I had a similar experience with an Icom handheld sold on ebay, only I bid on
the basis that it worked. It didn't, even though the 'transmit' flag came
up.
The radio could never have worked because the output rf transistor leads had
been cut and the tarnished copper on the cut ends showed that this hadn't
been recent.
Got my money back after sufficiently threatening/embarrassing the vendor;
but was lucky on that occasion.
Duncan McF.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Fillinger" <n3eu@comcast.net>
Subject: Europa-List: Buying Avionics off eBay
>
> It has occurred to me I now should describe the world of
> eBay, so nobody gets burned. The Narco COM 120 I bought was
> actually funny. Very good cosmetic condition; tested great
> on the bench. The seller said "working when removed for
> upgrade." They love that last word, because it implies no
> other reason to replace. Well, it had a thermal fault.
> Showed up after 45 minutes, like Old Faithful. So "upgrade"
> can really mean just replacing a bad box.. He wasn't
> fibbing; because it was removed "cold" and of
> course...worked when removed!
>
> A crazy one was a nav receiver. According to several
> repairs tags stuffed inside, in Spanish, it spent much of
> its life in Mexico. Well, there's a licensed repair guy
> down there named Pancho, who must rip stuff out of old
> Emerson table radios for parts. Wrong value, but circuit
> operation would be unaffected, and probably he knew that.
> But an oversized part, requiring a horrid installation
> method.
>
> So this radio winds up north over the border in Texas,
> offered by a guy who eBay resells a lot of this stuff. You
> can tell when such a guy knows avionics, by the wording in
> his eBay offerings. Most everything is "AS IS," but when a
> guy like this says "working when removed," it means the guy
> who sold it to him said it did, like maybe even a Pancho.
> This guy only occasionally says "unknown condition." If no
> one told him OK when removed, well a guy who knows avionics
> can check this box in minutes for basic function, so
> "unknown condition" means...it doesn't work! It didn't; but
> for $25 I gambled a circuit board I needed would be OK, and
> was after repairing old Pancho's handiwork.
>
> Have four other eBay items that don't work; two that do.
> Only takes enough other eBay bidders to be suspicious enough
> I won on a very low bid. Only one seller described exactly
> what was wrong with it.
>
> Reg,
> Fred F.
>
>
>
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