That's where I have to disagree. Saving old stuff just because it isn't broken is often false economy. Let's say he goes that route and plays it safe by sending the radio to Radio South or back to Hitec to get it checked out. That'll probably cost about $40. So add that to the $30 he'll spend for a good battery, and he not has $70 invested in a radio that still isn't worth more than about $10 in the open market. He also still won't have any of the functions that are pretty much standard on today's radios like interference rejection, exponential, mixes, dual rates, end point adjustments, and others. On the other hand, for about $200, a new pilot can have a radio with all those things that's new to boot.