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write your own review of the Alinco DR-635.
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F0FXL
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 19, 2008 13:59
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It does what it is meant to do !
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Hi fellow operators,
This is my first review. I bought this radio used 10 days ago.
It is mounted in my car (using separation kit) and used with a small dual band mag mount antenna. I did not experience any intermod. issues until now. Even i drive every day a few kilometers around from a huge broadcast tower spitting about 1KW in the air.
To the rig : it has a solid constructing. When you have the radio body in your hands it seems to be built for heavy duty. I had no fear putting the transceiver body under the passenger seat.
The front panel is fitted with a large easy to read display and backlit keys. This is a plus when using the rig mobile.
The microphone socket is a real socket, like the one found on large base rigs. Not a flimsy RJ11 socket.
You can program the VFO so that when you tune accros the band certain settings are activated. usually you will program it so that shift and correct tones are activated when tuning onto the repeater band segment. Quite handy, and evolutive, who knows maybe one day the band plan will change. Some competitors rigs have the same feature, but you can not change the setting, it is factory set...
I love the fact that it has Narrow FM capabilities, since in my area all the repeater have been switched to NFM.
The display can be lit with three different colors. You can even program one color for RX, TX and standby. Sound like a gadget, but it can be useful if liek me you just have your microphone laying around in the car to avoid transmitting by sitting on it.
The DTMF microphone (which is now standard on european models) is a must have to for mobile operators. You can drive all the main functions from the microphone. It also allows direct frequency input.
I always had good reports with this rig, and i'm able to work almost any station i heatr; This rig definetly has all a newbie like me needs to get QRV on mobile.
I wish Alinco will come up with a D-Star module soon !
To G6XGJ, the procedure to turn it to an APRS beacon is pretty well documented in the TNC module manual and in the rig manual.
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G6XCJ
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Rating: 0/5
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Nov 6, 2008 01:31
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UNFIT FOR PURPOSE!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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As an avid UIV32 man this rig was bought solely for APRS Use. All directions in the manual have been followed including the fitting of the cable to the GPS on the TNC for power/voltage. TNC guide has been followed checked and re-checked and all is etup correctly yet where does one plug the GPS?
Imv, Alinco have made a huge mistake here and i will bin it soon as i cannot fathom how to fit the GPS to the unit (GPS2 in a Byonic product and is exceptionally good in use with 710E).
The box was sold to me NEW as an APRS rx/tx.
Despite all the remarks below, none have said how they fit the GPS!
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KC8YCZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 16, 2008 20:11
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Great Rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Well I have owned the 635 for over a year now and I have to say I am impressed. I ordered the TNC unit for it and installed and got it up and running without a problem. Does just fine on both 2 meter and 440. Cross band banding is great, until you accidentally cross band two repeaters, but that was operator error hi hi. As far as intermod goes I have none. Use it as a base out in the country. Although it does get hot when cross banding the fan does cool it down. to be safe I use another muffin fan. The only complaint I have is the squelch, wish it had a squelch knob instead of a squelch menu. Great rig for the price. Recommend it to anyone looking for a TRUE dual bander.
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W8LHT
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2008 09:32
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Great Radio, Great Value
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I recently replaced a 31 year old Yaesu FT-227R 2M rig (no pl) with the DR-635, and have been completely satisfied. The radio was easy to program (unlike what I've read on the Yaesu 88/8900 menus), the buttons are lit and easy to see at night (unlike what I've read on the Yaesu 88/8900), the audio reports are good, and the receiver is very sensitive (which I've read may create some intermod problems in highly populated areas), but I've had no problems. I had to call AES to get the procedure to do cross-band repeat (which also was very easy), and that function works great! Nice radio, good value, compact, and very easy to use.
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KC5SII
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 6, 2008 08:13
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It's a great Radio
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Make no mistake about it; you can't beat this radio for price and performance. I would recommend this radio to anyone looking for an entry level true dual bander. I commute about 170 miles daily and put lots of hours in with this rig. I love it.
