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| Reviews Summary for Land Air Communications LTD |
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Reviews: 189
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Average rating: 4.7/5
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MSRP: $Varies
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Description: Hal Guretzky services and repairs ICOM,KENWOOD,COLLINS,and Yeasu radios and other brands also.And also commercial radio equipment!He is located in Richmond Hills,NY.
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More info: http://www.landaircom.com
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KC2JXN
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Rating: 5/5
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May 25, 2009 18:40
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A real radio doc!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Hal has been repairing and upkeeping my boatanchors for long time. Last week on a Saturday my Collins 30L-1 linear would not tune to usual 500 watts out. I dropped the linear to Hal on that Saturday afternoon and he had it up and running by Monday afternoon. He replaced the filter capacitor and recommended to replace the entire board down the road. Hal has maintained my radios to perfection. Hal is extremely knowledgable and will get any radio up and running. Practically overnite service! Hal is a true professional and rare find. Kudos to Hal!
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KC2QYM
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Rating: 0/5
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May 15, 2009 07:38
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Known Documented Repair Fix Not Applied
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is a refresh of my original review where I believe that Land Air deserved a zero rating.
I took my Kenwood TS-440S to Land Air over a year ago with a very common problem; the dots in the display which was a documented VCO epoxy shorting condition. Even to this day Kenwood posts service announcements associated with this problem and the web firmly documents the issue. I was not competent to fix this problem myself and LandAir was recommended as a competent shop to fix such issues. I brought Hal my rig and after a few days he indicated that did not find the problem. Believing that maybe there was some power level issue, I drove to his shop with two Kenwood PS-50 power supplies and we benched the rig using both supplies. Sure enough the dots problem emerged. We even connected the rig using Hal's PS and again the same problem manifested itself. Hal swore up and down that he did not see the problem when he first benched the rig and further that the problem was a more elusive and intermittent issue that would require more troubleshooting and of course more money than the initial $100 estimate he provided. I was more than disappointed and decided to cut my losses and gave him the $100 cash and left..rather than spend another $200 - $300 on the repair. What amazed me is that Hal has so much gear at his home for sale and the prices for this equipment are way beyond market prices. For instance, he charges above $900 for one of his TS-440S. My impression is that Hal takes advantage of some people whom I surmise he thinks don't know any better. Perhaps his strategy was to take my rig for parts and sell me one of his "Guaranteed" rigs. Well anyway I left and he later followed up with a phone call to me indicating that he would still credit me the $100 I had just forked over as part of the overall repair which I had decided not to have him do. In addition he asked me to give him a positive eval here on eham. Well I decided to let it all go since he seemed to have a perfect record until I read the recent entries indicating some dishonest practice. My experience with Land Air left me with a very distasteful experience and I felt that since he has so many supporters I would balance this with my experience. Sorry Hal but you can't win all the time...You should have fixed the problem the first time instead of trying to shake more cash out of me.
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K2TGW
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 2, 2009 14:18
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No cost lecture
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I brought Hal a rig that I thought was not putting out enough/scheduled power. Well he showed how the previous owner had made/used an undersized power cord and I was making heat instead of transmitting full power. I got a lecture on the above, help in putting the rig back in the box I transported it in and a quick tour of his amazing inventory of Amateur gear. I guess I was under-charged for his 45 minutes of expertise ! Les, K2TGW
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KC2OCC
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 27, 2009 14:03
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collins repair
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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3 years ago Hal repaired a Yeasu ft3000 for me and it is still going strong. On Wednesday 4/25/09 I gave him my Collins 32S3 for repair, and it was done on Friday what can I say. I have seen many in my radio club send items to him and all have been happy with his repair work.
Just keep up the good work Hal. Thanks and 73 Joe KC2OCC
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KC2JON
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2009 12:02
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Bought and repaired
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Hal fixed a boat anchor for me and I also bought additional equiptment from him.
He treated me fair and square.
He is a gentleman and radio scholar and
probably a judge of good scotch.
