About

We help people buy used ham radios without getting burned. Name the one you’re after, like an Icom IC-7300, a Yaesu FT-817ND, a Kenwood TS-830S or a Drake R-4C, and there’s a page for it. Each one tells you the radio’s story, what it covers and puts out, what it runs on, which filters and options matter, what wears out and what to check before you buy.

Some buyers want a first HF station. Others want the Heathkit or Hallicrafters they had as a teenager. What owners know about these radios is scattered across manuals, reviews and forum threads, and a raw eBay search gives you none of it. So we keep 36 model pages in one place, write down the things that catch used buyers out (a rig that powers on but makes no power, a dead band, tired finals, a display that won’t light, a missing filter, no supply to run it) and pick the listings we’d buy.

We don’t sell radios. No affiliate links. We earn nothing. We only recommend what we’d buy, and we’d rather you buy used. We run no analytics or tracking cookies, and we’re not affiliated with any radio maker. See how we work for how the pages are researched and our disclosure for how links, picks and photos work.

QSL is part of allbutnew, a set of shops for secondhand gear. Got a radio to sell? The “Get an offer” link on every model page sends it to our ham radio expert, who replies by email.