ham 2 way radio on ebay

[MTS2000des]

more importantly, ANY personally owned equipment you use on duty should not only be authorized (IN WRITING) by your chief and department, but specifically checked for proper operation by qualified person.

This means ANY used radio, I don't care if it's an XTS5000 or an APX, if you don't know the history of it, and it didn't come from an AUTHORIZED dealer with PAPERWORK, it needs to be given a proper once over before by a qualified person and DOCUMENTED before being placed into duty gear.

I like mmckenna's post: you wouldn't bring a garden hose for a supply line, so why would you think a $50 Chinese radio or ham toy is fit for duty gear? Your life (and the lives of your fellow brother/sister firefighters, and civilians) depend on your gear to be fit for duty. Trust me when I say, when something goes wrong- you don't want to be in the hot seat. Whenever an incident involves injury or God forbid, a LODD occurs, OSHA, your state agency overseeing you, and any civil attorneys will get all records on every piece of gear involved. When it comes out that you are using a piece of gear unfit for duty, whether it be a Baofeng or some used radio that may have failed, the onus will be on YOU to prove that it did NOT contribute to the outcome.

Don't believe me? Read and study the many LODD reports on NIST and see how thorough they are. Do it right the first time.

Anything used for life safety needs to be the right tool, properly maintained, and DOCUMENTED for the task at hand.

A $50 radio might be fine for monitoring in your POV or at your house, but it is NOT fit for the fireground, nor is anything of unknown origin.

It's all about liability these days.

[krokus]

I will say to buy a ham radio, but just listen. Do not modify it for transmit range.

My reasoning: You get better RF handling and stronger audio than most scanners, but will not be tempted to take it where it does not belong.

As a bonus, you might be inspired to get your ham license.

[mmckenna]

Originally Posted by LtDoc

I don't normally include a disclaimer in my posts, most of the time it isn't necessary. But I guess sometimes it is.
- 'Doc

No, I don't think that is necessary, you made a valid point that a basic radio will absolutely work for what you feel the OP's need is. That's OK.

The point that others, as well as myself, are making is that there are specific requirements that exist for radios used in some facets of the fire service. Until we know for sure, none of us should be making recommendations that a non-IS low end radio that we don't even know for sure covers the right band or does the right modes is what he/she needs.

[jhooten]

Not all VFDs issue radios.
Not all volunteers can afford an APX.

As far as quality of the current batch of CCJ radios, I would rather have one of them than the Cheap Ritron POS I got from the charger each shift at a small department who will remain nameless.

[yatesfire5]

thanks everyone for your in but i was just checking into it

[mmckenna]

YatesFire 5,

Hopefully the spirited discussion didn't turn you off.

If you can supply some details, like the frequency, specific mode (analog, trunked etc) we could help you find a suitable radio that would likely fit your needs.

[yatesfire5]

well i got a radio its a Motorola pr400 16 channel uhf got it from a friend all programmed and everything thanks for all your in put