?

[polkaroo]

Be discreet. The staff screening you at embarkation likely have as much training and authority to ruin your fun as your typical disinterested or power-tripping TSA agent. I passed once by saying the SDR stick is for watching tv while I'm in port (it's the generic ones that say FM/DVB/ATSC) but the 3-way power tap was confiscated. If you have wires and antennas all over your room, the room attendant may flag it. If you use a laptop to log, some ships do not allow you to keep electronics plugged in when you're not in your room due to fire risk and the attendant may unplug it as a courtesy that you forgot to do so.

Every room is basically a faraday cage. Look at the amount of WiFi APs on a ship and you'll get a sense. If you're in an interior cabin, you probably won't get anything other than the crew DMR system. Otherwise the balcony is the best spot to monitor. But see the first sentence - 100% there are camera(s) watching your balcony.

Pick a balcony cabin that opens towards land or sea depending on what you prefer to monitor. Going through the logs is a good time to pass the at-sea days.

 

[n4jri]

Most of you are going to tell me that I'm probably single--but yes I am and enjoying the privilege. Not sure I'd be all that into an oceangoing cruise ship, but my vacations generally involve a scanner and a camera and various trains/boats/planes type destinations. I would be curious about taking a scanner on a river cruise like Viking or American Cruise Lines. Would be a lot of fun checking out the action on the ICW, navigable rivers, etc. They hit some great spots in Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay, etc. Anybody have experience with that?

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[n5ims]

I was on a Carnival cruise to Mexico and took a shore excursion (2 busses worth of passengers). At a checkpoint a group that was split up between the two busses were talking on their FCC registered FRS radios and just as the officers boarded our bus they transmitted over their FRS radios "The military is boarding our bus right now!!!". The officers heard this and quickly sent a group to the other bus to monitor the transmissions. After hearing what was being said between the two busses they weren't happy. We were held at the checkpoint for over an hour and Carnival sent a group of high-ranking staff to the checkpoint to try and negotiate a better outcome. They checked the radios and discovered they were FCC registered, not Mexican registered and started piling on charges. They took all of the groups that had or part of that group off the bus and let us depart with a stern warning, leaving those with their FRS radios at the checkpoint. When we arrived back at the ship near sunset we saw those that were detained being escorted back on board and the cruise line and officers were talking and promised that the line wouldn't allow that to happen again. That group was apparently required to remain onboard the ship the rest of the cruise since they didn't leave the ship at the next port of call.

 

[FrensicPic]

Most of you are going to tell me that I'm probably single--but yes I am and enjoying the privilege. Not sure I'd be all that into an oceangoing cruise ship, but my vacations generally involve a scanner and a camera and various trains/boats/planes type destinations. I would be curious about taking a scanner on a river cruise like Viking or American Cruise Lines. Would be a lot of fun checking out the action on the ICW, navigable rivers, etc. They hit some great spots in Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay, etc. Anybody have experience with that?

73/Allen (N4JRI)

I also travel with camera, scanner and hand-held GPS on trains and cruises. In August 2021 I took a 2 week Mississippi River cruise on the American Duchess (AQV). Not much to listen to on the part of the crew. Even with close-call enabled I got no hits. The chief engineer showed me his handy-talkie, a Motorola XPR-3500e. I surmised, they were communicating via the boat's wifi or something. The cheng didn't know anything about the system, he just used it! I did have problems with it down in some of the engineering spaces though.
Most of my listening was on the marine channels, 16 and others. Channel 14 was used while "locking through" the two dozen locks between Red Wing and St Louis but not a lot of chatter there even at those times. The boat would call the lock operator on 14 a few miles out from the lock, not much radio chatter during the locking process.
Good luck.

 

[n4jri]

I've found 3 east coast American cruise boats using UHF low power business freqs for onboard ops, all using a DCS of 131. If the guy on your cruise boat had an XPR, it might be DMR. If simplex, you probably wouldn't get a hit on close-call--at least not an audible one. I generally find them by using a memory bank of lower power freqs often found in off-the-shelf handhelds. Examples would be 467.875 and 467.7625. And yes, very little onboard traffic. The 3 vessels I've caught so far each had a different freq.

But the east coast cruises hit some big port areas which could be fun.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[AM909]

... lower power freqs often found in off-the-shelf handhelds. ...

See Common Itinerant and Business, maybe 457.52500–457.61875 and 467.75000–467.83125 in particular from 47 CFR 90.35(c)(60) (note the odd 10.225 MHz split).

 

[JASII]

My wife and I are flying to Miami tomorrow and the ship is scheduled to sail Sunday.

 

[ecps92]

Happy Vacation and Freq hunting

Also with you in Ports will be:

Miami - Carnival Spirit, Grandeur of the Seas, MSC SeaScape, NCL Encore, Oasis of the Seas and Valiant Lady
Dominica - NCL Encore
San Juan - Oasis of the Seas
St Maarten - Celebrity Constellation, Celebrity Reflection and Oasis of the Seas
Miami - Carnival Horizon, MSC Divina, MSC SeaScape and NCL Encore

My wife and I are flying to Miami tomorrow and the ship is scheduled to sail Sunday.

