Are old say 80's 2 meter all mode any good for a base station at home?
Is not having pl capability a problem? How do I tell if a repeater in
my area has pl?

I have found a few of these on ebay for about 200 bucks or less. This
leads me to another question, is ebay as good and cheap a place to find
used equipment as say a ham fest? I am going to my first one in January.