GigaParts

[rapidcharger]

Rapidcharger, I did call them and I was given a run around. After about two days of this, I told him not to worry about the refund as he obviously needed the money more than I do. I don't do business with them any further even if their prices are a bit better.

On another note, I did have excellent customer service from a vendor where I did also choose air shipping and they said the USPS ground would get to me in the same number of days, and that it would be free shipping. He refunded my extra that I had paid, and it got here right on time. That vendor was W4RT Electronics. I bought my BHI DSP unit from them and would recommend them a 1001 times over. Outstanding customer service.

John

That's really good to know! Thanks for sharing both of those experiences with us.

Buying express and getting ground is like ordering filet mignon and getting a hamburger but there comes a point where it costs more in your time than its worth. I understand that. The best thing to do is let the whole world know about it and scammy business practices like that will come back to bite them in the butt. They're also showing their true colors by offering extended transmit mods on the radios they sell now.

 

[KD8TZC]

They're also showing their true colors by offering extended transmit mods on the radios they sell now.

I saw that... anything for the almighty dollar I guess. Like I said, they need the money more than I do, and apparently will do anything to make a quick buck.

 

[newsphotog]

I was shopping around for a new radio and some other items and I priced everything out with shipping... GigaParts was more expensive per item but with shipping included it beat everyone else. It was a flawless transaction. I'm not sure where all of the hate is coming from, I've had excellent experiences with them for 5 years now.

 

[KD8TZC]

Who said anything about hate? Just relaying a bad experience. I'm glad yours wasn't that way.

 

[gordiebill]

All of my dealings with Gigaparts have been great (knock on wood). I find their pricing to be very competetive. I have no financial interest in them, just a very satisfied customer. YMMV

73
Gord
VA3TWT

 

[NW4G]

I ran across this forum and was glad to see all the discussion about my company, especially all the positive feedback!

I would like to clear up the shipping questions. My website doesn't give options for air freight or any specific carrier or shipping method, it gives options for delivery dates and guaranteed methods. This means you tell us when you want the package to get to you and we calculate the most cost effective way to get it there.

We calculate all of our shipping methods and prices based on order processing time and transit times to the customers location. So, if you select Rush 2 Day Guaranteed delivery and you are two days away by UPS Ground, the website knows this and prices the freight option accordingly. UPS Ground is a guaranteed delivery method, if the package doesn't arrive on time you get your money back no questions asked.

When free freight is available for an order, the amount of the free freight is deducted from the shipping amount. So if you ordered an FT-897D and saver surface would have cost $10, the pricing for saver surface is free and all the upgraded shipping methods cost $10 less.

I have had a handful of complaints from customers who thought they purchased a service they didn't actually purchase, but in each of those cases the package arrived by the agreed time. Still yet, I realise I'm not communicating as well as I should be and I intend to correct the problem.

So please keep in mind that we do things the way we do them to offer better pricing, more flexible shipping options, and so that we can keep costs down which in exchange gets you better pricing and better customer service!

John, I'm sorry you got the run around. Feel free to give me a call and I'll send you some free stuff!

George Howard - NW4G
866-535-4442
256-428-2133 - Direct
nw4g@gigaparts.com
GigaParts.com

 

[JustLou]

GigaParts is my favorite place to buy radio equipment. I've never had an issue, and the price is usually the best. I just ordered a new power supply and a Kenwood TS-480SAT an hour ago.

 

[rapidcharger]

George, I don't see the mods being offered by your company any longer. Can you confirm whether or not you're still offering modified ham tranceivers?

 

[NW4G]

George, I don't see the mods being offered by your company any longer. Can you confirm whether or not you're still offering modified ham tranceivers?

I can and we are! We offer mods on most all of the radios we sell, particularly radios that support the 2M or 70cm bands. I read above that you take offense to this, can you explain why? There are several legitimate reasons to modify an Amateur Radio, the first two that come to mind are MARS and CAP, there are several others.

Are you mad about this too?
Amazon.com: Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band Transceiver (Black): Car Electronics

 

[AK9R]

George, thanks for stopping by. We are always glad to have reps from radio dealers and radio manufacturers participating in our forums.

