Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 23 May 91 20:46:57 GMT From: Jeff Carroll Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular "Harrassment" at Airport Security Reply-To: Jeff Carroll Message-ID: Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 395, Message 6 of 14 Lines: 37 In article mike@post.att.com (Michael Scott Baldwin) writes: > The strangest time, however, was when I gave it to the guard when it > was turned off. She *asked me* to turn it on for her! I asked why, > and she just said "turn it on please". Once it bleeped and blinked > for her, she was satisfied. I guess she was convinced that it wasn't > one of those "fake" phones that you can stash 50 tons of cocaine in or > something. I'm waiting for the day they yank the battery off... The concern is about explosives rather than drugs. Apparently they tell these people that if the radio/calculator/cell phone/ vibrator works as the manufacturer intended, then it can't be a bomb. They usually take apart cameras, too (though they don't ask you to turn them on, usually). This thread remindst me of the time I flew from Seattle to Oklahoma City carrying an engineering model of a power supply from the AWACS on-board central data processor. This beast was about thirty pounds of heat sink, with a few power transistors in TO-3 cans mounted on the surface, and wires hanging out everywhere. In short, it looked more like a bomb than a bomb would. I carried it onboard with me both ways, and passed through four airport security installations, of which only one (the last one) even asked me what it was. Needless to say, I was relieved to be asked. Oh, for the good old days... Jeff Carroll carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com [Moderator's Note: The word going around is that with Iraq behind us, the stringent airport security of the past several months will be relaxed somewhat starting in June. PAT]