Basic info needed (longish)
 

My brother-in-law was a radio hobbyist and passed away a few months
ago. I am helping my sister sell his equipment but I am not very
knowledgable and I want to understand more so I can get what it is
worth for her. He had no life insurance and she has two children to
support. I am worried that I will not describe the equipment fully and
not sell it for its true value.

He had several Icom IC-W2A hand-held radios. From what I've read these
are fairly old but I think they may be desirable because you can enable
them (via the keypad) to scan a wider range of frequences (800 ~ 900+).
I think that newer radios have this capability disabled? He also had an
AOR AR 1500 that I think has similar unrestricted RX frequencies. Is it
legal for me to advertise these exteneded ranges on Ebay listings?
There seems to be some secrecy to this kind of thing as I try to
research it.

The IC-W2A radios can also be set up as as dual band repeaters. I don't
really understand why you would want to do this unless you are
providing a repeater service to other people? This seems odd for a
hand-held radio.

I have also seen mods for these radios that enable MARS/CAP. He was a
very accomplished electronics technician so I would expect he has
modified these radios. Besides taking them apart, can I check to see if
they have been modified some other way -- maybe tuning to a particual
frequency and listening? Again, is it legal to advertise this feature
if they have been modified? There doesn't seem to me that there would
be much activity on Military Amatuer and Civil Air Patrol but there
seems to be a lot of references to MARS/CAP modifications around. He
had an Icom IC-207H with a label of "MARS/CAP" on it. It was on his
bench and connected to one of five large roof-mounted antennas. I think
this was probably one of the radios he used the most. Are there other
mods I should look for on it?

He had several GMRS hand helds (Radio Shack and Maxon 210+3) and CB
radios (Radio Shack and Uniden). Is there any unique enhancements I
should invesigate on these? The Maxon 210+3 radios (he had several of
these) also are older models but they push 5 watts. Is that unique to
the older radios? Since he had several of this one model I think there
must be something unique about them.

He also had a Magnavox D2999 PLL World Receiver. He had modified it for
an external (roof mount) antenna. I was thinking about re-connecting
the built-in antenna on it before selling. Anything else I should look
for on it?

I would appreciate any help or advice you folks can provide. If you
have any questions or any tests you can walk me through on these radios
I will be glad to give them a shot.

Thanks,
Twiddler

Basic info needed (longish)
 

It's hard to do anything like this very well by email or newsgroup. I
suggest that you contact a local amateur radio club. They should be able
to recommend a number of amateurs who are familiar with the equipment
and the market for it, who can help you. If you'll tell us your general
location, chances are that someone reading this group lives nearby and
can recommend a club (or perhaps help in person). Or, you can contact
the ARRL, which is the national organization of radio amateurs, who will
be glad to help. You can email to find clubs affiliated
with the ARRL, or call the ARRL at the number listed at their web site
http://www.arrl.org and explain what you need.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Twiddler wrote:
My brother-in-law was a radio hobbyist and passed away a few months
ago. I am helping my sister sell his equipment but I am not very
knowledgable and I want to understand more so I can get what it is
worth for her. He had no life insurance and she has two children to
support. I am worried that I will not describe the equipment fully and
not sell it for its true value.
. . .