RCA Radios: Good for Ham Use?

[N2NH]

A local ham posted regarding these RCA radios on a repeater website. Looks good, but the prices are a bit high. The band coverage is in the 2M/70cm Ham Bands, the battery has potential and many of the features these H/T's have is pretty much the same as the average ham is used to. There are 3 models, but only one that has built-in band coverage on both Ham bands. The specs are on this page...

http://rcacommunicationssystems.com/BR950.html

They seem to be available in many places. Would these make good H/Ts for hams?

[NQ6U]

I don't know for sure about this particular model but one thing you have to be careful of with radios this type is that they are frequently not field-programmable. They do that purposely to keep the uninformed user from messing with it.

[N2NH]

I don't know for sure about this particular model but one thing you have to be careful of with radios this type is that they are frequently not field-programmable. They do that purposely to keep the uninformed user from messing with it.

Okay, I've seen that in Motorola/Vertex units. These have this in the specs page:

What's Included:

Ultra High Capacity 2300mAh Lithium-Ion Battery Pack
One Hour Rapid Charger
Heavy Duty Screw-On Belt Clip
Antenna
Programming
Radio Warranty - Two Years

The high capacity battery pack is a nice touch.

[NQ6U]

Yeah, I saw that "programming" thing but that could mean programming by the factory or, more likely, the distributor/retailer. You'd want to check on that before you buy.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Commercial radios are built to a given standard, unlike Amateur radios that are built to a price point.
This is why some hams love Motorola Commercial radios, the quality all around is so much better.
If the RCA radios are anywhere near the quality of Motorola commercial radios I would say go for it, but circle M is The standard.

[W3WN]

As long as you can get them reprogrammed as needed... RF wise they're more than adequate for amateur use.

[kf0rt]

So... what's the price?

[w3bny]

Will they send a goon squad out for you if you get the software from "another source" like the fine folks at /\/\

[kb2crk]

double check and make sure that they are dual band if that is what you are looking for. i have seen single band commercial radios listed just like that and it is an either or but not both.

[kb2crk]

just looked it up and it appears that these are single band radios. you select either uhf or vhf. they may be good for what you want but they are probably not field programmable.
you also need to make sure when it is programmed that it is set to wide band and not narrow as that would affect the transmit and receive quality on the ham bands.