[Milsurplus] FW - Homeland Security & Whining Foreign Nationals

[Ray, W2EC]

Before this gets going too far, I suggest we consider that this is 
really just the figment of someones imagination and their (il)literary 
skills.

Whenever I read stories like this on the internet, I first consider that 
it may just be an "urban legend", particularly when it is published 
anonymously "for fear of reprisal". I mean, just think, it's a story a 
guy posted from someone else on another message list, posted by someone 
who doesn't want to be named, which may have been carried over from 
somewhere else, which may have been..... you get the picture, hardly a 
first hand experience.

Second, I travel to Canada A LOT! And NEVER, even after 9/11, have I 
encountered a US Border checkpoint going INTO Canada. I have had to put 
up with considerable delay coming BACK to the US going thru a US 
Checkpoint but NEVER been stopped by US Border Guards leaving the US. 
And my vehicle certainly attracts attention being an all black SUV with 
tinted windows and many antennas, including para-militray systems like 
an SCG QMS external mount tuner with SG-303 9 foot whip. On ENTRY to the 
US I am always stopped and the first question usually is "what's with 
the antennas". A quick "I'm a ham" usually results in a "OK, thanks, 
have a nice day" with no further questions. Actually I have only been 
held up for more than a minute, twice that I can recall. Once was 
because the border guard was also a ham and wanted to know how the SGC 
worked mobile, so we had a short "ham" talk. The other was by a female 
border guard whose father had been a ham and SHE told ME about a lot of 
the gear her dad had.

So let's consider that, while I'm sure it is possible that an incident 
like this may happen somewhere, it is probably far more likely just one 
more of the internet "urban legends" that tend to spring up. If it is 
not, then the individual who started it should come up with verifiable 
date, time and location of where it occurred. Meanwhile, let's not get 
too worked up.

Ray W2EC