E1447: Hezbollah Radios Were FAKE! ICOM's Response - podcast episode cover

E1447: Hezbollah Radios Were FAKE! ICOM's Response

Nov 15, 202418 min
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Episode description

ICOM Responds to the news story about exploding radios, confirming that the IC-V82 radios used in the Mossad / Hezbollah fight were most likely fake. Plus my response to some of YOUR comments from the first video...

This video is sponsored by Ham Radio Prep - get 20% off of their courses with code JASON20 at this link - https://hamradioprep.com

ICOM Statement - https://icomamerica.com/media_and_promotions/news/4085/

News article - https://aurora-israel.co.il/en/Japanese-firm-Icom-says-the-exploding-walkie-talkies-were-counterfeits/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ham-radio-2-0--2042782/support.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Hey, before we get started, be sure to head over to Hamradio two dot com forward slash email Dash sign up to join my email list of over nineteen thousand subscribers, where I like to send emails about upcoming events, upcoming shopping deals, keep you updated with all the stuff going on with my videos. Once that list reaches twenty thousand, I will be doing a giveaway of another HF radio.

Sign up today and thank you for the support. After the events of September twenty twenty four where pagers were remotely detonated allegedly by Israeli Mussad during a Hesbla gathering, and also ICOM radios were detonated and exploded during a Hesbela funeral, there's been some new facts come to light. ICOM makes a public statement and I wanted to respond to some of the comments that you guys made. Let's

go so long story short. Watch this video here I talk about the fact that Icon was in the news some radios that were labeled ic V eighty two, a radio which is more than twenty years old in its original design and has been out of production since twenty fourteen, so ten years, ten years. This radio has been out of production. Some of these radios were used, they were tampered with, and they all exploded at the same time, or at least a lot of them did as bombs.

That is a Hesbela gathering during the Israeli Hesbela war that's going on in the Middle East right now. Almost called it a skirmish. Okay, some people might get mad at that. There's a war going on in the Middle East right now. And ICOM has said that those radios were not true Icon radios that ICV eighty two apparently has been. There's been a lot of fakes out there for a long time. ICOM's got a page on their website that I shared in the last video that said, Hey,

this is how you spot a fake. There's a lot of fakes out there. Ali Express Team, you Ali Baba something blah blah blah blah. Who knows where to get these things? Okay, anybody can make a radio and put whatever they name they want on it, especially if your government is doesn't have laws against such things. I'm just leave it at that right there. But ICOM came out and made a statement said these were not ours. And

my point was I'm like, hey, that's great. That they're responding to it, but I'm like, I don't really care if they were or were not Icon radios. They were radios that were obviously tampered with and explosives added to the This was not just a battery that caught on fire all at the same time, on dozens or hundreds of these radios all at the same time. No, this was a planned attack. So it was an explosion that happened.

Many of them happened at the same time. And it doesn't matter to me if it was Icon or anybody else, because these were tampered with after the fact, and they're a ten year old or a radio that's been out of production for ten years. But it's really good that Icon, you know, kind of faced the bull head on as it were, so right here three days ago at the time of this recording. Regarding the current media reports, this

is from Icomamerica dot com. We have confirmed from interview footage reported by the Lebanese media around nineteen hundred on September eight seven PM. On September eighteen, twenty twenty four, the following comments from mister Johnny Corn, the Lebanese Minister of Communications, the radios that have exploded were not authorized devices by Lebanon's Ministry of Communications. Normally we would only allow imports after type approval of the General Security Directorate

and Intelligence Directorate. They were not imported through a distributor either, the reason being that the model number of the radio involved is no longer being manufactured by the manufacturer Icon Inc. We also know for certain that the counterfeit radios are of the same model number and being imported from other countries. There is growing concern that telephones and other devices may explode, but there is no danger of this with officially imported products.

