In article ,
Harry Gordon wrote:

As previously posted, my wife and I are flying to WI next week. I plan on
renting a plane and doing some local flying once we are there. My question
is, I have a Icom A-5 that I would like to take with me should I need
back-up communications during my local flying. Have any of you taken a
hand-held on a commercial airliner without being hassled? I know for sure, I
would not put it in my carry-on. But I don't want my luggage opened just
because of the radio.

Keep in mind that each passenger terminal is now a "little gestopo
checkpoint". No two are the same. The guards have the "official airport
no-no list ", the "airline no-no list", and their own "personal no-no
list".

As another poster wrote, take the antenna and battery pack off, put
them in different parts of you bag. Same goes for the GPS. The more
miscellaneous pieces-parts strewn about the more innocent it will
appear.
The rules says no portable electronic devices may be operated below
10,000 feet. Stop by the cockpit when you enter the aircraft, tell the
cockpit crew you are a pilot and ask it they have any objection to your
using your handheld and/or GPS above 10K. The airlines have policies
published in the in-flight magazine, but the cockpit crew has the final
say.