After noticing the FT-1500 in many of Phil’s @G4OBK activation reports, I bought one, and use it when a bit more power is needed after a chaser has indicated they normally struggle making contact with a certain summit.
It’s a small rugged unit which has always worked very well for me. I guess problems happen when people without the correct tools, navigate through the special service adjustment menu and turn everything to 11. 
Hope the unit works well for you today.
73, Robert
Let me know how it does for you , I brought mine new as they were cheap at the time, my father also brought one . I gave up on the first one I had as I could not get the RX to work in any of the HGV’s I drove. At first I thought it was the 24 to 12 volt dropper I was using but I tried a few borrowed ones and the electrical noise was just as bad, The RX would collapse in certain areas with High radio activity. Nearly every car I passed would increase the noise. In the end I brought a Lynx Dymar AM radio and did the conversion to FM the thing was fantastic. Jump forward 20+ years, After a 10 year break from radio I decided to dig out the FT1500m I had inherited from my now late father. A large number of passing cars will cause the RX to burst into life and on my 25 mile journey to work ( very rural) I counted 17 points where the Rx would burst into life with loud noise. I then brought a 4 channel Maxon PMR set from Ebay and the seller programmed it to 3 repeaters and one simplex frequency, this only bursts into life once on my journey near an industrial site. These were very early ones and maybe they were improved later. Neither have/had been modded in any way.