[IRCA] Cruise ship DXing

[Volodya S <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>]

*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 isnât the first time Iâve DXâd, 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 DXâd 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 Etonâs 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 50â
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 13â 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 shipâs direction.  The antenna and the
ALA 100 antenna head have produced all of the issues, and have not been
totally satisfactory.  Of course, thereâs a certain amount of electrical
noise in the ship, but I think most of the noise Iâm 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 Iâd 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 itâs 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, Iâm 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
plasticâhope no one from HAL notices ;-) .  Hereâs 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 â 115 dB to a
noisy â 90 dBâ.not so good.  I might add, that the coax used is a small
diameter RG-174 50 ohm cableâperfect 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 alas, I did not.  In
can some of you wondered about making your own loop, I would argue that
nothing would stand up to the severe winds experienced on the ship, and
only using the shipâs superstructure is robust enough as an antenna support.




     Drawback # 4:  Finding the time to DX.  Life aboard ship is very busy!
While in port, weâre always off the ship, so DXing during those days is
impossible.  On sea days, thereâs breakfast, lunch, and supper, evening
shows, often lectures in the morning and afternoon, exercise, etc etc.
Spending
too much time in front of the SDR screen is also not conducive to a happy
spouse, so one needs to be cautious here!  Attempting to DX overnight also
did not work as the flashing lights from the computer and itâs screen
promptly awoke my wife.  Again, not a way to endear myself with her!!!



     Drawback # 5:  Some DX targets are passed in the middle of the night.  On
this voyage, returning from New Zealand to Sydney, the following day the
Captain gave his noon time announcement, mentioning that we had passed
within 15 km of Norfolk Island (my DX target on 1566)at 4:00 AM.  Of
course, I was sound asleep at the time.  Grrr!   Thereâs not any good way
of knowing position, or predicted route.  I suppose I could have asked the
navigation officers, but then, in this world, I wondered whether theyâd
think something was amiss with a passenger asking too many strange
questions!  I do recall a similar problem during a cruise, circumnavigating
Cuba years ago.  Of course, we went by Guantanamo Bay around the same time
in the middle of the night, making it a tough catch to hear AFN from that
base!



     Drawback # 6: The record timer function on the Elad does not work for
me.  I only get error messages.



     Advantage # 1 of the Elad:   I LIKE the FM function!  In Vanuatu, New
Caledonia, and Fiji, I enjoyed doing an FM bandscan while in port after
returning from our shore excursions.  This is a first for me, as my normal
go to SDR (which I still feel has the edge) is the Perseus receiver.  I
chose the Elad to eliminate another power source, as the Elad is powered
directly via the USB chord.



     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, Iâd let the mp3 recorder run all
day, while on an excursion, so itâs 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).



     I hope that this essay may have sparked some interest in cruise ship
DXing.  I would love to hear experiences of others that might have done
similar crazy antics.  Please, while on a heaving ship in heavy seas, donât
get up too high on a chair to secure a corner of the ALA loop like I did!
73,  Walt Salmaniw, 4 days out from Honolulu and one day from American
Samoa.  24 April, 2018.
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