Hi, Nick,

Gary is absolutely right, let the stuff been sent to your relatives,
whatever it is, it is much cheaper over there. BTW try www.gigaparts.com
they have good prices, and they also ship to EU. Then take a week or two off
your work and fly to your relatives to pick it up. The price difference will
pay for your travel.

To avoid customs troubles (not about the customs tax, HAM gear is not
taxable or taxfree) but the CE certification, which the US-rigs dont have,
It is much easier to import the gear by yourself, so you can stet this is
used amateur radio gear, maybe you put a sticker with your callsign on it.

Two OM I am friend with did both things. One ordered a TS2000 from
Gigaparts, delivered within two weeks to Austria, then four weeks of hassles
with the customs about the CE sticker. It took him quite a bit of effort to
put in to convince the customs of the identicality of the US and EU radios.

The other one flew to Hamvention at Dayton this year, bought a TS480 for
less than half the price of Austria, had a great time and imported the
"used" radio with no problems.

Hope that helps for you also, Nick.

73 de OE8SOQ
Helmut


"Gary S." Idontwantspam@net schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
| On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 09:15:15 GMT, "nick smith"
| wrote:
|
| Need to buy some kit when in the US and am looking for Ham outlets that
will despatch to
| my relatives out there, or to me here in UK. Can someone please
recommend me some
| suppliers ?
|
| Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) http://www.hamradio.com/
|
| Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) http://www.aesham.com/
|
| Texas Towers http://www.texastowers.com/
|
| I am sure there are others, but these three are about the biggest.
|
| My personal experience is only with HRO, as they have a shop about an
| hour's drive from here.
|
| Having it sent to a US address, and then sent to you, might simplify
| things a bit. The first two above will do international orders, TT
| will not.
|
| Happy trails,
| Gary (net.yogi.bear)
| ------------------------------------------------
| at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence
|
| Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
| Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom