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Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
Thanks Steve, Harry, Andre and others,
To qualify the circumstances, I'm considering a Sydney to Belgium via Abu Dhabi flight, exiting Australia on an Australian passport, entering Belgium on a British passport.
The intrinsic value of my components isn't so great, but I'm sure any enthusiast can understand the great time and effort involved in accumulating their parts. I've paid enough already to import them in tiny quantities as projects necessitated.
Harry wrote ... You will be astonished to read the exhaustive restrictions and limitations on 'possible' dual use technology in the Commonwealth of Australia's Defence and Strategic Goods Amendment 2007
You're right, and I recognize customs can make trouble about anything if they wish. I'm wondering what the chances of an actual confrontation are. If it's going to be very difficult, I may as well refund my ticket; I believe I'd be pretty useless in any country without my components.
I understand the Belgian threshold is EU175, but my parts are for personal use in containers with handwritten labels -- capacitors, resistors, mostly surface-mount, a few reels, no lasers or sharps. Let's look at the other side: has anyone moved countries (with their electronics) without issue?
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Matt Bingham wrote ...
The intrinsic value of my components isn't so great, but I'm sure any enthusiast can understand the great time and effort involved in accumulating their parts. I've paid enough already to import them in tiny quantities as projects necessitated.
Harry wrote ... You will be astonished to read the exhaustive restrictions and limitations on 'possible' dual use technology in the Commonwealth of Australia's Defence and Strategic Goods Amendment 2007
You're right, and I recognize customs can make trouble about anything if they wish. I'm wondering what the chances of an actual confrontation are. If it's going to be very difficult, I may as well refund my ticket; I believe I'd be pretty useless in any country without my components.
Let's look at the other side: has anyone moved countries (with their electronics) without issue?
Perhaps I've caused some alarm where none need be taken: I took "a case of semiconductors" to mean - possibly - thousands of high end microprocessors - a suitcase full of which would be worth a fortune, and are known to be trafficked illegally to China, for example.
But if you read the 2007 Amendment, you'll see that all sorts of things we consider routine here at 4HV.org - such as lasers over 1W, pulsed lasers of any sort, (excepting N2 and ruby lasers for some reason) - are subject to control by the Commonwealth of Australia (the handiwork of the Terror Factory where Terror Beliefs are manufactured to facilitate Rule by Fear, IMHO)
I carried a laptop, a DSLR camera, a bunch of flash sticks and memory sticks, an OSCOPE !!! and a bunch of other stuff from Phoenix, to London, Heathrow, and from there to Bulgaria ... no problems with security or customs ... and everything works just fine.
Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
Dr. H. wrote ... I carried a laptop, a DSLR camera, a bunch of flash sticks and memory sticks, an OSCOPE !!! and a bunch of other stuff from Phoenix, to London, Heathrow, and from there to Bulgaria ... no problems with security or customs ... and everything works just fine.
Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061
I got stopped fairly recently (2000), and had the Gestapo microscopically examine my bag(s) because "they thought i was up to something"... guess they hadn't seen blank PCB material before. $Deity knows what they'd do now.
As for stupid regulations, our local Gestapo has passed a UK law without so much as a whimper, to do with enhanced background checks. "Guilty until proven innocent" comes to mind.
If this gets any worse I'm moving to Canada along with many others.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Yeah, and just make sure you have your credit card on you if you need medical care, which is not free at point of use in Canada. Not to mention that our Canadian members all seem to bitch just as hard about the "Gestapo" as anyone else. See you in Whistler!
matt: It's only a bunch of components, why not leave them with your parents and they can send them on if you decide that you need them. There's more to life than electronics (or so I've heard)
I've seen oscilloscopes carried on planes before, and a few times my boss had to go abroad with prototype equipment that I made by hand. He did get trouble, but the security guys were satisfied when he turned it on and it did something. However, I heard that one of our later prototypes (with a proper moulded case!) got confiscated by Israeli airport security and is still missing in action. I wrote to Amnesty International for help, but they don't care.
Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
Steve McConner wrote ...
matt: It's only a bunch of components, why not leave them with your parents and they can send them on if you decide that you need them. There's more to life than electronics (or so I've heard)
You make a good point Steve... there's just a part of me that imagines it will be safer within my sight than at the mercy of postal / customs workers. From my experience they're not much of a step higher than baggage handlers, hence taking anything of remote sentimental value in my hand luggage.
I wish I could just ring some authority and they'd flag my boarding pass with "Leave the guy with the chip capacitors alone", but I guess I could potentially expect trouble from both ends on this one.
Registered Member #29
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 09:00AM
Location: Hasselt, Belgium
Posts: 500
Dear Matt, I shipped a whole crate of electronics from Australia to Italy with no problem. I declared it on the customs forms as personal use items and no VAT/GST was charged..only import and dock handling fees.
I recommend shipping your electronics stuff by air courier (if you want it quickly). There are companies that ship so-called "excess baggage" at a lower cost than standard air courier (like fed-ex, DHL, etc.). If the volume and weight is large, go for surface (sea) shipping. About 8-12 weeks, you'll have your stuff. (International removalist companies like Grace in Australia do this)
Avoid bringing lots of electronics in on international passenger flights. You will attract the attention of security and customs personnel.... This is less of an issue on internal EU flights, because customs barriers do not exist any more. Security personnel may still need convincing, however....
Registered Member #103
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845
wrote ... has anyone moved countries (with their electronics) without issue?
so far this year I've been on about 8 flights between England and Poland each time with a scope, fluke meters, box of IGBTs and large filter capacitors (amongst various other bits and tools) without a problem... BUT they weren't in hand luggage. (There's no way I could have got the capacitors in particular though as hand luggage )
The clear container of 'disposed items' in Poland contained (amongst other things) an ordinary extension lead, and some other various leads
The safest bet is to simply not try and take things on as hand luggage if you even think it might be a problem, it's not worth risking. Each time I have checked my bag in, they have been informed at the desk that it contains tools and electronics parts for service work, and they've okay'd it. I don't think those bags were even checked. A lot of it depends on the airlines and the countries really, you have to decide based on that. Larger things, put them in your checked luggage and tell them it contains tools and components for work - but some airlines will check those bags as well. On each flight my digital camera and laptop have been through the x-ray and they still work
Shipping small high value items separately is always an option, just use recorded delivery!
Also its a good idea to put a lable on the device explaining what it is. Chris printed me a letter saying that it contains no PCBs, a phone number for contact with an Intel business card attached. Best of luck ! Cheers
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Airport security, x-rays and semiconductors
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