my shortwave radio was confiscated by the Canadian Border Patrol
actually, this happened many many years ago, not recently.
My family and I were on vacation taking a trip to Canada. I had two radios
with me, my shortwave radio and my scanner. When I found out that my parents
decided to go to Canada also, I was worried about hthem possibly confiscating
my scanner. I didn't worry about the shortwave as I had thought that that was
legal to take into Canada. The shortwave radio covered the AM broadcast band
and some of the international broadcast bands. (not continous). and was the
analog tuning kind with a slide rule dial for a pointer to read the approximate
frequency and a rotary tuning knob.
However, when they checked , they said the scanner was allowed into Canada but
that my shortwave radio was not allowed into Canada.
They told me that radios that tune between 1610 khz and 30 mhz are not allowed
in Canada, and told me that shortwave radios are not legal in Canada and told
me that it is ilegal to listen to the international broadcast bands whilee
you're in Canada.
Obviously, these particular borderr patrol agents were familiar with shortwave
radios to know the terms "international broadcast bands".
They then confiscated my shortwave radio and told me that I would get it back
from their Canadian authorities when I re-enter the U.S.
However, when I re-entered the U.S., I never got it back as I was promised.
even though I tried to both then and afterwards.
And I never saw that shortwave radio again. And it was a good shortwave radio
that picked up good for that time.
A post in the scanner radio newsgroup reminded me of that happening to me years
ago.
I now think that those Canadian Border Patrol Agents purposely stole my
shortwave radio. But then, why steal a cheap radio?
The scanner looked more expensive (although that was cheap, also)., but hey let
me take that across and told me it was legal to listen to the police
frequencies in Canada, but against the law to listen to the international
broadcast bands in Canada.
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