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Too bad I live in Texas - state sales tax kills the deal for me...

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Too bad I live in Texas - state sales tax kills the deal for me...

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The 281 fits the bill, but i would like a dual bander. I use a VX-6 as my mobile radio, the only radio i have right now.

I have My General
Then i see the TH-6FA and wonder, you can listen to usb,lsb but can you transmit on usb/lsb also with this HT?

I  called HRO in Portland Or and asked about radio price matching from MTC and the guy at HRO told me that MTC sells kenwood radios that are b class, if i remember right (refurbished) ? I dont see anything mentioning that on the MTC website.

Quoted:

The 281 fits the bill, but i would like a dual bander. I use a VX-6 as my mobile radio, the only radio i have right now.

I have My General
Then i see the TH-6FA and wonder, you can listen to usb,lsb but can you transmit on usb/lsb also with this HT?

I  called HRO in Portland Or and asked about radio price matching from MTC and the guy at HRO told me that MTC sells kenwood radios that are b class, if i remember right (refurbished) ? I dont see anything mentioning that on the MTC website.

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Call MTC and ask. the site says they are a KW Dealer my 281 was NIB.  I'm curious I'm gonna call too! brb

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From Christy at MTC:

"that is Totally Not True"..while .they do sell refurbs of some units, it is not marked 'refurb' it's NIB!

I call BS for OR HRO

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I  called HRO in Portland Or and asked about radio price matching from MTC and the guy at HRO told me that MTC sells kenwood radios that are b class, if i remember right (refurbished) ? I dont see anything mentioning that on the MTC website.

Quoted:


From Christy at MTC:

"that is Totally Not True"..while .they do sell refurbs of some units, it is not marked 'refurb' it's NIB!

I call BS for OR HRO

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Mark up is small for ham gear.....the accessories and service is where they make money.  

My first 2m radio in 1991 was $389.00.

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I paid that for a Icon 2AT back in the 80es... USED....

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Later this morning Robert called from MTC to verify that I understood that they are a real dealer and sell new and refub goods (as marked)

He also apprecited the kinds words and mentions on this forum, so he offered us a $5 coupon code to use until the 6th of July.

I posted it in this thread: LINK

I've never spoken to those folks before, and they were happy to answer the phone and all of my questions.  They called back to make sure all was understood, and offer a thanks for doing business with them.

I think they are a 'keeper' YMMV

SCW

Hello Friends!

 Don't click away just yet! We are not selling anything! We just wanted to take a minute to say thanks. It was three years ago today that we turned the lock for the first time and turned the first home made sign around at MTC. Many of you have been with us from the very beginning when we first started in the little restaurant building downtown. . Do you remember? We couldn't afford a sign, shelving or anything. How we started is quite a long story as many of you know already. I hate to tell it again but it is really worth telling. We are amazed and very thankful to you, our customer.

In February 2009 I (Richard Lenoir) lost my job in sales. With the terrible local economy we didn't know exactly what to do. We started buying a little surplus from home and putting it on ebay. Our ebay user name was maintradingcompany. Kind of a goofy name huh? I was going to DFW maybe once a week bring back a load of stuff to sell locally and on the net. Many locals looked forward to me getting back to dig through the fun.

Christy, my wife, worked in radio at the time and would help me unload the pick-up onto the patio. When she and the kids would leave for work and school in the morning our living room would be transformed into a warehouse. I would list all of the stuff and then pack and ship everything that sold the night before. Packing peanuts get really messy. We still find them at times when we move something.

I started bidding on several pallets at a time and was shocked when we won our first 8 pallet load. We ran into our first problem. How do we get eight pallets from DFW to our patio? We hired a moving company to move them. We continued to use the moving company for over a year to move the freight until we found out how to hire freight companies. We really thought we were big time when the driver showed up at our house and lowered the pallets down and rolled them up under our patio! I think Christy was actually having second thoughts although she never said a word. We sold all of that first load and got another. We then thought it would be a good idea, or at least I did, to put in a store front to let people look through the stuff before it went to ebay.

After looking we found the perfect spot. It was the old Tropicana Restaurant Downtown Paris. It was just a little bigger than our living room.  The owner agreed to rent it to us very cheap. Christy and I had $2500, that is it. We were broke. We bought a few shelves, a computer and since we already had the assumed name certificate of Main Trading Company,  we used that. We had some lettering done on the window and on June fourth we opened for business. Being a ham radio operator  I wanted to carry a little used ham gear in the store too. As we sold our surplus we put the money back in inventory and equipment. We cut our living expenses way back. We prayed allot.  We needed a little more capital.  

My parents helped out and  I went to see our banker at the best local bank in town. I told him what we were doing and asked for a small loan. For some reason he let us have it. We were in big business now!  With more product we started getting more walk in business.
Next step was the website. We had to have one. We got the site up and running and started putting our wares online. I remembered I had several hundred email address from promoting the Paris Hamfest so I started emailing many of you back then.

Our business grew. We are not business people at all but we believe in treating people fairly and honestly and giving them the best service possible. It started to work. Within six months of opening that store we moved across the street and doubled our size. In another year we knocked out a wall and doubled again. We  finally picked up MFJ, Alinco, GRE, Channel Master, Rohn and JetStream. Our surplus sales we still going.

A friend, Bob Peters W1PE, now SK , called one day and asked if we had heard of Wouxun. I hadn't so he filled me in. I thought no one would buy that. Reluctantly I contacted the factory and ordered 20 pieces of the dual band handheld. I was a little nervous about sending this large amount of money overseas but did it anyway.  In three weeks the radios came in. I put them on the site and in a few hours they were gone. I quickly emailed another order of twenty. The factory told me the the first order was just a sample, they said from now on the minimum was a hundred pieces.  I thought we were done with Wouxun. After talking to the bank again they agreed to loan us enough to purchase 100 units plus accessories. I am not sure who was the craziest but we did it. We made the order and in three weeks we had radios. In another two weeks we were sold out.

About a year and a half in, Christy lost her job in radio. It was a real bad deal. We worried a little but Christy came on board full time and hasn't looked back. She has become the backbone of the business. With huge internet support and lots of local customers, the business has continued to grow.  In December 2011, we moved into our current location. We bought real shelving, stocked the store and opened up. We even have a real sign now! It has been a crazy ride. In February this year we had our grand opening in our new location. Over 400 people came through the door! That is more than we see at a lot of hamfests. You never know what you will find here in the store.

Many items come and go all the time. Ipods,  TV's, Computers, Tablets, Parts, Kits, Speakers, Stereos, Military surplus, Telescopes, Fishing worms, Electronic parts, batteries, Music Gear, Amplifiers and more. You really never know what may come through. Now you will also find new Rohn Tower, Telescoping poles, Channel Master TV antennas, JetStream and MFJ Ham Radio products, GRE Police Scanners, Alinco Ham Radios, ARRL Books, Texas BugCatcher High End HF mobile antennas, new Shortwave radios, Midland, Wouxun and MTC Commercial two way radios. (Yes, we have our own brand of two way radio). We carry CB radios and antennas and feedline for almost everything. We have recently signed up with Heil Sound and now carry Heil mics in the store. We still carry loads of used gear and take trade ins daily for new radios. Our store is now the largest ham radio related store in the state.