On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Bob, W5OV, wrote:
> Rick is on the right track.
Tnx, but I'm not too thrilled hearing about others having items
stolen. You would think with "tightened security", that all our stuff
would be much safer.
Maybe the following will help?
When Mike, K9AJ & I activated IOTA NA-178 last February, we went by
chartered helicopter so TSA was not an issue. However, the Farallon Refuge
Manager wanted a complete detailed Cargo Manifest of everything we were
bringing to the Island ("Sensitive Wildlife Refuge"), including the size
and weight of each container ;-(
I was still working on "The Mother of All Cargo Manifests" the afternoon
before we were to leave, and fortunately Rusty, W6OAT, picked Mike up from
the SF Airport for me 'cuz I was still QRL with the Manifest. It reached
the point of having to "ballpark" a few things and I emailed it off to her
99.9% complete and headed up to rendezvous with Mike at the NCCC meeting.
I still consider it a "Miracle" that we got almost all this stuff plus 4
people (including the Pilot & a Solar System Engineer we were transporting
to the Island into one Bell Jet Ranger. It was very "cozy" :-) A few
items I had shuffled onto the separate ARIS helo we also had to pay for
that was hauling FWS equipment (yeah, it was a very expensive IOTA trip).
So I just remembered this, and am wondering now if using a very formal
cargo manifest (and putting a copy of the entire thing inside EACH piece of
luggage...carry-on or checked) might be useful for the Commercial
route? For us, the manifest was an expedient way to find stuff quickly as
all the main containers were numbered and cross-referenced.
I can see two things here:
1. A comprehensive manifest inside every bag tells the TSA and airline
baggage folks that we know exactly what we have and expect to see it arrive
on the destination end. Or,
2. It, umh, could act as a quicklist for the unscrupulous to "Cherry Pick"
items out of the checked baggage?
Here is a copy of what we used if the format might be useful to anyone else
(originally done in Excel):
http://www.k6vva.com/iota/na178/na178_cargomanifest1final_021306.pdf
Although they stack real nicely for hauling around on a fold-up handi-cart,
you could not use the Plastic Sterilite containers when going via
Commercial airlines!!! It's still hard to believe we got all that stuff
crammed into the helo with the 4 of us.
Yeah, I think I'm going to take the same approach now for any Commercial
flight travel, put a complete copy in each bag and also email a .pdf of the
Cargo Manifest to TSA. in advance :-) If anything turns up missing, I'll
sue 'em.
FYI & 73...
Rick, K6VVA
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