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write your own review of the Alinco DJ-580.
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W1NEW
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 17, 2009 11:06
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Great radio for the price!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This was my 2nd ever HT, bought new in 1994. It still works great, is easy to program and use, has great audio and XMIT O/P, and takes LOTS of abuse. I have dropped it, kicked it, and drop-kicked it over the years. Runs like a charm nonetheless. Negatives (but understand, it is 15+ years old) are that the squelch button is beginning to stick, and the lamp has been burned out for some years. I would like to find out how to open it and replace the lamp, plus clean it.
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NX8P
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 25, 2009 05:54
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Very, very good HT!!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had my DJ-580 since about 1992. It has been a very good radio, well constructed, good engineering, very easy to use and has features on it well beyond the time it was manufactured. If you can get one of these radios I would grab it. The only draw back is the small number of memory channels. Great radio. I wish Alinco still made them.
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KC4GMY
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 11, 2007 09:24
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Great Twin-bander!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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These radios have loud audio to be so small. It is so easy to program and use that you can figure out most features without referring to the manual.
The cross-band repeater function works great!
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KB0XR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 23, 2006 05:20
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Oldie but Goodie
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought mine at least 15 years ago. The original battery pack went south very early but a replacement from a vendor at a Hamfest still works. I don't do any 2 meter work anymore but I found this in a box a few weeks ago and decided to charge it up. IT still works as good as new. The air band and 800 mhz mods were done right after I got it. Newer HTs have more features but this oldtimer gets the job done.
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N7YG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 22, 2006 11:12
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Outstanding HT
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased this radio, brand new back in 1995, in Seattle, while on a military assignment from, Japan. This radio has been bounced around the world, 3 times, on various military and commercial aircraft while residing in a military helmet bag. It was dropped off the wing of a C-130 in the Phillipines, and drenched in a rainstorm in Thailand. While it looks a little "used", it still functions just as it did when I first purchased it. The original battery packs have just recently died and the OEM slow charger I think is bad. Purchased one of those packs that takes 6-AA, along with some 2100 ma NIMH batteries and it is back on the air after storage of 8 years. The only problem I have had is that it is quite prone to picking up computer hash on both 2 meters and some areas of 440. The original rubber duck is useless unless you are standing next to a repeater. I have replaced that with an MFJ-1717 dual band flexible antenna and I�m finding repeaters in the area that I was never able to access with any of my other HT�s. The back of the radio does get quite hot to the touch when running high power.
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N1RIK
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 6, 2006 10:21
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Best HT I've ever owned
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I simply loved this radio. I bought it used back around 1997 and got the extra life large rechargeable battery with it. I use to use it mobile too with an amplifier. Loved it loved it. It did suffer sometimes to interference, but wasn't much of a problem. Receiver was quite sensitive. Radio did get hot on prolonged TX on high power, but wasn't much of a problem. I would like to get another one of these. Great Crossband repeater function, which most HTs nowadays don't have. I would still have this today if someone hadn't broke into my car back in 99 and stole it. I was crushed. Currently I have a HTX-202 and a HTX-404, but would love to go back to a decent 580. I've also owned Icom T81A, Alinco DJ-s11, Alinco DJ-196, and still think that the 580 was cream of the crop.
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KE7CWB
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 15, 2005 22:20
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good but has its quirks
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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bought this rig for the XYL about a year ago. the battery that came with it was pretty much DOA. it did come with the fast charger. my wife has since gotten a Vertex VX-150 and I now use the alinco. replaced the dead battery with a 12v 1650mah NiMH battery.
reciever is good though it picks up interference from the computer modem on 440 when im connected to the internet. speaker is quite good and from what ive been told the transmit quality is good.
bettery life is great with the NiMH battery. well over a week between charges on medium power.
easy to program and operate.
my major issues with it are it gets rather hot when transmitting even on medium power. the 12v battery has some issues with the fast charger (it gets really hot during charging and both charger and radio will go into thermal shutdown until they cool down). also it has an issue when using the dualband recieve that it will NOT shut off the reciever of the band your not transmitting on when transmitting (got one hell of a suprise once when transmitting on 440 and a 2m station broke in) so make a habit of turning the volume all the way down on the band your not transmitting on when transmitting in dualband mode.
the battery latch works OK. had to fix it to get the battery to stay in.
still have the factory duckie which works decent for a duckie. I normally use a 2m/440 whip which works much better.
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KB9BPF
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 11, 2005 20:53
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Has served me well
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Time owned: months
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I haven't had most of the problems that are listed by other reviewers. Mine isn't too hard on batteries, the keypad is in good shape (due to the fact I use the optional vinyl cover), it's survived a few spills and falls over the years (probably the seams of the vinyl case helps a LOT toward reducing the acute shock of impact on a corner), it's easy to use, it's been reliable.
Only problem I can recall is that I had to redo the connection from the PC board to the antenna in such a way as to provide a bit of strain and shock relief.
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N2CTZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 30, 2004 22:40
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good radio poor materials
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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the radio functions great but the quality of the materials is why alinco is referred to as astinko by my ham friends
bought 2 of these new in my 20s now in my 40s they still work great
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KB7UYR
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 22, 2004 00:30
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Keeps on ticking
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This was my first HT. I've dropped it, modded it, beat the crap out of it. The keypad numbers were no longer visible but the keypads are only a few bucks and still available! So I replaced the key pad. The radio has been used in cross band mode for hours on end, run on 12~14v constantly and the antenna disconnected/re-connected more times than I can remember. The BNC connector on the inside of the radio did break once but a quick touch with a soldering iron took care of that. I to can disassemble and reassemble this radio blind folded. I've only had two batteries and the second one is now dead but the radio still works fine on external power. For the price, this radio was well worth the money. I like most of Alinco's older products and am very happy to still be using this radio today. I also now own a Yaesue VX-7R which of course blows the DJ-580 away but then again the radio's have 10 years difference. I'm in need of one more dual band radio and if I find a used working DJ-580 at a fair price - I'll buy it. For a new HAM a used DJ-580 is ideal.
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