I did another really geeky thing back in 2010 - a Time Lapse of the entire leaving port / next port of a cruise. Took a really big effort, with tripod and computer and cables and camera on the balcony - my wife was totally supportive. Not ham radio of course, but still - geeky tech fun on a cruise. If you have 9 minutes, IMO it's well worth the viewing - it came out pretty stunning, to see the majesty of a great ship entering and leaving ports. I don't feel there's anything wrong with bringing hobby tech on board as long as it's legal, conforms to the ships rules, and doesn't intrude on your spousal time in any way. I feel I've met those goals both with my SWL adventure as well as the video below, the time lapse adventure. Dave W7UUU (The mega-yacht at about the 5:00 minute mark is NOT Bill Gates' as labeled - that's what the captain put out over the PA. It's actually the yacht of Montana industrialist Denny Washington but was too much work to edit a year later when this was pointed out to me - I just left it as most people don't know and "a billionaire is a billionaire - who's counting")
Thanks for the comments guys, and nice video, W7UUU. Yes, there appear to be contradictory statements on the carnival website concerning whether or not ham radios (and "drone cameras") are exempt (I just ordered up a little DGI Mavic and was hoping to play with this as well, while off the boat, of course). And, I do know that they x-ray all the luggage looking for contraband. But I agree, this is mainly for booze and soda (where they make a big profit, I am sure). I will think more about whether I will bring the rig and try playing a little while on shore (the reciprocal license arrived from the Bahamas 2 weeks after the application). And a little SWL action on the balcony while catching some rays sounds like fun too! 73, Tim K4YCX
Yeah, that web page says its ok, but a linked webpage says ham radios are prohibited: https://help.carnival.com/app/answe...zZldpTWxfYlkxTm1ZeWRxeEpJZmtOMWg0QSUyMSUyMQ== And two email requests and a fax to customer care came back negative. So, I think it really is negative. Maybe they saw this photo and changed the rules!
read the part 97 you must get permission from the captain both planes and ships to operate radio equipment aboard the vessel of plane brian ka1ltl
A few weeks back I made contact on 40 meters with Hams on the Carnival Breeze. They were out of Texas cruising to the Caribbean. They had 2HF stations setup on board and had a hole group of hams operating. They said that all the setup of radios and antennas was already setup and they could not change anything but could operate the hole cruise as long as they were licensed. For more details check the N5DSR page. https://www.qrz.com/db/N5DSR
