I’m going on a kayak trip in April and flying to get there. Has anyone ever flown with their marine radio? Any problems? OK as carry-on or only in checked bag? Any issue with the battery?
Domestic?
If not staying in US, then one issue that may arise is whether you have any needed licenses to own and operate the radio. At sea not an issue (basically), but on land another matter.
While it is difficult to predict how any given set of TSA folks will react, based on experiences of friends who have traveled with ham radio gear it seems you are better off carrying it on than checking it. Checking it will assure an inspection and they don’t like batteries in checked stuff. Expect to be asked to demo what it is, etc. Generally people fly with ham radio VHF handhelds in carry on bags without problems.
I predict you have no problem
if you have it in carry on bag and expect to be asked about it. One never knows for 100% certain. I have flown numerous times both domestic and international and had no problem with electronic gizmos of all sorts (cameras and batteries, PLB with battery, Handheld GPS wiht batteries, etc.) in my carry on bag. My suggestion is to contact the airline and ask. It is pretty hard to figure out the regs yourself and even if you do they may be interpreted differently than you expect by the airline. Arrive early for your flight!
As a general rule
You take the batteries out, cover the terminals with electrical tape and carry them by themselves in a sandwich bag.
There is nothing on TSA site about carrying a radio. Other than to say they prefer electronic devices in carry on instead of checked bags because it’s easier for the flight crew to monitor it and reach it if there is an issue. I’ve had all kinds of electronic equipment in carry on and usually they don’t have a clue of what they are looking at.
You can e-mail them and ask specifically http://www.tsa.gov/
It’s not a problem
I’ve carried radios, GPS, PLBs, their battery chargers and such on foreign and domestic flights and the TSA never even looked at them. It’s not an issue.
They did get rather curious about a bike light that my girlfriend carried on, but wouldn’t say why. I had the same one and they ignored it, but they were quite concerned about a stack of Honey Stinger waffles I had in the bag. It must’ve given them the munchies. 
They ignored all of it on the flight back. Go figure…
should be ok
I have flown with numerous electronic devices in my carry on, including all at one time, an mp3 player, tablet pc, e reader, digital camera, automotive gps, headphones, chargers, cables, and spare batteries. The only problem I had was with 2 e readers and the tablet stacked. None of them by them selves need to be removed like a laptop, but because they were stacked they asked me to remove them and they ran them thru the scanner a second time.
Thanks - I’ll Report Back
Thanks everybody. I’ll keep it in my carry on and I’ll report back if any problems/issues of interest come up.