I have never tried one of them myself, but a few things I notice right off the top.
Yes, it sounds like a ham radio, in fact it says "tune it like a ham radio" on the brochure. But, the first line of the same add flyer says "Public Safety Radio". Seems a little hinky to me.
Yes, amateur radio equipment does not need to be type accepted, no doubt, but it does need to be FCC approved for commercial sale when it is manufactured and sold to the public (home brew equipment is exempt). Regardless, both the VHF and UHF versions appear to indeed be type accepted per Part 90 and also approved for commercial sale in the US, and both have FCC I.D. numbers assigned, U7GBlackBoxMU for the UHF version and U7GBlackBoxMV for the VHF version. Tracing those back show letters submitted to the FCC in 2009 that the BlackBox radios are physically the same product, with changed brand name and model number, as previously Part 90 type accepted and approved for commercial sale items T4K5188U1 and T4K5188V1 by "Qixiang Electron Science & Technology Co., Ltd."
But tracking it back a little further you find a letter (actually two letters, June 21, 2008, one each for the T4K5188U1 and V1 models) in association with the original type acceptance and approval for commercial sale in the US. And that letter says specifically:
"The equipment meets the requirements of the FCC Rules, Part 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 personal. The operator cannot be program transmit frequencies using the
equipment’s external operation controls."
Going to say it again, just a little hinky, if not outright incorrect, information may have been supplied to achieve approval for commercial sale and Type 90 acceptance.
But, doesn't matter. It appears that you as the buyer would be buying an approved for sale in the US radio.
The price looks to be about $310 per radio, the radios are monobanders (need a separate radio for 2M and 70cm), and run about 55 W VHF and a little less UHF. For about the same price you could pick up an amateur radio specific dual bander and do both bands in one package ($330 for the Alinco DR635T 2M/440 rig, $330 for the Icom IC208H 2M/440 rig, $320 for the Yaesu FT7900R 2M/440 rig). Or, if you want monobanders (and there are advantages to having separate radios) you could pick up the ham brand monoband radios for a good bit less than the $310 of the BlackBox radios, more along the lines of $150 to $275 per radio.
Maybe the BlackBox radios work well, maybe not, but I know I would not be bothering to give them a chance, not based on what I found in a few minutes of digging. Now, maybe if they were half the price of the Yaesu/Kenwood/Icom/Alinco radios I would give it a try, or if I needed the Type 90 acceptance, but not as it stands at first glance.
T!
Like I said, hinky. And why I owuld personally look at something else first unless these could be had for a fraction of the price of brand name, then you could just treat them as throw away. If they work fine, last long time, then good, if they only last a year before you are looking for someone to repair it then so be it.
