03-17-2003, 05:41 AM
NOTE: I had the call sign wrong in the title, the proper call for Herman is K7PAG.
I met Herman at the local hamfest where he was selling an old cop radio (Midland 440MHz rig @ 65W with remote head) for $125. The radio looked in good used conditon and he promised to also burn an EPROM to my spec. I paid for the radio with a check and took it home. I put it on the bench and hooked up the antenna and it seemed dead on RX. It would hear a HT in the room just fine but would not pick up any of the local repeaters that were in the current EPROM, ones that my HT could bring up on its duck. I gave Herman a call the next day and told him of my problem. He said that he would be glad to replace it with another unit from the same batch. I also emailed him the list of 80 channels I wanted in the readio. He lives accross the sound from me and offered to bring it over but I had to run up the hill to the club's repeater site near his town that week anyway. When I got off the hill I called him up on his 2m repeater and he talks me in to his place in the woods. When I get there he was ready with another unit with my frequencies ready to go. I pop it in the truck and it worked great. He then invites me in for coffee and shows me his shop, shack and antenna farm. We figure that somehow he didn't tune up the RX side to the ham band on this unit. He had got a pallet of them from a local auction and had been selling them on e-bay. He must have been distracted between all the rigs he was running through his bench.
He also let me look through his service manual for the model and copied any of the pages that I wanted. He then showed me one of the radios on his bench and walked me through where the tunning points were.
Long story short: Herman K7PAG is a stand-up guy that knows his radios and will go the extra mile to make sure the deal is fair. I will buy more equipment from him if he has what I'm looking for. This is one of those deals that could have gone so wrong but due to Herman's integrity it turned out right. Feel safe dealling with this guy, if something goes wrong, as it sometimes does, he will make it right.
Joe W7COM
Update: I did end up buying another UHF radio and an O-scope from him. Same great service!
I met Herman at the local hamfest where he was selling an old cop radio (Midland 440MHz rig @ 65W with remote head) for $125. The radio looked in good used conditon and he promised to also burn an EPROM to my spec. I paid for the radio with a check and took it home. I put it on the bench and hooked up the antenna and it seemed dead on RX. It would hear a HT in the room just fine but would not pick up any of the local repeaters that were in the current EPROM, ones that my HT could bring up on its duck. I gave Herman a call the next day and told him of my problem. He said that he would be glad to replace it with another unit from the same batch. I also emailed him the list of 80 channels I wanted in the readio. He lives accross the sound from me and offered to bring it over but I had to run up the hill to the club's repeater site near his town that week anyway. When I got off the hill I called him up on his 2m repeater and he talks me in to his place in the woods. When I get there he was ready with another unit with my frequencies ready to go. I pop it in the truck and it worked great. He then invites me in for coffee and shows me his shop, shack and antenna farm. We figure that somehow he didn't tune up the RX side to the ham band on this unit. He had got a pallet of them from a local auction and had been selling them on e-bay. He must have been distracted between all the rigs he was running through his bench.
He also let me look through his service manual for the model and copied any of the pages that I wanted. He then showed me one of the radios on his bench and walked me through where the tunning points were.
Long story short: Herman K7PAG is a stand-up guy that knows his radios and will go the extra mile to make sure the deal is fair. I will buy more equipment from him if he has what I'm looking for. This is one of those deals that could have gone so wrong but due to Herman's integrity it turned out right. Feel safe dealling with this guy, if something goes wrong, as it sometimes does, he will make it right.
Joe W7COM
Update: I did end up buying another UHF radio and an O-scope from him. Same great service!