yes, first post!
I have used two vhf vertex standard vx-160’s on who knows what frequency for a duration of about 3 years, this was a few years back prior to the latest cellular, wifi and hdtv technology. I bought these for $40 with two rapid chargers and accessory mics. The ni-mh finally died and I moved to frs/gmrs but now i am just sick of the hassles of not having a dependable radio.
I’ve been in the telecom field for four years and do anything from fixing a broken rj45 patch cable in a walmart data center to full building wiring on a construction site for target and even satellite installs for radioshack.
I have various makes of gmrs but stuck collecting audiovox for a while because they were just a nice radio for me. I have eight that i’ve modified with 3mm LEDs on the tx/rx circuit to quickly identify where team members are/quickly find lost radios. I’ve had uniden, audiovox, midland, motorola and cobra junky frs AAA eating radios all bought as a means to communicate at work instead of just buying new batteries for the vertex pair. I did get use out of the audiovox and like them but midland cases tend to be the best case for loudspeaker bass and clarity.
I frequent pawn shops from Wisconsin to florida and new york to colorado, and recently stumbled across two moto RDU2080D business band each with a base and charger for $200.
Now I have an eye for deals and know the industry so i knew right away these could be a good deal but I also realize I might need a license.
My worry is that since i saw no colored dots, dont have a frequency counter and they are obviously used, i will either end up spending $40+ more per radio getting the frequencies changed or risk interfering with my customer or worse-getting fined by fcc.
The main and only reason i like this radio is simply that its large and heavy yet comfortable and light. I like the feeling of having a tough reliable means in which to communicate, I dont like swapping AAA batteries out, holding it to my ear, saying “repeat that” every 2 minutes or leaving it laying somewhere.
What would an fcc ignorant person like me need to do before I signed the receipt for the RDX’s?
I dont need a uhf/vhf radio, if anyone knows of a newer gmrs/frs (any non-license band) that is built right with durable construction, maybe LCD and a rubber ducky, I’d be all for it… and not a moto talkabout type either - more like the XU1xxx, HT1xxx, GPxx, VX-4xx even a Spirit would be okay.
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!