In 20+ years as a ham, I've dealt with most of the major mail order amateur radio dealers. You don't always have the absolute best price, but you're usually pretty close. I find ordering from your company's web site to be reasonably straightforward. Building an order, along with shipping and payment options, seems to be a piece of cake. And, the occasional online ordering discount is just icing on that cake.

 

[WB4CS]

I can and we are! We offer mods on most all of the radios we sell, particularly radios that support the 2M or 70cm bands. I read above that you take offense to this, can you explain why? There are several legitimate reasons to modify an Amateur Radio, the first two that come to mind are MARS and CAP, there are several others.

Are you mad about this too?
Amazon.com: Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band Transceiver (Black): Car Electronics

Do you require proof that the buyer is authorized to use the MARS/CAP frequencies?

I don't want to speak for rapid, but the topic of modified radios and out of band transmitting has been a hot topic on this forum lately. Search around in the amateur radio subforum if you're interested.

The Chinese radios have also produced some heated discussion here. My only issue with them is some online sites market them as "personal two way radios" and doesn't imply they require any kind of license.

Do you guys carry the cheap Chinese radios in the store? I don't remember seeing them on the gigaparts website.

I always enjoy coming into the store, keep up the good work!

 

[NW4G]

Do you require proof that the buyer is authorized to use the MARS/CAP frequencies?

I don't want to speak for rapid, but the topic of modified radios and out of band transmitting has been a hot topic on this forum lately. Search around in the amateur radio subforum if you're interested.

The Chinese radios have also produced some heated discussion here. My only issue with them is some online sites market them as "personal two way radios" and doesn't imply they require any kind of license.

Do you guys carry the cheap Chinese radios in the store? I don't remember seeing them on the gigaparts website.

I always enjoy coming into the store, keep up the good work!

I'll certainly have a look around at those discussions, I only recently came across this forum during a google search and I'm still diggin' around

We don't require proof, but we do have a discussion and we contact most everyone who orders a modded radio to make sure they are actually getting what they need, and that they are making a purchase that makes sense. It's rare that we uncover an illegitemate use but it does happen, an example would be an HF radio that's being modded for use on 11M, as required by law we would not sell the radio to that person and would note their account regarding the incident.

Offering mods with radios has been a very positive experience for us. It's lead to a lot of folks getting their ham licenses, groups of folks getting hunting clubs, paragliding clubs, rescue organizations and so on properly licensed with appropriate frequency allocated, and appropriate radios for said frequencies. There's a lot of bad information out there about which radios people need to buy for different purposes and not only do we enjoy helping to correct it, we sell more Airband, GMRS, Marine, and Land Mobile radio's because of it. We also make more hams! It's most often as simple as saying "Ok! If you want to do that, this is how you go about it:"

We don't want to sell radios that aren't going to be used for a lawful purpose, but if someone wants to get a radio and use it unlawfully, they are going to be able to get one and there isn't much you can do to stop them, that's why we have rules and enforcement. As a ham, I'm very happy with how my store handles these situations and I know the community as a whole is better for it.

I haven't picked up any of the lines of Chinese radio's that have come out in the past few years. We've stuck with the Japanese companies who produce quality innovative radios intended for use by Amateur Radio operators. Icom, Yaesu, Alinco, and Kenwood radios continue to have excellent sales and we still see the same growth within the Amateur market that we have seen year after year. Some stores feel differently about it, I'm sure they are doing what they think is right for their business. I think you're spot on with your feelings about them being marketed as personal two way communication radios and other iterations of the same.

Give me a shout next time you're in the store. I don't get out of the back much these days but I do like meeting folks!

 

[volstatescanner]

Modifications

I guess I have a slightly different view on a company offering to do a modification to a radio for a price. If a customer contacts the seller and buys the radio in question and then asks that a modification be done and pays for that as well, I would be of the opinion they know what they are doing and if for some odd reason they use the radio for an illegal purpose then they should face the full enforcement of the law. That being said I do not hold the seller responsible for the illegal actions of the buyer that does not make sense.

