[amsat-bb] Ham Radios on Princess Cruises

[Jerry Buxton]

Now THAT'S a booger too, Bill.  While hams are probably not even a
percent of Princess' whole business it would be nice if they would have
an open mind/ear about it, unless someone(s) didn't follow rules and
messed it up for the rest of us.  But those things never happen...

Anyway I'll sure make a note of it on our customer satisfaction survey.

I suppose that the person I was ultimately dealing with, "Ronnie", is
the guy you are referring to?  While we never spoke directly, he is the
one who received my requests and from which I expected the
fax/response.  And who dropped the bomb today.  Given what the agent
said that he told her in the email, I think he's quite happy being a
[sorry].

Maybe I would be slightly less bummed if I hadn't bought a new HT for
the trip, like you with your station setup, it's more of a kick in the
butt when you've invested so much in what turns out to be a waste of
time.  Do you recall if the prohibited items included ham radio when you
sailed?  I just wonder when that got on the list...

Jerry Buxton, NØJY

On 5/24/2017 21:38, Bill wrote:
> Hi Jerry,
>
> Don't feel bad. My wife and I booked a 15 day Princess cruise out of
> San Francisco to Hawaii a couple of months ago. The itinerary had 4
> sea days going and 4 coming back which would be great days for
> operating time. So three months before the cruise I started the
> permitting process. Got a permit from Bermuda to operate aboard in a
> few weeks and then after several weeks, after submitting the requested
> documentation (my license and authorization from Bermuda) received an
> email authorization from Princess Cruises permitting operation from
> the balcony ONLY.  But I was to check in with the electronics officer
> once on aboard before operating. So after loading up the gear and my
> nifty HF and 145/435 MHz balcony antennas in a separate carry-on along
> with the authorization paperwork, off we went. Cleared boarding
> customs without a problem. The next day I requested customer service
> to put me in touch with the electronics officer which was done. I
> showed him the paperwork from Princess along with the licenses and he
> said he would run it by the Captain. Hours later, customer service
> calls the room to tell that the Captain was denying permission to
> operate on his ship.
>
> Well, what made matters worse after being resigned to just receiving
> and after setting up the HF antenna and listening, the bands were
> usually hopping. I guess that big salty sea really helps antennas.
>
> So I guess we can cross off Princess as being Amateur Radio friendly.
>
> I do have the email address for the chap in their Santa Clarita office
> who is/was responsible for Amateur operations if you want to get a
> further read on the matter. To be sure, he got a not too friendly
> email from me when we returned. It went unanswered.
>
> Bill - N6GHz
>
>