[time-nuts] time-nuts Digest, Vol 93, Issue 96

[Jim Lux]

On 4/18/12 6:56 AM, Attila Kinali wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:28:17 -0400
> Dan Kemppainen<dan at irtelemetrics.com>  wrote:
>
>> Wouldn't get broken if you hand carried it. I've carried on similar
>> equipment when flying across the US. I'm guessing you may not have to
>> check it for an internationl flight...
>
> Thanks to Home Land Security, the rules on what you may carry on a
> plane got very much restricted, especially when flying from and to
> the US. Basically anything unusual is prohibited.
>
>
Actually, it's not necessarily TSA/DHS that is the problem.. it's that 
other downstream consumers of the rules may have different interpretations.

The guy standing at the gate or checkpoint gets to make an on the spot 
determination of what might be "dangerous"

Example: The small roll of PVC electrical tape I had in my backpack 
being taken at secondary inspection (walking down the jetway) in 
Heathrow when getting on the plane home to Los Angeles. Am I going to 
argue with the guy from British Airways about specifically which rule he 
thinks my tape violates?  When the plane is leaving 3 hours late 
already? Nope..

Example: the round pointed school scissors in my daughter's backpack 
getting on the plane in Rome? They were willing to let her take them, 
but we said, nope, just throw them away, because next stop is Zurich, 
and we KNOW that they won't make it past the inspection there. I got 
tagged in Zurich before for having my toothpaste tube in a gallon bag, 
instead of the required "no more than 1 liter" bag.

So, carrying that oscilloscope on?  If the inspector's fiance(e) just 
ran off with a EE/CS major the night before, you're doomed.  However, in 
general, I've not had many problems with obvious commercially 
manufactured gear.  And oddly, not much problem with random piles of 
protoboards and boxes with wires and cables stuffed into a backpack, as 
long as there were no large "blobs" in the X-ray that weren't obviously 
batteries on visual inspection.  (Friends of mine say that trying to 
carry on a small lead acid battery that looks like a brick is often a 
challenge..especially if you've wrapped it in tape to hold it to the 
circuit board.