Found a deal that seemed worth the risk. A ham that lives about 6 miles away had a deal posted on Craigslist. We met Sunday morning and "did the deal".
All told there were two (yep! 2) Realistic TRC-458 radios, one stock R/S mic, a Turner Plus 3 in beautiful physical shape, a Midland antenna tuner, and a JC Penney POWER/SWR/MOD meter.
One radio has 4 switches on the right side for extra channels. He was the original owner of this radio and it was his "daily driver" until he stopped using it 10 or so years ago. He tried to get it to work .... said that it did put out carrier but something was scratchy/not quite right in mic audio modulation.
The other radio is one that he bought later and to the best of his knowledge is unmodded. I have not been inside the case to evaluate that but there are no external switches (of course they could have Re-purposed some of the front switches... we will see.
Both radios look really good. Dusty.... but no scratches/rips/gashes/scrapes/cracks or signs of mayhem.
As mentioned the Turner mic is really in good shape so I am not particularly scared of it.
Al of this......$100. He originally had it up for $200 but it never sold (maybe as he was so far away from the city? I don't know). But he dropped it to $100 a few weeks ago...and I just happened to see it last week.
Oh...and he also had a folder with the "truth chart" for the switches on that first radio.
All told there were two (yep! 2) Realistic TRC-458 radios, one stock R/S mic, a Turner Plus 3 in beautiful physical shape, a Midland antenna tuner, and a JC Penney POWER/SWR/MOD meter.
One radio has 4 switches on the right side for extra channels. He was the original owner of this radio and it was his "daily driver" until he stopped using it 10 or so years ago. He tried to get it to work .... said that it did put out carrier but something was scratchy/not quite right in mic audio modulation.
The other radio is one that he bought later and to the best of his knowledge is unmodded. I have not been inside the case to evaluate that but there are no external switches (of course they could have Re-purposed some of the front switches... we will see.
Both radios look really good. Dusty.... but no scratches/rips/gashes/scrapes/cracks or signs of mayhem.
As mentioned the Turner mic is really in good shape so I am not particularly scared of it.
Al of this......$100. He originally had it up for $200 but it never sold (maybe as he was so far away from the city? I don't know). But he dropped it to $100 a few weeks ago...and I just happened to see it last week.
Oh...and he also had a folder with the "truth chart" for the switches on that first radio.