The intermod issue is real, but not a real problem. I had some intermod, but less, with a Kenwood D-700 installed. The 635 has all the features most will ever use and rock solid transmit that will not let you down. It’s simple to learn and use with only a few compromises that most will never discover.
However, if you plan to do APRS and voice with this rig you will have to live with some more obvious compromises. Beyond that, there are things, on the APRS side, that just don't seem to work as advertised. None of them are show stoppers for me.
If you aren’t already knee deep into APRS, you may never get this radio up and running on APRS with the internal TNC. Once you buy the radio and the TNC you can almost meet the price of a D-700.
Support from Alinco would help but, that's not somthing anyone should count on. I know the internal TNC is after market. There are APRS functions built into the radios settings. That tells me it should work with the TNC sold with the radio. I think Alinco owes the users some sort of fix or at least an explanation. No, I'm not holding my breath... but it would be nice.
73,
Dave, KC5SII
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N7ANL
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 31, 2007 12:27
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Intermod, DV & APRS comments
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This comment string began with a complaint from a new user of the DR635T, who had some troubles getting his Packet/APRS option board to work right for him. Another comment, 3rd down the list, claims to have bought the digital voice module by the same number as the first commenter, and was mistakenly disappointed his DV module won't decode the "commercial" APCO-25 format, even calling it "APCO28". C'mon folks, wake up.
My response here is not a review of the radio, but instead is a review of a few of the comments.
First, there are TWO optional modules for this and the other Alinco mobiles, ONE is a packet/APRS TNC board, and the SECOND is a DV or Digital Voice module. I can not speak for either unit, but am simply pointing out the comments are mixed up here.
As an alternative, hams should know there is an aftermarket (not Alinco's) TNC board that can dropped into the Alinco radios for the packet/APRS TNC feature, which may be a better choice, I don't know. Look for it on QRZ as they have a banner ad at the top of the QRZ page. Maybe it's a better choice for packet/APRS than the stock Alinco board.
The other Alinco option is an Alinco Digital Voice module, which uses a "ham specific" digitized voice decoding format, and it does NOT do the APCO-25 commercial DV format. Would be nice if it did, but these are two different formats in the industry, so that's just how it is. This is not Alinco's fault. Icom & Kenwood's new "DV" radios are also on the ham specific DV format and do not do APCO-25 either.
A point many may not know, is EVERY radio & scanner made which has an APCO-25 DV module in it, pays a high price, a licensed user fee if you will, for the use of this module. This is why all APCO-25 2-way radios, and scanner receivers, are much higher priced.
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Further, there a lot of comments in this thread, both pro & con about the how the Alinco handles "intermod". Intermod is a a tenacious problem in all larger and most small cities & towns. Intermod gets into almost every amateur VHF/UHF radio made, though some are better than others. There are several design issues which cause this problem.
I would not be too hard on Alinco if their radio picks up severe cases of intermod, since most all other brands & models do as well. Think about what is happening here.
You have a TWO band radio, with both receiver sections also being the widest design bandwidth possible, all so you can use the radio to receive ALL the ham & commercial & aircraft freqs you desire.
Further, most you are probably using a dual band antenna on the car or at home, and some of these designed antennas are also as broad-banded as the mfgrs can make them.
Thus what you are doing is INVITING intermod issues. If you substituted a wideband Icom or Kenwood or Yaesu radio and various antennas, you would find pretty much the same problems, slightly more or less.
Fortunately, there are several ways to resolve these intermod issues. If you really have bad intermod issues, get intermod-resistant radios & antennas!
~ Get a narrow bandwidth designed ham-only transceiver. Good examples are the much older mobiles like the Kenwood TW-4000 or 4100 series, the Icom IC-3200A or 3210A, or the Yaesu FT-2700 or 2710H. These are all dual band mobiles which WON'T allow you to modify your radio to monitor much of the adjacent commercial or aircraft spectrum. They were designed to have narrow receivers, as intermod in that era was just beginning to show up big-time in the cities. These older radios won't give you a zillion programmable features, but they will limit intermod to the absolute minimum. A tight receiver is your best bet against intermod invasion in the terrible "intermod alley" areas of the country.
