Do you talk to the --- unlicensed?

[WRUU653]

9 hours ago, Lscott said:

As an example. One would think in a modern country like the UK monitoring like we do here, basically everything, is legal. Nope.

https://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtlaws_may04.html

Interesting read however this article is from over twenty years ago and I can’t help wonder what changes may or may not exist now to the laws there.  It’s noteworthy that they now use encryption for police communications and such which has been implemented after this was written. 

[SteveShannon]

Cruise line publish lists of what is permitted or prohibited.  For example Royal Caribbean has these rules regarding ham radio and two way radios:

• HAM Radios or other transmitting devices are strictly prohibited due to potential interference with the ship's onboard communication systems. This does not include baby monitors, which are permitted.
  • Guests are allowed to have two-way radios, more commonly know as walkie-talkies, for onboard personal communications. Basic specifications are as follows: Up to 10-mile coverage range, Up to 5 watts power, Internal Voice, Operated Transmission, No external mounting antenna.
     

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy

[Raybestos]

8 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Cruise line publish lists of what is permitted or prohibited.  For example Royal Caribbean has these rules regarding ham radio and two way radios:

 

• HAM Radios or other transmitting devices are strictly prohibited due to potential interference with the ship's onboard communication systems. This does not include baby monitors, which are permitted.
  • Guests are allowed to have two-way radios, more commonly know as walkie-talkies, for onboard personal communications. Basic specifications are as follows: Up to 10-mile coverage range, Up to 5 watts power, Internal Voice, Operated Transmission, No external mounting antenna.
     

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy

They want to ensure if you wind up shipwrecked or overboard, you have zero chance of getting through it unless they provide.  Exactly why I will never go on a cruise.

[WRXB215]

9 hours ago, Lscott said:

One would think in a modern country like the UK monitoring like we do here, basically everything, is legal. Nope.

Good reason not to spend money in such countries.

[GreggInFL]

3 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Cruise line publish lists of what is permitted or prohibited.  For example Royal Caribbean has these rules regarding ham radio and two way radios:

 

• HAM Radios or other transmitting devices are strictly prohibited due to potential interference with the ship's onboard communication systems. This does not include baby monitors, which are permitted.
  • Guests are allowed to have two-way radios, more commonly know as walkie-talkies, for onboard personal communications. Basic specifications are as follows: Up to 10-mile coverage range, Up to 5 watts power, Internal Voice, Operated Transmission, No external mounting antenna.
     

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy

Interesting that there is, apparently, no limitation on using the HT in foreign ports. Then again, perhaps they have done their homework and know there would be no problems in ports they visit.

You have to go to the bridge to get the answer. I once asked a non-officer crew member what frequency was being used for port operations at our next stop. He responded, "We don't use frequencies, we use channels".

[73blazer]

On 7/25/2025 at 9:31 AM, Raybestos said:

 Exactly why I will never go on a cruise.

I'm not sure why, but cruise lines seem to go out of their way to block certain things. It's their world and laws don't really apply, they can do whatever they want. I recently took the Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southhampton UK, and was appalled to see what they were doing with the internet. If using "normal" internet things like google, Youboob, FB, Insta, tik, it works great, super fast (the boats main connection out is using Starlink). Anything else is choked off to about ISDN (1Mb) speeds but still somewhat functional. So if using your own email servers and not googles or outlook/microsofts, downloading email with attachments, is a minutes long experience.  Commercial VPN's like Nord are all blocked, even their websites. I connect via my own private VPN back to my office and the std VPN ports are blocked. NP, as the IT person, I logged to the web admin interface at my office and changed my ports there and on my devices client. That worked for 2 days. After that it was blocked. I changed the ports again, after a few hours, blocked. I changed the connection type from IPSec to SSL VPN which uses normal web ports 443 to negotiate and that worked for another 2 days or so. After that they simply blocked my office IP address, not just for my device/login, for anyone on the boat and probably every Carnival boat (the boats parent owner/operator). I checked with my evening table mates (in my Tuxedo of course, it is the Queen Mary)  nobody could even reach my website. So they have a short whitelist of sites that get normal speeds, a blacklist, and the vast majority of the internet is a greylist that gets choked off speeds. I seemed to have jumped from grey to black by simply using my private VPN tunnel to my office. Yep, your in their world.

[WSJE500]

If I hear any kind of chatter, I go to another GMRS channel.  I have only set up privacy codes on two channels, One CTCSS and the other DCS.  These were for my own education.  I haven't really tried repeaters yet and try using FRS first, then GMRS.  And all this is deep in the Cherokee National Forest.  So I've heard nothing.  It's not that I'm unfriendly.  I just don't want everyone to know where my stands and game cameras are.

[amaff]

4 minutes ago, WSJE500 said:

If I hear any kind of chatter, I go to another GMRS channel. 

Kinda same, honestly. Unless I'm testing out a new radio or install, I basically never talk on the radio to talk on the radio. We're at the track or strung out along a hiking trail or in a group of vehicles driving somewhere and we need to talk amongst our group, not really to anyone else. Other people on frequency means we're moving to our secondary channel haha