If we want to follow that logic and I buy a new car that is capable of going over the speed limit, and I get stopped by a law enforcement official for speeding, I am not going to hold the salesman or dealership at fault for my actions even if they did sell me what item I wanted and paid for, I did the illegal activity not them.

I support them for offering the service, its not like there is some top secret information required to do the modification, they are just offering the service that is all.

 

[MTS2000des]

I can and we are! We offer mods on most all of the radios we sell, particularly radios that support the 2M or 70cm bands. I read above that you take offense to this, can you explain why? There are several legitimate reasons to modify an Amateur Radio, the first two that come to mind are MARS and CAP, there are several others.

Are you mad about this too?
Amazon.com: Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band Transceiver (Black): Car Electronics

The Baofeng UV-5R's from Amazon has FCC part 90 certification for commercial radios, apples to oranges comparison. While they are (IMO improperly) marketed as HAM radios, at the end of the day, they "told" the FCC they are part 90 radios.

Interesting point here is that the CAP now require narrowband compliance after 2006, note that most HAM radios in their database are NOT narrowband compliant with NTIA regulations, and I don't see any radios that GigaParts (or any other HAM radio dealer) offering to perform such "modifications" on that are currently being sold as being certified by the NTIA for CAP use either:

https://comm.capnhq.gov/comm/equipment/equipment.cfm

Note that older radios placed in service before January 2006 could continue to be used, but anything purchased AFTER that date and not compliant cannot. Note that even the Wouxuns and Baofeng radios are in the RED category of non-compliance.

In fact if you peruse the database, you'll find that the only NTIA certified analog radios are LMR:

https://comm.capnhq.gov/comm/equipment/vhf_summary.cfm

So the "MARS/CAP" services offered by these HAM dealers are, to say the least, questionable. We all know what these are really intended for: non-compliant part 90 use. And anyone who markets these services commercially is making their company liable for unauthorized equipment being used on part 90 or NTIA spectrum. Many of these HAM radios lack the proper IF bandwidth or spurious emission requirements.

I would not offer such services, as a ham, I am responsible and charging for these services just means that you are making yourself a party to someone else's illegal operation.

There is no legitimate reason to have transmit capabilities in a transceiver that it is not certified by the appropriate regulating agency to transmit on- regardless of someone's license.

Any business engaged in performing such services is undertaking a great risk, and might have to answer to this later if something goes wrong.

(anyone remember those Icom IC-V8's that were modified and sold to a fire department in Alabama? can't find it on the EB page, I do recall Riley Hollingsworth contacting that fire department and telling them they bought HAM radios that were not FCC certified for use on their part 90 frequencies.)

 

[WB4CS]

Instead of quoting two posts and making this a very long reply, I'll just reply directly to each person. I apologize if this is slightly off topic from the original post.

NW4G:
I'm glad to hear that at least some kind of check-and-balance is used in the selling of your modified radios. I agree, if someone wants a modified radio they will get one, even if they do the modification themselves. I also understand that you own a business and need to do what makes money and makes your customers happy. I thank you for at least having the discussion with your customers in trying to get them the correct radio and license for their needs, and that includes helping bring new people into the Amateur hobby. While I personally don't agree with the service of selling modified radios from your store, this does bring up an interesting question about the warranty. When you sell a radio that has been modified, how does that affect the warranty of a new radio that you sell?

That being said, as MTS2000des mentioned, other than MARS service, there really is no reason to own a modified radio except because one can own one. There are many examples of what the FCC rules clearly state, but I'm not going to reference those as they are out of the scope of this thread's purpose.

Next time I'm in the store I will be sure to ask for you, would enjoy a quick chat in person. I don't believe we've talked on the air before, but on 2 meters I generally hang out on the 147.220 repeater. Feel free to give me a shout if you hear me on the air, would be glad to say hello!

MTS2000des:
Agree 100% with your post, you are spot on. I don't have anything to add to your post, just wanted to say "thank you" for providing some great information.

 

[rapidcharger]

I can and we are! We offer mods on most all of the radios we sell, particularly radios that support the 2M or 70cm bands. I read above that you take offense to this, can you explain why?)))

