[amsat-bb] Re: Transporting HT and Arrow Antenna on commercial flight

[Mark Saurman]

I've traveled with my HTs often over the years but only most recently
with my Arrow.  Last year I had my VX-7R and a Pryme AL-800
telescoping whip in my carry on going between FLL and LIM.  A TSA
X-Ray screener in Ft Lauderdale pulled me aside for secondary
screening where they took everything out of my carry on and swabbed
the whole thing.  The HT had the battery in fully charged and the
antenna was disassembled.  I offered to turn it on for the inspector
and they said NO quite emphatically.  They took it away to a
supervisor.  Apparently they saw the antenna connector and thought the
ground and centre conductor were stun gun electrodes!  They also took
out the telescoping whip and extended it so hard that they pulled one
of the traps apart.  That same carry on with the same stuff in it had
passed through security at DTW, CUZ and LIM with no problems
whatsoever other than the x-ray belt going back and forth a few times
on my bag.

On other occasions, they just take it out, look at it for a second, do
the swab test and put it back in if anything at all.  Over Christmas I
took the arrow with me.  I disassembled all of the elements.   I put
the 2 meter elements inside the boom except for the gamma match which
I taped to the outside of the boom.  I put all of the 70cm elements in
a Ziplock bag and took them in my carry on.  The boom just barely fit
in my oversized duffel bag.  Should have spent the extra $6 and got
the split boom!  At YTZ (Toronto Island Airport), your checked bags
and carry ons both go through the same x-ray and one of the agents
tells the x-ray person that it's a checked bag and they don't give it
as much scrutiny so the Arrow made it through no problem.  The carry
on however got pulled for manual screening and they focused on the
HT's and the bag of elements.  He just asked what they were and I told
him and all was okay after he ran the swab test.  This same bag went
through security at YYT with no questions asked.

73,
Mark VO1ONE/N8TLV


> -----Original Message-----
> From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
> Behalf Of Reid Crowe
> Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 9:44 PM
> To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Transporting HT and Arrow Antenna on commercial flight
>
> Has anyone had luck with transporting an HT on a commercial flight in
> their carry on luggage recently?  I doubt I'd have much luck with
> transporting an arrow antenna in my carry on.  Any thoughts?
>
> 73
>
> Reid N0RC