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 Walkie-talkie explosions injure hundreds in Lebanon a day.
Walkie-talkie maker says exploded devices appear to have been knockoffs.

A sales executive at the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese walkie-talkie maker Icom told The Associated Press that the exploded radio devices in Lebanon appear to be a knockoff product and not made by Icom.

“I can guarantee you they were not our products,” said Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom America’s amateur radio division, in an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, Rhode Island.

Novak said Icom introduced the V82 two-way radio model more than two decades ago and it has long since been discontinued. It was favored by amateur radio operators and for use in social or emergency communications, including by people tracking tornadoes or hurricanes, he said.

Novak said he spent all day fielding calls and trying to dispel misinformation about Icom’s discontinued device. He showed a reporter on his cellphone how easy it is to find counterfeit versions of the product sold online.