Officially imported products in other words, products that are legal to be imported from the proper manufacturer into Lebanon. Okay. Therefore, the Lebanese authorities have established and indicated that the exploding radios were not our products. Okay, our distribution system for products of overseas markets, so they go through here. This

is ICOM speaking again. We have established an export program, the ICOM Security Trade Control Program, based on the provisions of the Security Export Control Regulations, and we export our products for overseas markets under a strict management system until they reach our authorized distributors. All the radios we manufacture are asigned to serial number. When we receive an order from an overseas authorized distributor, the product is shipped from

our manufacturing subsidiary, Waikiyama kom Company Ltd. A Rita Factory and Kinwa Factory Waikayama Prefector. The products are delivered to the authorized distributors by Forwarder, a company that handles the transportation of goods. We keep track of all the information related to the transportation companies involved in the process, including the means routes used by linking to the serial numbers.

In addition, it is not confirmed with serial number product will be sold to which end user until the time of sale, of course not Therefore, it can be considered that virtually impossible, that it is virtually impossible to target radio equipment used in a specific end user to the distribution channel of our authorized distributors. Okay, and it goes

on for a little bit more. I'm not going to read the whole thing to you, but right here this little paragraph regarding the radios that exploded, the only way to determine the radio that exploded was not an Icon

product is to actually physically check one of the damaged devices. However, upon coalition, with the multiple content of information that has come to light so far, such as the fact that the radio did not have a hologram stick or attached to HA as reported in the second update and the above comments, we believe that the possibility that the radio that exploded was an Icon product is it extremely low. So there we go. I will link this news report

and this is just from Icom America's website. I will link this in the description blow. You guys can go check that out read more for yourself. Another article that came out that I found after I recorded my last video says Japanese firm Icon says exploding walkie talkies were fakes. And then it goes down to you know, that's just kind of the title. It's a clickbait title. It's a clickbait title. This is not my it's not my website.

This is Aurora Israel dot co dot dot co dot IL And after the title, the first paragraph says Japanese telecommunications company ICOM has said that it is extremely unlikely that it's walkie talkie models were used in the explosions that targeted numbers of a SHEA terrorist groups HESBLA in

Lebanon last week, So that's another article right there. So spoiling walkie talkies were fakes, and even in their official statement they heard they said that the fact that it was an Icon, well, the possibility that was an Icon product is extremely low. Like I said in my last video, I don't I don't care. I can understand if I was Icon, I'd probably be saying the same thing. I don't blame them for saying for taking the stance. I just don't think it matters because the radios were of

obviously tampered with. They were not factory radios. They were tampered with after the fact. They were not faulty batteries that caught on fire or exploded all at the same time. No, this was a coordinated attack. So it's obviously the radios and those pagers from the previous day were something that were tampered with prior to the explosion, but after the fact, ten years after ICOM stopped making the radio even if

they were not fakes, which it looks like they were. Now, if you find all of this very interesting, if you're like, well, what is what is this radio thing? If you're interested in getting your ham radio license, head over to ham Radio Prep dot com. Check out their free app on your iOS or Android device. Download for free. Get started today with your first license or your upgraded license. Save a twenty percent discount on all of their courses with

the coupon code of Jason twenty. They also have a brand new Emergency MCom Emergency Communications course like a Prepper course. I think they said it was five hours long something like that, but it is. It was just released this month. Good timing for stuff like this, I think emergency communications during times of emergency, during times of natural disasters, and times of economic and governmental skirmishes, strikes and wars. Save a twenty percent discount on all of those courses with

the code of Jason twenty. And thank you m rader Prep for supporting this channel. Now onto some comments. I got some really cool comments, some comments that I did not agree with, some comments that were very good. So I welcome all your comments. Even if I don't agree with you, I'm not asking you to agree with me. I still want to hear what you have to say, so thank you for commenting, all of you. Katie seven JVR says. According to Josh, these radios were purchased at

