Audio Gear and the Airport

[audioalchemy]

I will be traveling over Thanksgiving with some audio
equipment. Never taken stuff like this on a plane.
Should I worrk about these things foing through the
X-Ray. Is there a way to prevent them from pushing
radiation onto my gear, if so what.

I will be carrying...

Apple Laptop
Mbox2
MXL LDC and SDC mics
SM57
Headphone amp

will the x-rays damage it

Thanks,
Audio Alchemy

[max cooper]

I'd carry the laptop computer on and have security hand-check it rather than x-raying it. They're hip to this, and many of them will suggest it.

The rest you can check or carry on. I've checked mics that weren't super high end with no probs.

[Jay Kahrs]

That's not a lot of stuff so you might be able to get it all on a carry-on. The X-rays won't harm it...but I'd let the baggage people at the gate know what's inside of your bags. Those airport security people don't like seeing black boxes and cylinders with wires inside of 'em on the X-ray machines!!! I've checked mics and stuff before without problems, I hand 'em a business card, tell them what it is and they always smile and say "have a nice flight".

[dchapp]

I pass my laptop through the x-ray machine all the time...for many years now...it has to come out of the carry case and go through on it's own....never a problem....I also hand carry drives quite frequently and pass those through as well, they used to let me hand them through, bypassing the x-ray machine, but won't let me do that anymore.....so far, I have not experienced any problems in doing this......as far as the additional pieces, it shouldn't be a problem...just give yourself extra time for TSA to go through stuff...and they will......just be friendly and cordial and explain to them in simple terms what the stuff is for.

[audioalchemy]

thanks guys. that's a big help.


rock on,
Audio Alchemy

[Kingtone]

none of that stuff is going to be affected in the slightest.
Ive had discussions with some of the security staff around the world... and some of them have suggested that your gear is subjected to higher radiation during the flight than during the xray screening.
Hundreds of thousands of people everyday put their laptops through the xray machines... if there were issues.. we would have heard the uproar LONG before now.

I find the most beneficial thing when dealing with security is to remember... as inconvenient as it may be... it is there for us and our safety... so remember that before you stress at some security officer who insists that you take the battery out of your laptop and put them through individually!

[Fletcher]

Stress not... my current laptop has a couple hundred thousand air miles on it and is no worse for wear... all you have to do is take the laptop out of the laptop case, put it in one of those gray bins with the other portions of the "jail intake security ritual" [watch, wallet, belt, shoes, coat] and you're through in two shakes of a lamb's tail... don't forget to keep your boarding pass and drivers license on you at all times.

[heyman]

Dont forget to also bend over and cough..

[Sofa King]

Originally Posted by max cooper

I'd carry the laptop computer on and have security hand-check it rather than x-raying it. They're hip to this, and many of them will suggest it.
.

Don’t try it at LAX.

I returned home from a live date with a carry on full of hard drives.
I too heard that they would hand check the stuff, forgoing the X-ray.

I held up the security line, two agents said no way, they got the supervisor, and the suit told me "EVERYTHING gets X-rayed"

The drives turned out ok, I also fedexed backups.
I’m not sure if FedEx X-rays the stuff.

On a side note, I couldn’t get a straight answer from any computer brainiacs that I know IF X-rays are detrimental.

anyway.....

Take care

[T_R_S]

My Powerbook and portable drives have been X-Rayed hundreds of times zero problems.
Electronics are fine in X rays

Babies and high speed camera film are not!

[adsr]

My first time flying with mics was last year....flew over to Bandung, Indonesia to help a friend track some stuff at his studio. Packed a few mics into my backpack, SDCs, dyamics and a LDC.

Security at the Singapore Changi airport didn't bat an eye....but on the trip back from the Bandung airport I got stopped at the x-ray machine. A middle-aged security guy requested that I show him the suspicious looking stuff, which I did.

He didn't care about the rest of the mics except my Audio Technica AT3035 LDC...not so much that it might be a bomb......BUT AS A POTENTIAL WEAPON TO HIT SOMEBODY ON THE HEAD WITH!!!!!!!

My mind went blank for a few secs Yeah i know it isn't a terribly expensive mic, but I'd rather keep that mic for recording and not bashing skulls....

After recovering from the mind wipe I managed to explain to him that it was a microphone and promised not to bash any skulls on the flight later

I got pretty spooked after that incident and while I'm flying there again soon, I'm gonna prepare photographic evidence that my LDCs aren't melee weapons....and perhaps get a padded hardcase in the event that I have to check my mics in.

[valleysound]

Originally Posted by adsr

He didn't care about the rest of the mics except my Audio Technica AT3035 LDC...not so much that it might be a bomb......BUT AS A POTENTIAL WEAPON TO HIT SOMEBODY ON THE HEAD WITH!!!!!!!

My mind went blank for a few secs Yeah i know it isn't a terribly expensive mic, but I'd rather keep that mic for recording and not bashing skulls....

After recovering from the mind wipe I managed to explain to him that it was a microphone and promised not to bash any skulls on the flight later

I got pretty spooked after that incident and while I'm flying there again soon, I'm gonna prepare photographic evidence that my LDCs aren't melee weapons....and perhaps get a padded hardcase in the event that I have to check my mics in.

C'mon, everyone knows that the SM57 is the sound engineers weapon of choice!

[zoom]

Once I had my Schoeps CMIT and some other small, but expensive audio-electronics in my carry-on luggage on a flight from JFK to Zurich. I had no good feeling to check that stuff in - and no good feeling when I put the complete bag through the x-ray because of some stupid questions these security guys may ask.
But no one from the security staff @JFK was not interested in anything inside my bag when it was screened it and it was not necessary to put anything out for a manual check. No one cared about it.

Anyway - try to avoid to say to a security guy at the airport who wants to see your expensive blue microphone: 'yeah, THAT'S A SHOTGUN!'