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K2MAK
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Rating: 0/5
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Mar 3, 2009 09:37
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Rip Off artist
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I don't know about the other positive reviews but my experience with HAL at Land Air Communications was terrible. A few years ago I had a ICOM 471H that had low output power. Hal was recommended and I brought the radio over to him. At first he estimated the repair to be around $200 which I felt was fair because I knew the problems were with the capacitors in those series of radios and if I had sent it to ICOM it would have costed me around the same. A few days after I had dropped off the radio, he called and said it would be a few more days because he was waiting for parts. At this time I thought ok...no problem. Another week goes by and I get a message my radio is ready. I was told the repair came up around $450 because he had to spend a total of around 8 hours to do my repair on the radio and he was giving me a discount for his services. What a crock. If he had told me about that before work was done I would have sent it to ICOM. I know no radio takes that long to fix. HAL is not honest. From what my friends have told me about him, his work is very sloppy working on newer radios. Be careful when dealing with him. If you must bring equipment for him to fix....get a true repair price and take pictures of your equipment before leaving it with him.
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KC2TUX
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Rating: 1/5
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Mar 3, 2009 05:04
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Not Great!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Not as great as I was expecting!
Hal stated that he would compare the price of repair against the "value" of the radio, and charged me a $75.00 testing fee for a radio that I can buy for $50.00!
He stated that if repairs would cost more than one half the value, he would let me know, he never stated what he would do if bench testing cost was 150% of the value!
I am sure that he is extremely knowledgeable and helpful to most, but I was naive, and I ended up fixing the problem after he charged me $75.00.
I am new to the hobby, and I learned a tough lesson!
Bill
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KC2OMU
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 21, 2009 12:00
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Great guy to deal with
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I brought my 897 to hal to check out, he gave me the tour of the show rooms wow he should charge for that! Anyway he gave the radio a tune-up and called me the next day to pick it up. He charged a fair price and the radio never worked this good even when it was new! Fast and good!
Thank-you Hal
Darrin
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KA2UGZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 28, 2009 16:02
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Future Repeat Customer!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Spoke with Hal on the phone about my sick IC-551D. His ability to recall information about a radio is uncanny. Made an appointment to drop off the radio a couple of days later and view the show room. Hal had many calls while I was there indicating to me a vibrant business; so vibrant that I was expecting a long lead time for my repair but not so! Hal called two days later to say that the radio was repaired and ready for pickup. I'm very satisfied with the repair and the TAT. Hal also called a few day later to make sure I was happy with his work which I thought was a nice touch.
Going through the show room was like a trip through memory lane! All the radios in the Harrison Radio catalog, the Swans, Drakes, Icoms, Heathkits (and much more) all represented and unlike when I was a teen, I can now afford them!
You can buy something "as-is" on eBay and maybe you will get lucky or you can buy something from Hal and know that he personally will bench check that radio before you take it home and stand behind it.
I know I will be back again.
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WB6KWL
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 26, 2009 15:11
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Outstanding Repair Service with excellent technical skills.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Hal took over a repair project that had stumped two other experienced communications repair speciaists and had consumed the better part of two years. I had a Collins transverter that seemed to be headed for the scrap bin or worse. Two individuals had spent numerous hours trying to make it work correctly and both had eventually given up. It was told to sell it for parts or to someone who just wanted one for display. I spoke to Hal and he was honest enough to tell me he would look at it and let me know if it could be economically repaired. Three days after I sent him the transverter, he called. I expected he would tell me that it was not feasiable to repair. Instead, he said it was fixed. Not only had he found the problem and repaired it, he fixed several problems that arose due to the shipping of the item to him. The overall cost was very reasonable. I would recommend Hal without any reservations for difficult repair jobs. Just one more thought, when the transverter was shipped back to me, it was quadruple boxed. One of the best packaging jobs I have ever seen for commuciations equipment. Obviously, great care had been taken to make sure it arrived safely. If you want more information, please contact me. Steve, WB6KWL
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