Ali Express. That right there leads me to believe they were counterfeit. And then Josh actually commented. He said, I said I found them on Ali Express, not that they were sourced from there. So these radios are available in multiple places Ali Express, I think team you has them. You can probably find them all over eBay. In fact, one commenter said, hey, I bet there'll be a flood of them on eBay. Now maybe I don't know. I haven't looked I have not looked at that, so uh

hopefully not. Don't don't don't go buy what unless it's being shipped from inside the United States. Don't go buy one on eBay right now? This one's good right here. I really like this one, Major Kong, great name dude. Okay, who cares if they were fake or not? Oh yeah, Hams And I said the ICV eighty two was a ham radio. Explain why we shouldn't care. So, whatever niche or hobby or group you're in, if your product was used for something nefarious, wouldn't you have something to say

about it? If there was bombs planted in fishing reels that were shipped all over the country and detonated at the same time, wouldn't the fishermen using those reels and the fishing real manufacturer when they have something to say about it? If BLO punked this car stereo company, I don't even know if they're still around. Bombs went off or exposively went off inside of a blow punked stereo would wouldn't you want to say something about it? If you were a fan of block punks? How I got

one of those in my truck. But it's never come on, man, give me a break. They were Ham radios made by Icon, one of our best radio manufacturers. It's it's something we're gonna Yeah, you should care, You should care. I'm saying it doesn't matter. I care if they were fakes or not. But I'm saying it doesn't matter what the end result is the same. It doesn't matter one way or the other. So this one was This had a lot of comments

on it before I got to it. So that's why I've got it so small on the screen right now. One commenter said, nobody is asking how they made them explode, Like, what's more likely they intercepted the order of radios put explosives in them, or all radios have this ability to have their batteries explode through some sort of remote circuitry, and ultimately all of us with this type of comms equipment could be targeted in the same way. And some

people commented down here he's like leading theory, right. The first comment says, leading theory is that they were manufactured with built exposed as part of device's motherboard. That's just a theory. Well, I can tell you right now if that's If that's the case, then they were fake. They were not legit Icon radios if that was the case.

But my comment down here at the bottom says, I personally think they were tampered with and that the explosives were added after the fact, so tragedalyly that they were Icon radios or fake radios with an Icon name on them though, so that was kind of my only My comment to that is that it doesn't really They weren't manufactured this way. Somebody tampered with them after the fact, and that's why I say it doesn't really matter if they were Icon or not, because somebody messed with them

and planted these explosives on purpose. And along those lines, somebody else competed. Jason, you missed the most important thing all the pages were remotely detonated at the same time. GSM technology made it easy. The h t's were also remotely detonated across the country at the same time. Clearly they were sold with the most sad mod mosad mod and I reply to say it, I'm pretty sure that's what I said. If I wasn't clear about it, I apologize,

but yeah, that's my point. They weren't exploding. They weren't faulty batteries that were exploding. Okay, the batteries the Samsung. By the way, some of you commented it was a Samsung Note seven that had the batteries that would not explode, but they would randomly catch on fire. But that wouldn't happen. That didn't happen to every Note seven, all at the same time. So the fact that they were all exploding at the same time, that's what makes me say they

were tampered with after the fact. This one here is this may be in poor taste, but I laughed at it, so I'm going to include it. Apparently they were trying to call SEQ contest on a work band. All right, let's move on. Yeah, okay, it's a bummer that the handheld amateur radios have a bad image from this, you can imagine the knee jerk overreach to ban them and other handheld radios from airlines. My response was the first response, and I said, I don't think there's a bad image here.

These radios have been out of production for more than ten years and have obviously been tampered with. And then the original comment or replied and said, I agree, there shouldn't be if you take the time to look at the facts. I worry that few people who aren't fully in the know can make uninformed decisions. And I said, that kind of uninformed thingking exactly how the mainstream media still exists today. Yeah, yep, that's all I'm gonna say

about that. There we go. Why is the media so quick to jump in and blame the manufacturers for misdeeds of people? Like you said, trying to blame a gun manufacturer or a radio manufacturer for these acts is completely wrong. They need to stop with the sensationalism of an already terrible situation. And my reply was exactly thanks for commenting. Several people said that the gun analogy wasn't a good one. I just wonder what planet they are living on. And

I stand by my statement on that. In fact, along those lines, this was one of the first comments I got about the gun analogy. This analogy is ridiculous. A gun is a deadly weapon by design of radio not so much. And my response was, regardless of what the tool is made for, And yes, a gun is a tool. If you use it incorrectly or modify it, that's not the fault of the manufacturer. And that was really my only point for saying anything about the gun analogy in

my original video. But I am a second supporter and I do not apologize for that. This channel is not about the Second Amendment. It's not about politics, it's not about the Constitution. But I will say I am a Second Amendment supporter. Very very rarely is the gun the bad guy in most gun stories in the news. It's usually the person behind the gun that's a bad guy.

