Practical Travel Safety Issues - Question about bringing aviation scanner through airport security.

Right, firstly I sincerely apologise if this in the wrong section but I need to know something.

I'm flying to London - Heathrow in January, from Dublin, and back the next day. I'm going over for plane spotting and am hoping to take an airband radio with me. I'm not checking a bag into the hold, I'm bringing a roll-aboard on with me. When passing this through security, will they be suspicious of the radio, and would they confiscate it? I'm not planning on using it on the plane, only at Heathrow itself when spotting.

Any insight will be great :D

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to our Travel Safety/Security Forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I think you should be alright. If they do ask, mention what you are doing. Honestly though, I doubt they will know that it is an aviation radio when you send it through the xray.

I don't see why it would be a problem. They may take a secondary look at it after x-ray but there's no reason that I can think of why it would be prohibited.

I carry an aviation band transceiver with me on almost every trip. The TSA
has never inquired about the radio itself.

Once they got all ga-ga over the flexible rubber antenna, but the supv
grew a brain.

I've done it in the past without issues but not lately.

Make sure you are in compliance with UK laws -- every country is different (and for that matter, every state in the union and some large localities too, so there may be other ordinances you have to be in compliance with.) It may not be what you plan to use your scanner for, but what it's capable of, or where you are using it -- in a car vs at home.

There are also sites like liveatc.net (web, iphone app) where you can listen in to other scanners, including those you are out of range of as well as 'the best of' ATC.

I occasionally carry my hand held scanner with me when I travel, mostly to listen to ATC and also for the weather band.

I carry it in my attaché case, but I always disconnect the rubber antenna and separate them when going through x-ray so it does not appear to look like a radio device.

It has never been questioned and if anyone ever did question it, I would tell them I carry it for the weather band.

Mr. Elliott