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This sucks. I regularly bring walkie talkies as I'm a ham radio operator. And it's a stupid rule because it was a supply chain attack that can be done with any

This sucks. I regularly bring walkie talkies as I'm a ham radio operator. And it's a stupid rule because it was a supply chain attack that can be done with any type of electronic device. Having said that I would not be able to travel through Dubai anyway as I'm getting an "X" passport and they refuse those even for transfers.

kylehotchkiss 2y ago
Bringing a high powered radio through Dubai would have raised suspicions even before this. It’s not what they could consider an ordinary hobby and they may assume you have more nefarious motives (the context of that just being that it’s a tense region, I’ve had my garmin handhelds carefully analyzed before) Being able to openly listen to any frequency isn’t exactly a universal right.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  It's not "high-powered" what I bring on planes. Just a regular walkie talkie (usually digital DMR) with up to 4 watts or so. There's even ones that look like a 2005's mobile phone, like this one: https://www.radiocommunicationsonline.com/products/motorola-sl400e/ https://www.radiocommunicationsonline.com/products/motorola-... I thought of getting one of these for airline travel because they'd raise less eyebrows but in practice it wasn't needed. Also, the regular models I use are much more convenient for ham use (having a promiscuous mode to listen in to all traffic even not addressed to my DMR ID, and huge database capacity for callsigns). A Garmin GPS also has this "military" look about it (due to its ruggedness of course), and some can also do satcom (with InReach functionality) which is pretty strictly banned in some countries like India. In the Middle East this is not a thing, and sat phones are actually a huge think (they even have their own sat network called Thuraya). Probably because of the large swathes of desert without any infrastructure. So I'd expect less eyebrows raised about the garmin there. But yeah like I said I am never going to end up in Dubai anyway.
komali2 2y ago
I hadn't heard of the X on the passport thing, that's super cool. I'm guessing it'll cause issues at borders all over even if it's not banned, just from confused border agents. Not to mention on airline websites...
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Airline websites are mostly OK. Border crossings too. Even though X-passports are very rare, they are becoming much less so and of course customs officials deal with thousands every day so they still un into them regularly. I don't have one yet but I heard no problems with them from other NB people in decent countries. As for no being permitted in Dubai and Qatar etc, I consider this more as a 'feature' than a 'bug'. These countries are known for harrassing non-gender-conformant people anyway and this way I have a fully documented way to refuse a Dubai transfer if my work wants to send me somewhere with a Dubai connection. Rather than pleading because I don't want to run the risk I can now just give them a hard and documented NO. My employer publicly prides itself on being LGBTQI+ inclusive so they can't refuse that. The biggest problems centered around this seem to involve more local government. Old local council or federal systems not able to deal with it, or the communication between those systems not handling it properly because some ancient validator routine somewhere drops the message, leading in all sorts of procedural gaps. It's a bit reminiscent of the Y2K problem.
  - qingcharles 2y ago
    Are you USA? Is it possible to get two passports X and non-X? A lot of countries will let you have a second identical passport so you don't try to enter Iran with a passport stamped from Israeli border control. How about getting another citizenship with another passport in your birth gender just for these rare occasions? I understand your policy against these countries, but countries aren't their citizens, and I know some really amazing people in these countries who absolutely don't support their government's policies (at least in private). The "underground" LGBTQ population of the Middle East is enormous. In fact, my experience is that in private a significant amount of the citizens don't support these policies. Is there a single household in Dubai or Qatar that doesn't have a VPN subscription to get around their national firewalls?

kylehotchkiss 2y ago

Bringing a high powered radio through Dubai would have raised suspicions even before this. It’s not what they could consider an ordinary hobby and they may assume you have more nefarious motives (the context of that just being that it’s a tense region, I’ve had my garmin handhelds carefully analyzed before) Being able to openly listen to any frequency isn’t exactly a universal right.

wkat4242 2y ago
It's not "high-powered" what I bring on planes. Just a regular walkie talkie (usually digital DMR) with up to 4 watts or so. There's even ones that look like a 2005's mobile phone, like this one: https://www.radiocommunicationsonline.com/products/motorola-sl400e/ https://www.radiocommunicationsonline.com/products/motorola-... I thought of getting one of these for airline travel because they'd raise less eyebrows but in practice it wasn't needed. Also, the regular models I use are much more convenient for ham use (having a promiscuous mode to listen in to all traffic even not addressed to my DMR ID, and huge database capacity for callsigns). A Garmin GPS also has this "military" look about it (due to its ruggedness of course), and some can also do satcom (with InReach functionality) which is pretty strictly banned in some countries like India. In the Middle East this is not a thing, and sat phones are actually a huge think (they even have their own sat network called Thuraya). Probably because of the large swathes of desert without any infrastructure. So I'd expect less eyebrows raised about the garmin there. But yeah like I said I am never going to end up in Dubai anyway.

komali2 2y ago

I hadn't heard of the X on the passport thing, that's super cool. I'm guessing it'll cause issues at borders all over even if it's not banned, just from confused border agents. Not to mention on airline websites...

wkat4242 2y ago
Airline websites are mostly OK. Border crossings too. Even though X-passports are very rare, they are becoming much less so and of course customs officials deal with thousands every day so they still un into them regularly. I don't have one yet but I heard no problems with them from other NB people in decent countries. As for no being permitted in Dubai and Qatar etc, I consider this more as a 'feature' than a 'bug'. These countries are known for harrassing non-gender-conformant people anyway and this way I have a fully documented way to refuse a Dubai transfer if my work wants to send me somewhere with a Dubai connection. Rather than pleading because I don't want to run the risk I can now just give them a hard and documented NO. My employer publicly prides itself on being LGBTQI+ inclusive so they can't refuse that. The biggest problems centered around this seem to involve more local government. Old local council or federal systems not able to deal with it, or the communication between those systems not handling it properly because some ancient validator routine somewhere drops the message, leading in all sorts of procedural gaps. It's a bit reminiscent of the Y2K problem.
- qingcharles 2y ago
  Are you USA? Is it possible to get two passports X and non-X? A lot of countries will let you have a second identical passport so you don't try to enter Iran with a passport stamped from Israeli border control. How about getting another citizenship with another passport in your birth gender just for these rare occasions? I understand your policy against these countries, but countries aren't their citizens, and I know some really amazing people in these countries who absolutely don't support their government's policies (at least in private). The "underground" LGBTQ population of the Middle East is enormous. In fact, my experience is that in private a significant amount of the citizens don't support these policies. Is there a single household in Dubai or Qatar that doesn't have a VPN subscription to get around their national firewalls?