I am not offended.
However if you're trying to stand apart from sleazy e-tailers like The Antenna Farm and R&L electronics, and clear up confusion with shipping policies and if you're concerned about your online reputation (I gather that you are and that's how you ended up on this very forum), then this is another aspect of what leads one to form an opinion about your company and your company's ethics.

(((There are several legitimate reasons to modify an Amateur Radio, the first two that come to mind are MARS and CAP, there are several others.)))

CAP has not only narrowbanded but has gone digital. YEARS AGO.
What, pray tell, are the several other legitimate uses for expanding transmit to a ham radio to TX where it is not FCC certified to do so?

(((Are you mad about this too?
Amazon.com: Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band Transceiver (Black): Car Electronics

No. Why would I be?
First of all, what gives you the impression that I'm mad?
Second of all, what does a part 90 certified radio have to do with modifying part 97 certified radios for profit, to transmit in other radio services where the end result could very well be the loss of life, the loss of one's job, or the loss of one's license, be it a part 90 license or a part 97 license?
If you're going to offer those mods all just for (ahem, ahem) "entertainment purposes only", why not expand your product offering to include "export model" CBs?

And I have got to ask...
What happens when someone has a problem with their modified radio during the warranty period and they send it back in to Icom or Kenwood or whoever and their repairs are not covered under the warranty because they have modified the radio? Does Gigaparts then cover the repair costs if those warranty service claims are denied?

I'm also curious why you don't just offer LMR radios.
If you want to enable your customers to transmit in the part 90 or 95 services, couldn't you just do what HRO does and include some Vertex Standard and Icom commercial products or even those cheap Chinese radios? HRO also sells part 95 certified GMRS radios. Wouldn't it be more profitable to sell someone another radio that they could legally use without all the liability and headaches of irate customers when the thing gets fried, than some inexpensive modification job?

You're an extra. You can't play the role of some truck stop and say "oh we just got these in a shipment, we don't know anything about them." You know better.

I eagerly and merrily await your reply.

 

[JustLou]

I ran across this forum and was glad to see all the discussion about my company, especially all the positive feedback!

I would like to clear up the shipping questions. My website doesn't give options for air freight or any specific carrier or shipping method, it gives options for delivery dates and guaranteed methods. This means you tell us when you want the package to get to you and we calculate the most cost effective way to get it there.

We calculate all of our shipping methods and prices based on order processing time and transit times to the customers location. So, if you select Rush 2 Day Guaranteed delivery and you are two days away by UPS Ground, the website knows this and prices the freight option accordingly. UPS Ground is a guaranteed delivery method, if the package doesn't arrive on time you get your money back no questions asked.

When free freight is available for an order, the amount of the free freight is deducted from the shipping amount. So if you ordered an FT-897D and saver surface would have cost $10, the pricing for saver surface is free and all the upgraded shipping methods cost $10 less.

I have had a handful of complaints from customers who thought they purchased a service they didn't actually purchase, but in each of those cases the package arrived by the agreed time. Still yet, I realise I'm not communicating as well as I should be and I intend to correct the problem.

So please keep in mind that we do things the way we do them to offer better pricing, more flexible shipping options, and so that we can keep costs down which in exchange gets you better pricing and better customer service!

John, I'm sorry you got the run around. Feel free to give me a call and I'll send you some free stuff!

George Howard - NW4G
866-535-4442
256-428-2133 - Direct
nw4g@gigaparts.com
GigaParts.com

George,
I just wanted to say thanks for great service. I ordered over $1,000 worth of equipment yesterday, and about 2 hours later I had a shipping confirmation and tracking number. I also placed 3 other orders this month for radios, antennas, and other accessories. All were shipped within 24 hours.

Thanks again.

 

[NW4G]

The Baofeng UV-5R's from Amazon has FCC part 90 certification for commercial radios, apples to oranges comparison. While they are (IMO improperly) marketed as HAM radios, at the end of the day, they "told" the FCC they are part 90 radios.

