For those of you who have bought from Hong Kong sellers on eBay.

[michy]

My experiences with buying a GP380 from HK.

I ended up doing this purchase with g8hkshop on ebay and paying the additional $17 he asked me for shipping. I think it was due to HK Post refusal to ship batteries? and DHL would.

I was irritated when he asked for more shipping costs since it wasn't apart of the deal. What made it worse, sending it DHL charged me more fees when it got to my door.

Anyways, regarding the radio, and accessories I received from this seller...

My comments regarding the purchase of these HK radios are:

1) They are re-cased with what I think may be non-motorola parts. The knobs did not fit as tight as the authentic motorola refurbish kits.

2) The metal radio chassis also appeared to be a non-motorola part. The battery did not fit correctly as a authentic motorola radio/battery. At first I thought it was the case not fitting right, and replaced it with a motorola kit, and it didn't help, so I think the radio chassis was just a bad copy.

3) On the component side of the main board, the tanapa # was PMUE1440C but the stick on the new chassis said PMUE1441C. I am not sure if it was upgraded, or why that would be different. When I look the numbers up, I see more references to the GP340.

4) When recased it, the LCD was not double sticky taped down to the window like the motorola's are usually.

5) The main board is not in new condition.(Not that i expected it to be).

6) Someone here mentioned the CD you received was blank... same with with the one I received (actually it was more unreadable than blank some one of my many computers could see files on it, but could not read anything else).

7) The internal speaker, microphone, and attached ribbon cables appeared to be original motorola.. unless they got very good at faking them there.

Bottom line, for the price of these (I paid $160 + $47 shipping + $25 DHL fees), I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. You can get a second hand HT1250 for cheaper and put your own refurbish kit on them.

 

[Nasby]

Thanks for posting the info on these.

Hopefully it will help others who might be considering one.

I see mint or lightly used authentic HT1250's on Ebay for around $250.00 all the time so as you mentioned, that might be a better option.

 

[michy]

I see mint or lightly used authentic HT1250's on Ebay for around $250.00 all the time so as you mentioned, that might be a better option.

Before buying my GP380, I googled for days... checking youtube for reviews on the HK models. RadioReference.com was one of the few places that discussed these radios. I think its great of a forum such as this can save someone some money, or help make better decisions. Especially since there are some "questionable" sellers out there who deceive potential buyers.


This is what "I" use to determine how good the EBAY(or anywhere online) HT* radios are (it's always a gamble):

1) I try to get one with accessories like a charger or mic
-Thieves who are selling hot equipment may be less likely to be selling with accessories.

2) I need to see a picture of the inside back without the battery
- visible water damage, or usage/abuse (some are scratched up and discolored).
- Confirm model, Tanapa, serial number etc.

Can we check serial numbers for theft?

Anyone know if this site is valid for checking?:
Search by Serial Number

3) I'd rather get one that hasn't been recased/refurbished
- I'd rather see one in the original case, which I can use to determine "wear".
- Refurbish kits (authentic motorola) can be purchased for < $50, and replace anything external

4) Ensure the seller typically sells radio and parts/accessories
- Avoids purchasing stolen equipment.

Also, I was very tempted to purchase new, as the HT1250's are around $800 new. Have to admit though, the used ones appear to be rock solid and so well build, they seem to last forever. Authentic motorola parts can be obtained fairly inexpensively if needed (ie: LCD, batteries, etc).

Anyways my two cents

 

[michy]

After some talk about the motorola chargers bought on EBAY, I wanted to compare one that came with the GP380 with an authentic motorola.

These pictures show the difference in circuit board. Both were model HTN9000B.

I was surprised the Authentic charger (Top picture) had larger capacitors, and a number of IC's compared to one from HK (Bottom picture).

 

[cmdrwill]

Two very different chargers....

 

[K5MPH]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I have bought from 409shop many times and have never had and trouble at all and they answer there email very quickly

 

[michy]

I had asked an Ebay seller from China, if their parts were manufactured by motorola and they were actually honest enough to say no, that they were not. The one part they sold were the flexible cable that connect the universal connector, speaker and microphone to the main board.

This part looks completely legit, and if you compare them to authentic motorola parts, its very hard to see any differences.

I noticed however, they don't mention, show, or offer is the 100 picofarad capacitor that is in parallel with the microphone (circles in red below)

I assume this capacitor acts as a filter?

 

[mformby]

Have those "GP" radios been type accepted by the FCC. Originally they were not.

 

[RadioDitch]

That's generally the gag with the sellers in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia who sell Motorola radios on eBay. They're almost always listed as refurbs due to some (or almost all in some cases) Moto components being removed and sold off, while they use knockoff replacements to get the radio working again for resale.

 

[2wayfreq]

I just curious if they will do very narrow frequencies 451.00125 etc,.and 2.4khz voice deviation etc?