~ The second step is go with two SEPARATE single-band AND narrow bandwidth antennas. If your primary operating area is inside the 2m and 440 ham bands, get a 5/8 wave 2m antenna, and a phased 440 ham band antenna, thus running separate antennas with your dual band radio. Tune each antenna to the center of band portion you actually use. So many of those modern wide-banded & dual-band antennas, whether base or mobile versions, are rather broad by design, again, so you can receive "everything" on them. You asked for that, and so you got it. If you want to eliminate intermod, go with narrower bandwidth antenna designs.
~ The third thing you can do is acquire a narrow bandwidth filter for each of your "problem" bands. Several mfgrs offer single-band (either 2m or 220 or 440) inline filters which will keep your desired working freqs peaked, while knocking down those freqs outside the ham bands. These filters are single band units, so you will need to run one with each band and each separate antenna.
When I read all these complaints against a radio that was "market-desired" and designed to be wide banded, I see a lot of amateurs who haven't thought through the problem yet. When you run into a problem, solve it -- by using equipment that was made to solve it. When you leave the chicken coop gate open overnite, the chickens will get out and the coyotes will get in !
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KC5SII
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Rating: 1/5
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Dec 31, 2007 09:19
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EJ47U digital module
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I've had the module installed for months. I have two major problems. One, it won't take my entire call sign and two, my local DIGIs can't receive the APRS data. It’s been a fun project but don’t buy the internal TNC unless you really like to mess with this kind of thing; It will absolutely drive you nuts!
The built in menu for APRS works okay but can't send the last letter of my call. That also makes it impossible to us an SSID. The workaround is to ignore the APRs features built into the radio and program everything through the Serial port. That seems to work fine but I can’t change parameters like the transmission intervals on the fly.
The second problem is really strange. I'm received and repeated everywhere I’ve been to date... Except in my local area. I set up both our local DIGIs and have no problem getting through with multiple personal stations. Others have no problems. But the Alnico has, to my knowledge, never had a single packet passed. I've piddled till blue in the face. Nothing works. I did find last night that I could connect to the DIGI and receive Converse text from the DIGI end. But text typed from the Alinco isn't received (or at least repeated to the screen) by the Kantronics DIGI.
Anyone else having these issues?
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G6XCJ
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Rating: 2/5
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Dec 15, 2007 08:50
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BE CAUTIOUS!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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For the very basics in communication this rig is quite exceptional BUT if like me you intended to use it with UI-View32/APRS, then think on! Have had the rig a little while now and the tnc fitted is a no-no without a GPS attached and with the exception of the TT3+Combo there is NO GPS that will function with the internal TNC. We all make mistakes and this is definately another one for me.
There is too much fiddling about to be done. Once i had programmed the fitted TNC i thought all was done and just plugging a GPS1/2 in the 9 pin at rear would do the trick, i thought wrong. I wish now i had invested in the TM-D710 directly.
To use the rig on APRS(TM) i now have to use it with a TT3+Combo plugged into the mic socket this gives me the 50w on the road if needed. But the waste of money on the purchase and fitting of the internal TNC grieves me.
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WD5FBS
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 13, 2007 15:09
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Not all it could be!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Just got the dr635 a few days ago, along with the EJ47U digital module. I mainly got the unit because I saw it was capable of digital voice decode, and needed it to monitor the local sheriff office digital frequency for civil defense. Little did I know it does not decode APCO 28 digital, nor is it able to tune the new ultra narrow band VHF Fm. i.e. 158.7975 that the new commercial and homeland security communications network is using. Does anyone know of any other digital decode module, or other mod to enable this to decode police and state police digital Apco 28? Also would really prefer the old squelch knob rather than the software setting.
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G6XCJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 7, 2007 11:03
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Excellent UIV32 rig!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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When bort i qequested the rig be set up with tnc and digital transmission for general use in packet eg UIV32. Have had some good work with it into almost all SATS using path ::Cq v ariss,myqra,mycall: so have no regrets and all this on only 5w out. On repeater working the audio is reported as excellent so i am well pleased with my purchase. Very good rig, gets hot but the fan is man enuf to cool it down:)
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