So yeah, don't blame the gun, and don't blame the radio that had explosive planet in it after the fact, ten years after it was out of production, or that was a fake radio that had the wrong name on it. All right, in this guy here, I'm not going to share this guy's name. In fact, I had to go look him up. I wouldn't share exactly who he was. He's a fellow YouTuber, not someone I know, not someone who's ever been on my channel before. I'm not really into public shaming, so I don't want to share his

name and his channel. But he said, sorry, Jason, but this has nothing to do with the hobby we all love. Really, even though I comes in it interesting interesting point. It's called writing the story, and I'm sad to say that it does little else other than to demonstrate the chase for views. Want everyone viewing my videos. I don't apologize that I make videos to chase views. I don't apologize

for that. If I was on here talking about some sort of news story in the news that was a hot topic that had to do with maybe a gun story, maybe a mass shooting, that had nothing to do with radio at all, then maybe this comment would make sense. But this was literally Icon Japan in the news for radios that were supposedly made by them, but it looks like they probably weren't. It was literally Icon news. Yeah, you totally missing the point there, bro. I don't know

what to tell you. I'm a YouTuber creator to a small channel, but I could never countenance countenance making a video about a subject which has very tenuous link to the hobby. I have no skin in the Middle East conflict and just wish everyone would get along in the Ham radio spirit. That I agree with you on that point, but especially given the circumstances and consequences, I can only say sorry, but I feel this sort of video is quite cynical. Three and my response was I think a

little bit professional. Well, you run your channel the way you want to and I'll do the same, then we'll both be happy. Deal question Mark. And then he replied back, and he said one hundred and ten percent he'd let it go. And then the last comment I got was, yes, Jason, you tell him so. Yeah. Literally, icon is in the news, but it's not about Ham Radio. I don't get that. And I don't apologize for wanting people. I don't I

don't apologize for chasing views. As he put it, I'm chasing views inside of the Ham radio sphere that we all live in that we all are associated with one another in Okay, And I've said it before. I said it in a live stream just not too long ago. I make Bowfang videos and they get tens of thousands of views in the first four or five days. Three four days, I make a video about a IC seven

oh five. The very first video I made about the IC seven o five after I got it in my possession, got like twenty five hundred and three thousand views in the first four or five days. Why seven oh five is much better radio than a bowe fang is okay? So why? And I still I can make a bowfang video today and it had ten thousand views in the first three or four days. Why. Well, I don't know why. Opinions of why vary, but you know what, You know

what that tells me. When I get so many views on a bowfang video and not so many views on another video about another topic, about another radio, that tells me that you want to watch bowfang videos. Okay, So I'm making videos for you guys, for my audience, for my subscribers, my watchers, my viewers, my commenters, for you. If you didn't watch it, then I probably wouldn't make a video about a second one again. I probably wouldn't make a video about that topic again, or that model again,

or that subject again. But I am following what you guys want to see and I love talking about it because it's Ham radio. It's all fun to me. I don't care. So what do you think about this latest these latest updates from Icon themselves? What do you think about the ICV eighty two? What do you think about some of these comments, because there's a lot more than that. A lot of you commented, a lot of you commented that was I just took those screenshots in the first

like the second or third day. It's been more than a week now that I'm recording this new video, So comment below, tell me what you think, and uh, hopefully we won't see Icon in the news in a bad light any again anytime soon. Check out these videos over here. For some reason, YouTube thinks you want to watch them next seventy three

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