 

[n4jri]

See Common Itinerant and Business, maybe 457.52500–457.61875 and 467.75000–467.83125 in particular from 47 CFR 90.35(c)(60) (note the odd 10.225 MHz split).

Sometimes a 10.225 MHz split and sometimes just 10 MHz on some seagoing ships. Depends on frequencies used, and possibly which country the ships are flagged for. (Which means that some ships might invade the GMRS realm.)

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[ecps92]

IF anyone is insterested, a two part article on Cruise Ship Monitoring is still available (pre DMR days) at
http://www.scannerdigest.com/files/SD-60-Newsletter.pdf Part 1
http://www.scannerdigest.com/files/SD-63-Newsletter.pdf Part 2

Sometimes a 10.225 MHz split and sometimes just 10 MHz on some seagoing ships. Depends on frequencies used, and possibly which country the ships are flagged for. (Which means that some ships might invade the GMRS realm.)

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[JASII]

I have my SDS-100 running on the Carnival Celebration.

It is showing Capacity Plus (Cap+) system.

I created a system with 457.525-457.600 in 12.5 kHz steps and ID Search is ON.

 

[JASII]

More than one Color Code is being used, too. I typically monitor Capacity Plus systems in which the same color codes are used on all the frequencies. I have heard Color Code 8 on 457.525, Color Code 7 on 457.5375, Color Code 10 on 457.575.

 

[JASII]

The portables appear to be Motorola XPR-75xx series.


TGIDs in the 140 series, like 142, 145, 148.

 

[Computrguy]

The portables appear to be Motorola XPR-75xx series.


TGIDs in the 140 series, like 142, 145, 148.

I have my SDS-100 running on the Carnival Celebration.

It is showing Capacity Plus (Cap+) system.

I created a system with 457.525-457.600 in 12.5 kHz steps and ID Search is ON.

I am on the Celebration now and am not picking up anything. Previously I was on the Conquest and received a bunch of chatter. It must be the way I setup the system. Can you post what yours looks like? Thanks

 

[JASII]

Create a MOTO TRBO system with the 457.525-457.600 frequencies.

Make sure ID Search is ON.

The Color Codes vary by frequency, so perhaps leave that off, initially, until you determine what they all are.

I did also see a couple of Carnival employees with non-Motorola radios. (Think CCR-Cheap Chinese Radios.)

I assumed they were for simplex, but I really don't know for sure.

If nothing else, create a Custom Search in the 457 region. I used 12.5 kHz steps, but perhaps 6.25 kHz would be a good choice.

 

[n4jri]

Wherever CCR's are sighted, it pays to have a list of 'test frequencies' for popular models. Most users never bother to program legit freqs into those radios, and any freq use they get away with on land is certainly going to work okay at sea. I'd also keep a list of available freqs that are preprogrammed into those off-the-shelf Motorola handhelds. Things like this generate a lot of hits everywhere I go.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[Computrguy]

Create a MOTO TRBO system with the 457.525-457.600 frequencies.

Make sure ID Search is ON.

The Color Codes vary by frequency, so perhaps leave that off, initially, until you determine what they all are.

I did also see a couple of Carnival employees with non-Motorola radios. (Think CCR-Cheap Chinese Radios.)

I assumed they were for simplex, but I really don't know for sure.

If nothing else, create a Custom Search in the 457 region. I used 12.5 kHz steps, but perhaps 6.25 kHz would be a good choice.

Ok. Just confirming.
I created the MotoTrbo system.
I add frequencies under a site in that system correct?
I then leave the LCN 0?

 

[JASII]

Yes, do not enter an LCN.

ID Search ON.

I think you may be in Amber Cove today.

I never determined what each of the various talkgroups are for, but it suspect Carnival assigns names consistently. So perhaps:


1) Bridge Ops

2) Engineering

3) Security/Dockings Ops

4) Medical

5) Electrician

6) Fire

7) Shore Excursions

 

[Computrguy]

Thru the Uniden forum Ubbe helped me out with the search feature. I got a hit on TG 143 on 457.5875 color code 7. Not sure who it was but time might help there. It might be security as listed above. Yes in Amber Cove. Tomorrow San Juan.
Im
Just surprised there is not more chatter. The Conquest there was a lot more.

 

[JASII]

Thru the Uniden forum Ubbe helped me out with the search feature. I got a hit on TG 143 on 457.5875 color code 7. Not sure who it was but time might help there. It might be security as listed above. Yes in Amber Cove. Tomorrow San Juan.
Im
Just surprised there is not more chatter. The Conquest there was a lot more.

457.5500 Color Code 8

457.5625 Color Code 9

457.5750 Color Code 10

457.5875 Color Code 7

If I would have been even a little bit more disciplined, I would/coulda/shoula enabled the record feature. Then I could have come back later and, possibly, verified more frequencies, Time Slots, Color Codes & TGIDs.

If you keep listening, I suspect that you will hear TGID 142, 145 and 148 come up.