Travelling with a Shortwave Receiver

On my first cruise I noticed that our luggage was unusually heavy. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed that my wife had accidentally packed 450 Tylenol tablets. Given that we were gone for a total of seven days, she would have had to take a whopping 64 tablets a day to finish them all before arriving home! Was she trying to tell me something?

What's in these bags anyway?
This little oversight got me thinking that there might be a few other unnecessary items in our payload. Upon further investigation I discovered that we had packed a travel iron, ocean bed shoes, two pairs of dress shoes each, plus running shoes, beach sandals, soft drinks, a family-sized bar of soap, snorkel gear, lots of dress clothes for the formal nights, a full-size hair dryer and a lot more!

Anyhow, you must be wondering what this has to do with shortwave radio!

They way I look at it, if we had left just a couple of those frivolous (and heavy) items behind, we could have taken a small shortwave radio with us. Had we had left all the unnecessary stuff at home, we could have brought a tabletop radio with us and still come out even! Without making any changes to our payload I could have made space for a tiny radio like the Grundig Mini 300. It's inexpensive, weighs only a few ounces and can fit in your pocket!

The ship's information bulletin stated that the use of travel irons is strictly forbidden as they are considered a fire hazard. I could have taken a a decent portable shortwave receiver instead of the iron!

To be honest with you, I work around radio equipment and I really didn't think I would feel much like listening to a radio on my vacation. I was wrong!

Sitcom Withdrawal
Call me ignorant but I really thought the ship would be equipped with multi channel audio programming (similar to what is heard on an airplane). I was suffering from sitcom withdrawal and the prospect of any type of radio programming was starting to appeal to me. I would have settled for a feed from the local radio station and perhaps a couple of strong shortwave stations. What we actually got was an embarrassment when compared to the other amenities on the ship. (I have been on other cruises since this article was written and some even had a TV in the room with a few satellite stations. I still recommend that you take along a radio as there is no guarantee of what you'll actually get. Same goes for accommodations at resorts and hotels!)

Bring on the Announcements
The in-house sound system consisted of a three position rotary selector switch and a volume control! If those three positions had have been filled with good programming I would have been satisfied with just three channels. For the most part, two of the three channels were identical and the 3rd channel had no programming at all. The volume was so low it was hard to hear. In contrast, the announcements that interrupted the "entertainment system" were much louder!

The voice of Experience
Take it from me. A portable shortwave radio would have been a welcome companion on a trip like this. I could have used the radio to learn a little bit about the islands we were visiting. I could have stayed up on world news as well as my local news, weather and sports scores from home. I could have spent some time listening to rare stations that are not heard on the shortwave bands at home.

I could have done all that and more had I just brought a shortwave receiver... Instead, I brought a travel iron!