Batboard

I am considering permanently marking my equipment using an engraver. I have a few questions if anyone can help me out.

1 - Is it safe to use an engraver on a radio? I've seen it done a lot, but have also heard that it's not good for the unit.

2 - If I do decide to do it, what information should be put on it? My social security number? anything else?

3 - Is it reall worth it to go through all the hassle? What are the chances of a radio actually being recovered? (say if it's sold from a person on the street, not on a public website or sale) I ask this question because all of my stuff has been purchased on here or ebay, so I have no actual proof of ownership. The company I work for had radios stolen (CDM1550's), the police recovered them, but the company had serial numbers that were off by one, and the police would not turn them over (still fighting it after 2 years).

A few silly simple questions, anyone have any suggestion?

2 - If I do decide to do it, what information should be put on it? My social security number? anything else?

here's your problem. If a pawn shop or the like see MIKE SMITH on the radio and it's not the person in front of them-they may turn it down. Something distinguishing and unique is fine. We had the police pick up a saw recently that they guy had no info on-other than it was a milwaukee and he had make a nice plywood case for it.

3 - Is it reall worth it to go through all the hassle? What are the chances of a radio actually being recovered? (say if it's sold from a person on the street, not on a public website or sale) I ask this question because all of my stuff has been purchased on here or ebay, so I have no actual proof of ownership. The company I work for had radios stolen (CDM1550's), the police recovered them, but the company had serial numbers that were off by one, and the police would not turn them over (still fighting it after 2 years).


That is absurd. What kind of backwards ass police dept is that?

If you rent radios for a living then you have a good reason to engrave them with your company's ID or some other unique marking. Radios from different rental companies commonly get mixed up at concert venues and places such as that.

The secret of getting them back, should they be stolen, is to keep a good record of model and serial numbers. If you don't do this then you can forget any help from local authorities, NCIC, etc.

Other than rental radios, those of us who collect nice old radios such as MT500s think that there must be a special place in hell for people who engrave them.

When I was in college in Ohio years ago, the kerosene lanterns which my classmates commonly stole from jobsites were all engraved, "Stolen from the Dayton Power and Light Company." It didn't stop the stealing, but to some extent I think it kept it under control.

Yep, S/N's are recorded and stored on 2 computers, along with a paper trail that is updated as soon as I get a new radio. But, some of the units don't have S/Ns on them, and also labels are very easy to peel off, and having them stored in the radio programming wont be of much help to anyone who finds it.....

(oh, and by the way, I have 6 MT500's, I think i'll do those just for the hell of it )

Many law enforcement agencies over the years have suggested that you engrave your driver's license number, along with the state of issue (i.e. FL BXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) - easily run by any cop in the country, unlike a social security number, and why contribute to the possibility of identity theft by divulging your social security number.

Just a thought for your consideration.

dbrock411 wrote:Many law enforcement agencies over the years have suggested that you engrave your driver's license number, along with the state of issue (i.e. FL BXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) - easily run by any cop in the country, unlike a social security number, and why contribute to the possibility of identity theft by divulging your social security number.

Just a thought for your consideration.

That's a great idea! I never even thought of a DL number! Makes a lot more sense.

Mike, what I have done to my MT500(s) is crazy. I took my soldering iron with the pencil tip, and wrote my name and address inside the front cover, frame spacer, and back cover, AND the battery compartment cover. Pretty crazy, but it works! I don't know about the metal frame, though but it can be done. I got the idea from an HT220 I bought off eBay. The previous owner's last name and callsign was engraved in all the places I listed.

Robert

i'd just like to get the professional machine that does it. I used to work at Six Flags Great Adventure, and all of their radios had it in front. Letters were about 1/4 inch tall, and engraved perfectly... Oh well, can't have everything...

How bad did the plastic smell when you burned it?

let me tell all of you this

by engraving your d/l number on something

you almost insure %100 that it will be sold on the street!

If it does hit a place liek a pawn shop-they are required to write that number down. BUT most shops won't even touch it.

If something come sin with a d/l on it-

"Sir are you Mr.Glass"
"oh, your not, well who is mr.glass?"
"ah a friend huh"


at that point I turn it down or go so low it's worth a loss if it is stolen, just so the owner gets it back

same deal on a dl#

now lets say you engrave somethign like m16a1 on it

it gets written up as
radio motorola m/ho1sdc9aa3bn s/402atl0591 two-way radio with "m16a1" engraved on front



you have a report on file witht he pd with the description of it's a motorola radio and ht1000 with m16a1 engraved on it

police call and ask more questions and whoomp there it is-you get yuour rig back


make sense?

Didn't smell that bad, but I have smelled worse things, trust me. Sulfur, for instance, will kill you if you breathe in it's fumes while it's burning, and........................... BUT, ya gotta be careful not to burn all the way through the plastic. I didn't, but it's possible if you press down too hard. Oh and move it real quick, if you do it slow the letters will get larger and harder to read, and harder to fit it where you want it.

Robert

Hey Mike

what did you want to engrave?

I can try to get my rotary engraver set up at some point

If it works on gun receivers-it should do plastic

I'll mess with it next month and we'll see

We regularly engrave radios for customers.. put their company Logo, phone number on ... but we use LASER ENGRAVING..

There is no physical stress on the radio to do it..

Most portables die on the job, so they don't care about resale value, they just want to reduce theft!.

A friend had a bunch of radios stolen during a burglary at his house,
which were later recovered. they were not engraved with his DL#,
but were labeled with his ham callsign.

An alert cop decided to run the callsign as a license plate just for the
heck of it, and got a hit on my friend, which led to the radios being
returned.

this was an agency within the same state, but some distance away,
and it was simply luck of the draw that the gear was matched up and returned..


