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 Previous: Amateur to Turn in Ticket in Police Radio Interference Case |  Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Youth and Emergency Communication |
By Hugh Tinley, K0GHK
October 14, 2003
Desiring to return to the South Pacific, a retired Nebraska ham sets out across the Pacific Ocean aboard a freighter bound for Australia and New Zealand on a 49-day marine-mobile Amateur Radio excursion.
 The Columbia Star container cargo ship off the northern New Zealand coast. The author completed a 49-day voyage from Seattle to Australia and back aboard the ship. [Blue Star Lines, P. M. Stacey, Photo] |
Operating HF Amateur Radio from an ocean-going freighter is more fun than Christmas, the Fourth of July and a birthday all rolled into one. This is particularly true if the ham involved had been running 80 W to an inside dipole in a basement apartment. His sudden popularity with others, operating marine mobile from the ship, might make him feel he had died, gone to Heaven and been given such a trip instead of a harp.
That ham was me in January 1996. Before I retired from a life in the agriculture business, my work sometimes took me into the South Pacific. When I retired, I wanted to return to that paradise, and my return was on a freighter and with a ham rig.
The vessel I was on for seven weeks was the 23,000-ton British container ship Columbia Star. The nine passengers ate with the captain and chief engineer, and we were on a first name basis with both of them, as well as most of the crew. It was a friendly, middle-aged container ship, typical of the freighters that today are calling on the sleepy little islands of the South Pacific.
The ship's voyage started in Seattle, and the first stop was in Long Beach, California to pick up cargo...and me. Coming from Nebraska, I liked California's January weather, and as we headed for the equator, I liked the weather even better. The seven-week swing through the South Pacific included cargo stops at the island Kingdom of Tonga, then on to the Fiji Islands. Then it we were off to Christchurch, New Zealand and finally on to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. From there, it was back to Seattle.
Meals on the ship were like the ship itself: good and satisfying, but nothing fancy. The day before going into a port, the chef might ask the passengers what they would like to have him pick up the next day when he was shopping for food. It was a relaxed ship, comfortably working its way around a relaxed part of the world.
World War II and the movie "South Pacific" brought to the attention of the American people the friendly, easygoing life that people lived in the South Pacific. Surprisingly, this pleasant way of life is still going on. If the pressures of life ever cause you to scream, "Stop the world, I want to get off!" then perhaps you should get on a South Pacific freighter and become a maritime mobile ham with a big, attention-getting call sign!
Nuts and Bolts: Putting the Trip Together
Cost is always a prime consideration. It will vary, but $70 to $130 a day is a good estimate. That's well below the $300-plus per day for a 30 or 45-day excursion on a cruise ship, and your accommodations on the freighter would no doubt be substantially better. The accommodations are typically the unused staterooms of officers no longer needed on board due to satellite navigation and communication systems. You will find several agencies specializing in freighter travel on the Internet [a search for "freighter cruises" on a popular Web search engine came back with 1300 results--Ed.], but here are two, and I think both are good. Travel Dynamics Group in La Jolla, California, and Freighter World Cruises in Pasadena, California is another.
Before you put any money down for a freighter voyage, here are some considerations:
 Many cargo freighters have unused staterooms that are no longer used by ship's officers. [Hugh Tinley, K0GHK, Photo] |
[A good place to begin finding answers to these and other questions is at the Around The World Traveler FAQ.--Ed.]
Radio Gear: What to Take
You don't want to take a lot of stuff, as you have to pack it, carry it, probably get it on and off airplanes--and for sure, get it on and off the ship. So what should you do? You should plan on taking two of everything, so if something breaks, or gets lost, you will still be in business. The alternative is to do as I did: Take one of everything...and pray. There is one positive thing about the latter approach: If something breaks or gets lost, you can look forward to a trouble-free, QRM-free boat ride.
For an antenna, I took a Hustler mobile vertical. As the Hustler is light, can be taken apart quickly and it was easy to pack. As it turned out, my stateroom was 80 feet above the water and I was able to stick the antenna mount on a handy post. The antenna was not only in the clear and 80 feet above the water, but it was easy to get at when I changed frequencies.
A vertical is an ideal antenna to use on a steel ship. The Columbia Star is a 23,000 ton steel ship floating deep in salt water; it made an ideal counterpoise for the antenna and I couldn't have asked for better performance out of the setup. With it, the 100 W from my ICOM 757 and the attention-getting call sign of "K0GHK/C6A, maritime mobile region 3," I ended up at the bottom of some big, big pile ups...and never had so much fun in my life.
 Tinley relaxes in front of his "shack," a small table with a Kenwood TS-130S transceiver. A Hustler mobile antenna on a balcony rail completed the station. [Hugh Tinley, K0GHK, Photo] |
A few more things to consider...
As the salt sea air will really do a number on aluminum, I taped the Hustler with plastic tape from one end to the other, and it stood up to the 49-day voyage with no damage. Grease or oil, if you apply it every couple of days, will do a good, temporary job of protecting bolts and a metal antenna-mounting bracket.
When it comes to coax, I'd advise taking the small stuff. Since you don't know how much you might need, take 150 feet in three, 50-foot lengths with male coax fittings on the ends. Don't forget female coax fittings to join sections together, as necessary.
Take a pocket knife, a medium sized screwdriver, pliers and wrenches for the antenna mount, extension cord, and a 120 V transformer if the ship has 220 V ac. Ask ahead of departure what type of plug is used aboard ship so you can match your ac power cords to the receptacle on the ship. Black electrical tape, fuses, a short length of hook-up wire, pencils and a spiral-bound notebook will double as a log and as a paper supply. Note frequencies and PL tones of the repeaters you may encounter, and a list of DX call sign prefixes.
Finally, although you may be an adult, it's great to have a local "babysitter" so you can stay in touch with the folks at home. I had a great one in Lori Bogle, AAOBS. Lori lives in my neighborhood and is one of the net control stations on the DX net at 14.251 MHz. Lori was as dependable as a clock, and though I was on the other side of the world, she kept me up-to-date on the news at home.
Hugh Tinley has been a ham since 1962. He retired as
president of Farmers National of Omaha, the largest farm management company in
the US, and also served as a volunteer for the US Departments of Agriculture
and State, briefing overseas embassies on agricultural issues. During the
Vietnam conflict, he originated Operation Hello, running phone patches for
serving Marines and their families. Tinley remains active in the Service Corps
of Retired Executives, Rotary Club and Amateur Radio. He can be reached via
e-mail at htinley@yahoo.com.
| Previous: Amateur to Turn in Ticket in Police Radio Interference Case | Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Youth and Emergency Communication |