Interesting point here is that the CAP now require narrowband compliance after 2006, note that most HAM radios in their database are NOT narrowband compliant with NTIA regulations, and I don't see any radios that GigaParts (or any other HAM radio dealer) offering to perform such "modifications" on that are currently being sold as being certified by the NTIA for CAP use either:

https://comm.capnhq.gov/comm/equipment/equipment.cfm

Note that older radios placed in service before January 2006 could continue to be used, but anything purchased AFTER that date and not compliant cannot. Note that even the Wouxuns and Baofeng radios are in the RED category of non-compliance.

In fact if you peruse the database, you'll find that the only NTIA certified analog radios are LMR:

https://comm.capnhq.gov/comm/equipment/vhf_summary.cfm

So the "MARS/CAP" services offered by these HAM dealers are, to say the least, questionable. We all know what these are really intended for: non-compliant part 90 use. And anyone who markets these services commercially is making their company liable for unauthorized equipment being used on part 90 or NTIA spectrum. Many of these HAM radios lack the proper IF bandwidth or spurious emission requirements.

I would not offer such services, as a ham, I am responsible and charging for these services just means that you are making yourself a party to someone else's illegal operation.

There is no legitimate reason to have transmit capabilities in a transceiver that it is not certified by the appropriate regulating agency to transmit on- regardless of someone's license.

Any business engaged in performing such services is undertaking a great risk, and might have to answer to this later if something goes wrong.

(anyone remember those Icom IC-V8's that were modified and sold to a fire department in Alabama? can't find it on the EB page, I do recall Riley Hollingsworth contacting that fire department and telling them they bought HAM radios that were not FCC certified for use on their part 90 frequencies.)

The Amazon pages for the UV-5R don't say anything about part 90, likely because the radio isn't compliant with part 90. The
end user can program the radio through the keypad therefore the radio does not comply with part 90. It's a subject you can dig
into but in the end, that's the reality. This radio is being sold to anyone and everyone and people are using it for whatever purpose they like and it's being brought to the US market by lies about part 90 compatibility.

There is one very legitimate reason to have extended transmit capabilities in a transceiver and that is an emergency, that's also the primary reason amateur operators get their radios modified.

While on this topic, it's worth saying almost all of the sales we make for modified radios are to license amateur radio operators. If we didn't do the work I described in the post above the ratio would be different, but not by a lot. This may be because our customer base is primarily amateur radio based, whereas Amazon's isn't. If at some point that changed, I would certainly evaluate it.

Thanks for the great info on the CAP certifications, that's news to me and I'll use it in helping customers get the right radios for thier needs.

While I personally don't agree with the service of selling modified radios from your store, this does bring up an interesting question about the warranty. When you sell a radio that has been modified, how does that affect the warranty of a new radio that you sell?

What happens when someone has a problem with their modified radio during the warranty period and they send it back in to Icom or Kenwood or whoever and their repairs are not covered under the warranty because they have modified the radio? Does Gigaparts then cover the repair costs if those warranty service claims are denied?

Let's start with why we started offering mods in the first place because this subject touches exactly that spot. People were purchasing radios and modifying them for all kinds of purposes and we were having warranty problems because of that. We got radios back that were supposedly DOA that were actually bad because of improperly done mods and it was the primary number one issue for us and for the manufacturers, so that was the driver of really restrictive return and warranty policies. Our warranty policies are a lot more liberal now.

The primary difference between us modifying a radio and one being modified by an end user is that we do the mods properly, they are done correctly in our repair center by trained technicians. For most manufacturers, modifying the radio does NOT in an of itself void the warranty on the radio, the warranty is only voided if the problem is caused by the modification. If we did a mod and the radio has a problem because of that, we take care of it.

People aren't having problems with this unless I just don't know about it, and I usually know if my customers are having problems.

I'm also curious why you don't just offer LMR radios.
If you want to enable your customers to transmit in the part 90 or 95 services, couldn't you just do what HRO does and include some Vertex Standard and Icom commercial products or even those cheap Chinese radios? HRO also sells part 95 certified GMRS radios. Wouldn't it be more profitable to sell someone another radio that they could legally use without all the liability and headaches of irate customers when the thing gets fried, than some inexpensive modification job?

