Can fly with my scanner in carry on bag?

[bharvey2]

Here is a simple solution that works. Take the detached antenna and battery pack and place them in a re-sealable plastic bag next to the ht. If asked. it takes less than a minute to re-assemble the radio. Its just not that big of a deal.

That's exactly what I do in my carry-on baggage. However, I've never been questioned regarding the items.

 

[RoninJoliet]

I flew from Chicago to Providence RI, the TSA agent at Ohara had me turn on my Uniden346xt , that's it....At Providence the agent said "Oh" a 346XT, I have a 15X at home , I really like it, go ahead thru line!!!!...

 

[ab3a]

Wow...great to know you trust your flight crew over a radio. We are trained in Safety. I'm a flight attendant and know what a scanner is. It's also listed in the magazine as a prohibited item. In fact any ground or two way radio transmission/reception is prohibited.

...for use in flight! Declaring it to the flight crew as you are boarding and advising them that the batteries are removed and that it will not be used in flight should be good enough. The flight crew knows you have the radio. They know that you have no intention of using it. The point is that the flight crew knows it exists. I'm an instrument rated pilot and a licensed professional engineer. I can explain in gory detail what this issue is about and why it looks the way it does.

In any case, that should be good enough for any US flagged carrier. Other countries may have different regulations.

One note: The 47CFR15.121 regulation in the US is probably different from other countries, particularly Australia, because it is in ITU region 3, not ITU region 2. A very sharp customs agent may know this and give you grief about bringing in an Australian scanner. However, chances are that they don't know this and you'll sail through.

 

[RohnsRadio]

really will depend on how bored the so called TSA "officers" are. if you get one that wants to prove he/she is "robo-cop" expect to have to turn it on and prove it works.
last time i flew i carried my CPAP machine as carry on due to suitcase being full, and i had to take it out and prove it was a medical device and not a bomb. on the return trip I made room in the suitcase lol

 

[MarcoDriver]

Hi everybody,

Don't know if this matters in your "statistic", but at the metal detectors before a national flight in Italy they asked me to turn on the scanner to check if it was a real electronic device and not anything else.
Anyway, after that "check", they told me to absolutely not turn on the device when on board...

 

[ab3a]

Anyway, after that "check", they told me to absolutely not turn on the device when on board...

...And that is perfectly within their authority. This is not a democracy. You are a passenger, subject to the authority of the flight crew. This is governed by Admiralty law. Don't like it? Argue when you're safe on the ground. However, in the air, they will do whatever is needed to keep you from diddling around with something that would affect the safety of flight.

Most people don't realize that their RF toys radiate even when they're receiving. They're "certain" that it can not be the problem, so they light up all sorts of radios and the like, ignorant of how fragile and sensitive the navigation systems can be.

If you look at FM broadcast radios with 10.7 MHz IF strips and low side LO, you'll find that the LO ends up on the VOR navigation band. There have been ASRS reports of passengers with leaky FM radios turned on. The flight crew saw flags on both VOR receivers (indicating a problem), aborted the instrument approach, and then went in to the cabin to see what happened. They found a couple of idiots trying to get the latest on a sports game, The were told to turn off the radio, which they did. The second try to get in to the airport was attempted and then the same damned thing happened.

This time the crew confiscated the radio, completed the approach in to the airport and then returned the radio to the furious idiots who had no idea what danger he put everyone in.

This story is many years old. However, despite the fact that modern radios are usually better than this, the flight crew are not RF engineers, so they have a standing order to all passengers not to light up their electronic toys while screaming down an ILS approach at 150 knots on a rainy, dark, and gloomy night.

Please do not violate that order. This risk is not yours to take. I say this with experience as an instrument rated private pilot and as a registered professional engineer. When the crew orders you to turn off your RF toys TURN THEM OFF!

I freely acknowledge that 99.99% of all RF gadgets aren't likely to be a problem. However you don't know that your gadget is working as designed, and you don't know what navigation systems the airliner is using. Neither you, nor the crew, will be able to know if your toy is causing difficulty in time to do something about it.

Unless you have spoken to the Captain and arranged a protocol to coordinate with the flight crew, keep all gadgets turned off.

 

[Voyager]

Anytime I've ever seen metal detectors, they were manned by TSA, not the airlines. The laws involved leave the decision up to the aircraft operator (or at least used to - that could have changed). In the case of a commercial flight, that's the carrier.

It's amazing they allow PCs which emit much more RF than a receiver (even at the LO).

 

[W9DPY]

Beside having useful info in the message...
You have the best footer after your call sign on this forum!
Dave - W9DPY