What does "rugged" really mean? JT1000

[TechHead09]

I am in the process of purchasing a JT1000 handheld Motorola radio. I am an amateur radio license holder and wanted to get a rugged commercial grade radio for handheld use. I was wondering what rugged features do the JT1000's actually have? Are they o-ring seals against ingress of water, dust, particulates? Could you drop them in a puddle of water and they be okay? What about rain, a downpour, snow? The last handheld I had was a Yaesu FT-270R which had o-ring seals, IP rating for submersion to 3 meters I believe for 30 minutes or something like that. Is the JT1000 capable of this? Thanks for any feedback! I'm sorry if this already exists somewhere, I did a search of the board and didn't really find much.

[RadioSouth]

It has some Mil Spec 810 ratings for things like dust, vibration, humidity bit it's not submersible. There are ruggedized and submersible versions of some models but not the JT1000.

[MTS2000des]

What RS said. The JT1000, and all Jedi radios, while fairly rugged compared to most hammie stuff, are not known for watertightness. The biggest entry point is through the speaker grille, they use a paper cone speaker and a piece of felt for a gasket. Any submersion is not a good thing for a Jedi radio. Even torrential rain will at least, muffle the audio (wet speaker cone), worse is ingress.

If you want a ruggedized radio, look for an R version of an XTS3000/5000. One word of caution, any ruggedized/sumberisble radio MUST be properly maintained and pressure tested regularly. A 10 year old radio with old O-rings, or compromised housings won't stand up.

[mr.syntrx]

If you want a submersible Motorola, it's probably worth looking at a MOTOTRBO radio (even if you don't need digital) rather than taking guesses with an eBay special.

XPR7550 for example is submersible to 3 feet for 30 minutes.