I would:

keep good records,

engrave the radio serial/model number on the frame somewhere
near the label.

depending on how pristine you want to keep
the radio, either engrave some unique ID info (such as DL, or company name+location+phone#), or afix it in some
semi-permanent manner (such as a foil sticker).

perthcom wrote:We regularly engrave radios for customers.. put their company Logo, phone number on ... but we use LASER ENGRAVING..

There is no physical stress on the radio to do it..

Most portables die on the job, so they don't care about resale value, they just want to reduce theft!.

I have seen that... There was someone on ebay selling 160 MHz radios that used to be used in the motion picture industry. They had what resembled a radioactive symbol that was engraved into the radio and colored red. Looked really neat. I was wondering how it was sone so perfectly.

How much does laser engraving usually cost?

A friend of mine engraved " STOLEN FROM TRI COUNTY CONSTRUCTION" on all of his radios...

Also, Motorola offers an engraving service from the factory when you buy a new radio.

FYI

one of the local places here in ct does it i think for free or for 20.00 on radios he sells or if you bring one in.
i buy radios from them now and then Utility communications in hamden

he uses a regular rotarty type like mr glass has.

we picked up 2 ht750 in 2000 we numbered then 00-01 and 00-02 and the name valley rail road on them

also it work good for a set of stolen ones i found that were stolen from the durham fair. and i stole them back from the kids

How do the radio's look? Recent engravings from either M or NECS don't look that great. Even with the newer CentraCom II lables, the letters look fat. The older style seems to have been discontiuned. I would like to get the rear of my two Astro's engraved just in case...

Another good tip to use that I picked up here if you have display radios....

If you don't use MDC status/message, enable it. Then for the message and status alias, I have: This radio (2) Belongs to (3) Pj if found (4) contact xxx-xxx-xxxx etc etc. That way if the police find it and play with the radio, they may come across the message. I have done it with my portables and mobiles.

The cost of Laser Engraving depends on the Quantity of units.. and whether you have the Logo already done up in a format that we can use.. or if we have to spend time making one up.
Usually goes for about 15.00 Canuk bucks each when we do add ons and we have the file on the machine.

Robert HT220 wrote:Didn't smell that bad, but I have smelled worse things, trust me. Sulfur, for instance, will kill you if you breathe in it's fumes while it's burning, and........................... BUT, ya gotta be careful not to burn all the way through the plastic. I didn't, but it's possible if you press down too hard. Oh and move it real quick, if you do it slow the letters will get larger and harder to read, and harder to fit it where you want it.

Robert

I used to work offshore. Talk about killing you in one breath, try H2s!

Hi Mike:

If you have a number of radios, and they are
all the same, and if cosmetics is important, I
would take your radios to a Engraving Shop !

Places that engrave Trophys for example can
easily do this, and its cheap ( in most cases )

Best to list your Company Name, City State,
and phone number.

Also, if your company goes out of business at
some time in the future, adding your Drivers
License and State of issue is ideal too.

In the Inside, I would also have a

[ REWARD IF FOUND AND RETURNED IN WORKING ORDER ]

Best to add the working order, as sometimes radios may
have been rained on for months, and or ROV ( Ran Over
By Vehicle ) and you really don't want to be responsible
for a reward if the radio is returned in pieces.

With the above information.....We have recovered about
20 Radios over the last 5 years.

Monty

We use a computer controlled engraving machine here at work. We engrave radios for customers all the time. It is relatively inexpensive.

The benefits include:

1. Easy identifcation.
2. Theft deterrent - radio stands out from others.
3. Inventory control.
4. It just looks nice.
5,6,7... and so on.... (Note posts above.)

It may not be the best deterrent, but it clearly marks your radio. If you were considering stealing a radio, wouldnt you take the unmarked one versus the marked radio?

Here are some examples of radios we have engraved here at the shop. We have done just about every type of radio and pager.... if space permits. (You have to have a decent flat surface.)

Hope this helps!

-werdnuts


http://pages.sbcglobal.net/werdnuts/images/engraving/

Here is some pics of the ones we have at the station. I am not sure how much they cost, but the do look sharp. Done on a few ht600s, and ht1000s.

Thanks everyone for all the good advice. A lot of these things I wouldn't have even thought of.

Now that i'm getting more serious in the hobby and investing so much money into it, i'd like to protect it the best I can.

That radio above looks SHARP! I like it

If af anyone has anything else to add, please do so!

Yes, they all look good. I think I'll look into one of the trophy places. Mike, know of any around here? I know there's a place in the mall, but I don't know if they engrave stuff they don't sell. Ideas?

Later.

There's a place called Lenny's Trophys on Route 9 North in Manalapan. There's also a place here in Jackson near 195. I'll look into the one in Jackson and let you know.

I have 50+ radios that i'd like to have done, And hey, it's extra money for them. I wouldn't see why they may not do it (except maybe a liability issue?)

i know utilty does real good work i have had several done there and they are real good

A few weeks ago was searching a car that some meth heads had been in. In the trunk was a MT1000, VHF, with DTMF keypad and speaker mike. It was engraved with a name. The next day Union Pacific Rail Road got back a radio they did not even know was missing. A name or call sign engraved on any property greatly increases it's chance of speedy recovery.

Does permanently marking the radio decrease it's value if you want to resell it?

Yes Mike, it does, but not as much as having it take a one-way walk. A radio that grows legs is worth zero, so . . . you decide. And thanks, I'll check on Lenny's. Now that you mention it, I do remember it. I'll let you know next week sometime.

You can always find a used case in good condition for a very cheap price to replace the engrave one if you want to sell the radio later on down the road.