If you want something that works and is legal, the McKinley should be fine.
If you want a superior legal radio, get a 148GTL made in Taiwan with the 5 pin mic connector on the side.
These older 148's were built with quality components that the newer radios (and newer 148's) don't have. Double conversion chassis, FT2 is hand built using multiple discreet filters - superior performance over a monolithic filter, NPO rated coupling caps in the synthesizer and clarifier circuits for a rock steady frequency - especially mobile, 5 pin regulator vs. cheaper 3 pin regulator - better SSB performance, 2SC1306/2SC1969 driver/final combo that easily does 12watts on SSB and 12watts PEP on AM. Make sure the low pass filter hasn't been mangled in search of a couple more watts. You can find them on Ebay for $100~$150. Probably cheaper locally.
At this age, I would spend ~$25 on a recap kit and if the clarifier has been unlocked, make sure it was done correctly.
Most techs butcher the clarifier circuit in order to get more slide and destroy the linearity. Just unsolder one leg of D52 and the other end of the wire (RX only voltage) that connects to the end connection of the "Voice Lock" and R44. Get a 10K 10 turn precision variable resistor (Bourns) and solder the wire to the wiper, the low side to ground and the high side to a constant 8~9v source. Make sure the voltage change between RX and TX is <.02v so you don't have a "split" between RX and TX. If you can't find a source that stable in the radio, just make one with a 8v LDO TO-220 style voltage regulator mounted to the side chassis of the radio. Don't remove anything else. Put the Voice Lock at 12:00 and zero beat it by adjusting the 10 turn on SSB RX or TX. Do not adjust L22, L23, or L59. This will give you a smooth, linear ~+/-1.5Khz shift.
