MARITIME SCANNING

[AIRMAN]

There doesn't seem to be any maritime scanning here on this forum. We have aviation, but no sea traffic. Those of us who are lucky enough to live near the sea can listen in on a wealth of interesting information by monitoring the shipping bands on VHF and UHF maritime bands. Some HF SSB traffic can be heard with the right equipment as well.

Spend some time on this useful link:
http://www.scanmaritime.com/

It has the international VHF maritime frequencies listed as well as cruise ships and cargo ships and ports. Very few if any of these bands are trunked or encrypted and like the Airband they are international, so its very unlikely that they will be in the future.

This site has the ship's frequencies for our Sun Princess which is based here in the Port of Brisbane and also all the Cunard ships one of which recently was in our waters as well.

[Scannersplitterguy]

Thanks Airman, excellent site.
I monitor ships via AIS on VHF (161.975 and 162.025). A German company has loaned me some very cool receiving gear and all I have to do in return is provide a 24/7 internet connection to upload the AIS data.
Have a look at http://www.marinetraffic.com. Click on Australia/Qld/Sunshine Coast (just above Brisbane) and you will see the ships I'm receiving. All the interesting facts about the vessel are visible if you click on the ship of interest.

[AIRMAN]

Hey Scannersplitter guy,

That's a fantastic site. Will be of much interest to me, especially the cruise ships our of Sydney and Brisbane. We cruise regularly and have covered most of the Pacific onboard Dawn Princess and Sun Princess.

Thanks once again.

[Scannersplitterguy]

I've been on both of those ships, too Also the Pacific Dawn.
I've taken my scanner onboard each time and been really disappointed at what I didn't receive. They must be using digital....my handhelds are all analog.
Still, I was able to listen to the harbourmasters and tugboats etc while in port.

[AIRMAN]

I have the R20. I really hope that they are not digital, otherwise like you I will tune in to the harbourmasters.

[SteveO]

While I was at the traffic lights on Nudgee Rd at Hamilton this arvo I heard some activity on 467.525Mhz. At first I thought it was SES but they weren't talking SES stuff. They were talking about passengers and loading alcohol etc then I realised it was the bloody big Sun Princess directly in front of me.

Just checked the site above "Live Ships Map" (Pretty cool site by the way) and it is already up off Caloundra. They don't muck around

[blacktown]

Dawn Princess comms tx on 457Mhz and rx on 467Mhz- still analog
I logged 5-6 channels last november when i was on board for the total eclipse of the Sun in the Coral Sea
Plus the on-site security at Darling Harbour Wharf 5

You will find all internal ship comms are either 457Mhz or 467Mhz
They use both bands for Tx/Rx

Some ships are now starting to use Digital TRBO

Grant

[Comint]

While I was at the traffic lights on Nudgee Rd at Hamilton this arvo I heard some activity on 467.525Mhz. At first I thought it was SES but they weren't talking SES stuff. They were talking about passengers and loading alcohol etc then I realised it was the bloody big Sun Princess directly in front of me.

Yes, the frequencies 457.5250, 457.5500, 457.5750, 467.5250, 467.5500, and 467.5750, are available for 'On Board Ship' use in the Maritime Mobile Service.

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Comint

[AIRMAN]

Some ships are now starting to use Digital TRBO .

TRBO?

[Phil]

MotoTRBO - DMR standard uses TDMA instead of FDMA very nice audio, it is becoming very popular around the place a few companies are using it in NSW and Victoria I know it is used here in Qld just haven't found anyone other then DFO


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Comint]

Some ships are now starting to use Digital TRBO .

TRBO?

TRBO = MotoTRBO (Motorola's proprietary implementation of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) which is a European standard for Digital radio).

TDMA = Time Division Multiple Access (like Mobile Phones)

FDMA - Frequency Division Multiple Access.

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Comint