You guys are starting to find out the sad truth, hams are both cheap and unrealistic at the same time. They all think their equipment is worth much, much more than it actually is. I'm probably just as bad as anyone else in that category. Ham Radio Outlet is the store in Portland. great place. There should be a couple ham stores with booths at Puyallup. Also it's a lot easier to dicker for prices at these swap fests. Get there early and bring $$. You can usually get a ham to drop his/her prices down if you wave a fist full of greenback in their faces. Also don't be afraid to put up WTB ads in QRZ.com and eHam.com. State what you are looking for and list a top end price. You may be supprised at the replies you get. I am interested on hearing why so many of you want handi-talkies instead of mobile units. I haven't owned a handheld radio in over 20 years. The mobile units typically put out 50 watts or more, some come with three bands, two bands are typical, and they aren't bouncing around. A lot of the mobiles are pretty easy to pop in and out of the rig nowadays, too. That means you can use it in your rig or in the shack/garage/wherever... I really like my IC706MKIIG because it has HF/2 meters/ 70 cm bands all in one. The used prices on these have been coming down quite nicely since the IC7000 was introduced several years ago. I use it with a Heil headset mic. What I would really like though is to find a Bluetooth in-ear speaker/mic combo instead of having a wire attached to the headset. It is a pain in the butt trying to talk and drive in a nasty off-road situation when using a handmic or even a hardwired headset. If your radio poops out on you, ICOM has a repair facitlity in Bellingham (I think) and there is also a tech named Scott Malcolm near Vancouver, WA. I have used Scott to work on all my solid state gear for years. His company is called Malcolm Technical Services or MTS for short. He seems to be able to fix anything and his rates and turnaround times are incredible. |