Rental equipment?

[285M]

Does anyone rent ham radios and equipment? I’m interested in trying some different stuff including system fusion, dstar, dmr, ect. I don’t have much money and I can’t afford to keep buying equipment just to try it out. I also don’t want the headache of trying to resell it. I’m in MA and wondering if there is anyplace that rents radios and equipment in the New England area? I think such a service would be awesome I certainly wouldn’t mind paying $50 to $100 to rent a transceiver for a week to try it out and help me figure out what I should buy. It seems like such a service could be profitable if there is any demand for it. If they took a deposit equal to the cost of the equipments new purchase price I don’t see how there would be any risk to the store to rent the equipment out. Maybe there just isn’t any real market for this type of service? I understand you aren’t allowed to use amateur radio for commercial purposes, but isn’t selling ham equipment a for profit business? It seems like renting it wouldn’t be any different?

In case anyone hasn’t seen my previous posts I’m a newly licensed operator. So please pardon my questions if you find them “stupid” or “dumb”I am new to ham and don’t have any friends or family that are hams so please be patient with me I’m trying to learn. 73🍻

 

[522]

Your best course of action would be to check out any ham clubs in your area.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I've never seen or heard of such a service.

 

[alcahuete]

Not a dumb question at all.

I have never seen such a "service," however, I would suspect there are hams out there who would be willing to let you borrow equipment for a week or such.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I seldom buy new. I buy yesterdays technology tomorrow. I have bought maybe three new ham radio handhelds over the years, but the rest always second hand.

 

[vagrant]

Are there any dstar, dmr, or system fusion repeaters in your area? If there are, how much traffic is there? Perhaps inquire with the particular repeater trustee. Analog is king and your area may not have much digital going on if at all. If you plan to use it via simplex to someone else, just go with the digital mode they use now.

I have various radios that cover all three of those modes and Yaesu Fusion is the easiest to program and sounds the best to me compared to other amateur manufacturers/modes if that helps.

 

[ladn]

Borrowing from a local ham club or other hams is probably the best option.
Another option would be to try out the equipment in a ham radio store. The HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) store in Burbank used to have a lot of equipment set up and operational for testing and demonstration. Unfortunately, that store has closed and I've never been to another HRO, but you might call around and see if any stores have equipment set up.

 

[Thunderknight]

The HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) store in Burbank used to have a lot of equipment set up and operational for testing and demonstration. Unfortunately, that store has closed and I've never been to another HRO, but you might call around and see if any stores have equipment set up.

The poster lists their location as Massachusetts. There is an HRO store in Salem, New Hampshire that might be a reasonable trip.

 

[Cognomen]

To help narrow your equipment choices, you may wish to use Repeaterbook (website or app) to see which digital modes are in use in your area.

 

[N4KVE]

I know of nobody that rents ham radios. But at the local club’s field day I was able to try whatever people brought. I was so impressed by one particular HF radio, I went to the ham store the next week, & bought the same radio.

 

[vagrant]

To help narrow your equipment choices, you may wish to use Repeaterbook (website or app) to see which digital modes are in use in your area.

One would probably be better served by reviewing a repeater list provided by the amateur radio coordinating body for whatever state/area. They typically have respective websites with that information. Those sites are probably more accurate, but may have paper repeaters listed as well. (Paper Repeater = Offline, or gone bit still on the list)