Re: [IRCA] Cruise dx'ing???

["Tim Hall" <timhall1@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have DXed twice from cruise ships and loved it.

Over New Years 1990-1991, we sailed from LA to Puerto Vallarta.  I
took my Sony ICF2010 and Radio West Loop.  Reception was fantastic.  I
remember getting armchair copy of WSB from the west coast of Mexico
plus a handful of GYDX records that stand to this day.

In September 2003, we cruised from Seattle to Juneau (one way) on a
sternwheeler.  I took my ICF2010 with me, and shipped my big Kiwa Loop
to the cruise ship (for the trip home, I stopped at the post office in
Juneau and mailed it back to my house).  Reception was great after
midnight (this was a small ship, and there was a really nice lounge on
the top deck at the stern of the boat, which had canvas "walls" with
plastic "windows" - enough to shield me from the elements without
interfering with the DX at all).  I remember hearing good signals from
XECU-1450 and KVNS-1700 on the way to Skagway.  I think I set 41 GYDX
records on that trip.

For recording, you might want to get one of those inexpensive digital
recorders (I have an RCA that cost about $39 about 2 years ago).
They're worthless in the low-fidelity mode but quite serviceable in
the high-fidelity mode (I get about 2 1/2 hours on my little recorder,
usually enough to record ToH IDs and tape loops from the TIS stations
I encounter).  I keep this recorder with me on car trips.  I find I
can get decent recordings of TIS stations while I'm driving, just by
holding the recorder near the car speaker.  That reminds me, I have
about 50 TIS recordings I still need to extract and post to my web
page.

I would expect you would have fascinating reception from the
mid-Atlantic.  I stayed on the Atlantic coast of Barbados in 1986 and
had a great time listening to S America in the evenings, N America
after midnight, Europe at sunrise and sunset, and the occasional
African.

Enjoy!

73, Tim Hall


On 1/23/07, Jim <jn97rk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Just wondering if any of you out there have any experience taking portable receivers on a cruise?
>
> In April, my wife and I are taking a cruise leaving Tampa, FL.  The cruise will cross the Atlantic, first stop being the Azores.  Then on to Spain, Monaco, Croatia and Italy.  About 16 days worth.  I am planning on taking my Sony ICF-7600GR.  Still trying to figure out how to do some recording.  Only antenna will be the Sony's built-in antennas and the longwire (reel out) that comes with the radio.  Figure I might be able to record from the speaker using one of my handheld digital point/shoot cameras in movie mode.  I carry a portable card-to-cd burner for backing up photos.
>
> 73,
> Jim Nall - N4FXC
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