Batboard

Anyone else notice the ways the market is going for Astro portables on ebay, either AS3 or XTS series?

With the watchbuddy, apcosystem etc etc parts built radios the entire market is now almost exclusively made up of these radios.

with so many of these radios are out there, they are now being re-sold by other sellers I am really doubting if any of us will be able to find legit radios other than fed surplus Astro Saber I's now or in the future.

so Motorola doesnt have a problem when a radio shows up no serial # and you want xyz done to it at tje depot? interesting. I should take a vehicle to GM without a VIN tag and see if they fix it.

Same thing goes for placing the radio on an authorized trunked system. What system admin will put a radio on the air without a serial #?

Obiously the performance is the same as tha factory built radio.

I remember in years past Motorola took a VERY dim view of people building and selling radios from their parts and took legal action against some of the people who were doing it.

eBay is a business, and I am all for eBay and people making money. Its just unfortunate that there are so many of these Watchbuddy radios are showing up so often as it kills us who are trying to sell our own personal radios for a good price. Recently I sold one of mine for the price I wanted, however I think it was just a fluke.

I remember the day that these radios were going close to $1700-$2000 on eBay, and those were for the LAPD sytle radios. Remember when if you just listed MODAT (reguardless of flashcode) and that bumped up the price big time?

If Watchbuddy (or whoever) does read this post, I would just ask that maybe he could spread out his auctions a little more and give some of the smaller guys a chance to sell their personal radios. I don't think it would be a big deal as each of his radio's usually sell without a problem.

I'm not in the business of selling radios, I just sell them to make some cash to buy newer ones! eBay-What a great place to upgrade!

Is 591008-4F1E00-9 flashcode only a watchbuddy flash, or can it be a real flash from the depot? After reading this thread, I rechecked my flashes, and I got one Should I be concerned if I send that AS3 into the depot? THe serial doesn't have his initials though.

I've had this radio for almost two years, and it works ok. My VX-7R does have better UHF sensitivity than myS3 403-470 cut. You think I need to get this radio onto a service montor and have it rechecked?

Thanks all

I have 3 of the Watchbuddy / Apco25 radios and after getting the first one I had the County check the serial numbers through NCIC and they came up clear. (standard practice) I then called Motorola gave them the serial number and had them check the radios and they said none were reported stolen. And now for the best part, the first radio got sent out with a "legit" radio to be put on the trunking system, the legit radio had a problem and was supposed to be sent back to M but they screwed up and sent the built radio, it came back with a sticker on the outside with the flashcode and serial number and no charges because they did nothing accept align it and get this it's still under warranty. I made a call out to M and they confirmed the thing was under warranty.
Howard

When you build a radio from parts you have to initialize the controller. At that point you enter whatever serial number you want.

Chances are that radio had a legit s/n entered that is still under warranty. The potential problem of sending that radio back in under warranty is if the real radio with that s/n had been sent in then the depot database will reflect the real customer's info. This might be deemed suspicious.

George

Interesting.

I think most of his serial numbers say the radio was created in 2006. I am suprised the Depot didn't look at that.

At the same time if they cracked the radio open, most of the dates of manufacture put the parts under their 1-2 year repective warrenties.

-Alex

I haven't tried with the 1 nick portable I have.

I have two other Astro Saber's that aren't Nick specials, but those don't need to see the depot.

Nick does provide a warrenty, if you can get ahold of him.

-Alex