Traveling to the UK

[kg4pbd]

I'm going to be traveling to London, then going to Paris and returning to the US from Paris. From what I've read it's legal to have a scanner in England, just illegal to use it to listen to police. France appears to have a much tougher law making it illegal to have a scanner.

Does anyone know if this is true? I had planned on taking a portable scanner with me to use in London. Since I don't speak French I wouldn't be using it in France anyway. My concern is customs and if I would have a problem simply by having it with me.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[morfis]

In the UK it is legal to own/carry a scanner but illegal to tune to a frequency for which you are not licensed. As long as you don't wave the thing in front of a copper or have it blaring out his own transmissions who would know what you were listening to ;-)

France is far more draconian but seem to be just as unlikely to do anything unless flaunted. I have been stopped in France but after explaining that I was a radio amateur and using it to search for amateurs (not what I was doing) and showing them my licence they quickly left me alone.

Not had problems with customs except in Poland, Greece and USA and with all three the amateur story/licence worked.

 

[kg4pbd]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the information.