http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bigdaddyrox4574/detail?.dir=/b5a2&.dnm=b626.jpg

- it is a bomb.

thats so funny,,but i can see why ppl thoht it was a bomb!

hahaha

But then again, it's a sad state of affairs too. I mean, "America the Free" is not the place where I would have expected a shake-down of a kid carrying a crystal radio or of you with your headphone amp. I wouldn't have expected people to be arrested for smoking a cigarette in an outdoor area either, but it happens.

[Insert political statement here]

I sure hope we can put our things in order. Wasn't it an American that said "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"? I wonder what 'ol Patrick Henry would say now.

OK. Enough of that from me. I'm just a guy that draws up speaker boxes every now and then, not a political commentator. That ain't my bag, man.

CES '03 Peter Qvortrup wanted to bring samples of AN's new copper jacketed caps. He couldn't get them through security at Heathrow, and they spent the show in a locker in the airport.

This year, he had packed a very high zoot stepup transformer in his luggage. The security boys pried the case open, broke open the solder seal on one of the transformers and mashed it all back together, leaving a note, "your baggage has been opened by US Customs." No sh*t, sherlock!

Certainly there must be some way to present items like that to security in advance for a more non-invasive inpection. I mean, this is not an isolated case nor is it a rare occurance. There must be many, many legitimate equipment prototypes that cross the airways and while laymen can't tell what they are, more technical people easily can. So it seems to me there should be away to address this problem.

That was a good (bad) story, David. Thanks for sharing it. Words to the wise, as they say.

In the former case, the caps were hand carried, were explained face-to-face, and the security people were not impressed. Of course, these things were the size of small beer cans, gleaming copper and look like they mean business of some sort. Still . . .

In the latter case, the offending item was packed in checked luggage. That was a mistake. Hand carry it, offer to explain it up front. Have literature showing it and explaining what the heck it does. Be proactive; there's nothing but fear, suspicion and a lack of specific knowledge driving the folks in security. Don't leave it to them to sort things out on their own. I'm not picking on the security folks; I'm saying help them in order to help yourself and protect your gear.

I hand carried a wicked looking tone arm and mc cartridge in their own separate box in their own separate bag on the way back from CES, and sure enough, they wanted to see what this vaguely ray gun shaped thingie was about. I held my breath praying they wouldn't tug on the .3mm silver tonearm leads, and hoping there would be a glimmer of recognition when I said "it's a tone arm. for playing vinyl records." Everything survived just fine, but I was really glad to get it onto the plane.