That's a fantastic question! We do have LMR radio's for sale but we aren't authorized to sell them on the internet or advertise them on the website. There are quite a few instances where someone will order an inexpensive radio with a mod and during our order processing we will touch base with them to see what their needs are and then end up selling them an LMR product, the volunteer firefighter example above is a great example of improper product.

Amateur Radio has been our focus and our offering of LMR, Aviation, and Marine radios is ancillary to that. There are a lot of things that go into having a LMR/Aviation/Marine dealerships for major radio manufactuers and we have a number of hindrances which make it just difficult enough to not focus on it. So far, focusing on Amateur Radio continues to bear fruit.

You're an extra. You can't play the role of some truck stop and say "oh we just got these in a shipment, we don't know anything about them." You know better.

I don't normally get into role-playing but as a child when we played cowboys and indians, I was usually a cowboy. I'm sorry for assuming you were mad if you weren't.

 

[n5ims]

FCC Part-90 cert number for the UV-5R is "ZP5BF-5R"

The Amazon pages for the UV-5R don't say anything about part 90, likely because the radio isn't compliant with part 90. The end user can program the radio through the keypad therefore the radio does not comply with part 90. It's a subject you can dig into but in the end, that's the reality. This radio is being sold to anyone and everyone and people are using it for whatever purpose they like and it's being brought to the US market by lies about part 90 compatibility.

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology web sits shows that the Baofeng UV-5R does indeed have Part-90 certification (the radio's label with the cert # is at this link from the mentioned FCC web site https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1702300

The full list of docs on this radio's certification is here --> https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repo...Frame=N&application_id=392511&fcc_id=ZP5BF-5R

Apologies for the OT post but since it was erroneously mentioned that this certification did not exist, I felt it was appropriate to make the correction and provide proof that this information was indeed false. I'm sure it wasn't done as a slight to the radio in question. Also be aware that no such certification currently exists for Part-95 operation so the radio can't legally be used on MURS, GMRS, or FRS.

 

[NW4G]

Do you require proof that the buyer is authorized to use the MARS/CAP frequencies?

I don't want to speak for rapid, but the topic of modified radios and out of band transmitting has been a hot topic on this forum lately. Search around in the amateur radio subforum if you're interested.

The Chinese radios have also produced some heated discussion here. My only issue with them is some online sites market them as "personal two way radios" and doesn't imply they require any kind of license.

Do you guys carry the cheap Chinese radios in the store? I don't remember seeing them on the gigaparts website.

I always enjoy coming into the store, keep up the good work!

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology web sits shows that the Baofeng UV-5R does indeed have Part-90 certification (the radio's label with the cert # is at this link from the mentioned FCC web site https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=1702300

The full list of docs on this radio's certification is here --> https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repo...Frame=N&application_id=392511&fcc_id=ZP5BF-5R

Dig deeper. Read the justification letter at the link you provided:

"We declare this equipment meets the requirements of FCC Rules, Parts 90.203 (e) and (g) as
applicable. Programming of this product's transmit frequencies can be performed ONLY by the
manufacturer or by service or maintenance personnel. The operator cannot program transmit
frequencies using the equipment's external operation."

That's a lie, isn't it?

Now read the part 90 rules here: eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations

Specifically 90.203 7 (c):

(e) Except as provided in paragraph (g) of this section, transmitters designed to operate above 25 MHz shall not be certificated for use under this part if the operator can program and transmit on frequencies, other than those programmed by the manufacturer, service or maintenance personnel, using the equipment's external operation controls.

This is why land mobile radios are channelized. It's to help non technical non ham type folks operate in a straight forward and simple way, and it helps them to not mess up and transmit where they aren't supposed too. Still, that's not the part the bothers me, it's the lie. Feel free to show me where I'm wrong, I'd be ok with taking it to another more on topic thread if you like.

Edit: Your first link isn't working for me, but I think ultimately the document you are after is this one: https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/tcb/repo...b_code=&application_id=392511&fcc_id=ZP5BF-5R