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write your own review of the Alinco DX-77T.
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M0PBZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 18, 2011 16:21
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Great little rig In it's class
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Acquired one for around 300 USD from a ham who was leaving the hobby. I found the receiver comparatively noisy but also sensitive. This is likely due to the fixed and rather limited stepped gain/attenuator arrangement which could be better with a variable RF gain control. There's no real means to deal with typical local qrm, so I use mine with an MFJ DSP noise reducer and can hear the weakest stations. There is no RF power control so you have a choice of 10W/100W, but the transmitter seems very rugged, well designed and easily delivers over just over 100W into my 130' doublet, 30' up in a suburban house. I have to say that it delivers the DX every time. I may have been lucky as it has given me no trouble whatsoever, unlike one of the more well known 'cool' brands, which I will omit to mention.
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G0TGZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 7, 2011 04:09
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Great radio for the price
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I use the DX-77 mobile/portable all the time. Good size for it with direct access to most functions without pages of menus. If you want to change it there's a button for it. I switch the power to 50W and use it 10W/50W on SSB.
The NB (om my radio at least) is rubbish and actually ADDS crackle on SSB mode. It's sensitive enough on RX and handles strong signals well also. The TX audio draws many compliments from the standard hand mic with the compressor function ON.
Tuning knob is good, changing bands and saving frequencies are easy as is SPLIT FREQ operation. 2 VFOs are simple to switch and it stores the common modes as presets.
RX audio has way too much hiss though. I use BHI DSP and it's gone but possibly the IF/audio stages have suffered a design 'feature' that induces/amplifies this hiss.
I can control it via USB cable with Commander (not much use mobile) and laptop and it seems to work with contesting software/logging. At 3.8kgs it's light enough for portable backpacking and I've had many contacts from the UK with it. VK,JA,PY,YW,W,K,A51 etc at either 50 or 10W into a mobile antenna.
Good beginner/spare/mobile radio.
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ZL1LK
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 11, 2010 00:40
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Fun little radio
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I bought my DX-77 off the net very cheap. At first I found from 30 meters and above, the output power on high put out only 20W. Taking it in to the local service tech, he replace the driver transistor... now 100W everywhere. Since then I have had no problems and a lot of fun working the world.
My main rig is a Yaesu FT-990 which the Yaesu totally out performs the DX-77 but of cause it will. If you want performance you buy a high end rig.
The DX-77 is so easy to use with limited functions but with quite a nice tuning knob with a few hidden menus.
If I was to rate this rig against my 990, I would give it a 3/5 but to be fair you have to compare apples with apples... it's only a cheap rig but in it's class, it will come out on top.
If you want a cheap, fun and easy to use rig... buy one if you get the chance.
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2E1MPC
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 25, 2010 12:30
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alinco dx 77e
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Having owend the dx 70 th for a long time i had the chance of an alinco dx77e ,WOW great bang for buck , simple to use , great audio reports , comments , such as , what mic are you using on that radio??? simple the stock one ,I sat this next to my ft840 and have now put the 840 into storage , the internal speaker lacks a certain something , but great value for money ,,
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N4FDG
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 19, 2008 10:52
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A great rig!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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As good as they come. Just a plain, simple rig to operate. Fpr the money it can't be beat.
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NE3R
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Rating: 0/5
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Feb 19, 2008 08:25
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Worst I've ever used
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The Alinco DX-77T is the worst radio I've ever used. One was donated to our club and I've been using it on and off for about two years. The biggest problem being the lack of an RF gain control followed closely by the amount of noise that must be listened to on the low bands. I have a good bit of experience with the Kenwood TS-180S, Ten-Tec Jupiter, Yaesu FT-857D, Icom 706 and 718. All of these rigs far exceed the receiver capability of the DX-77T.
The radio does OK for our local 10 meter nets and is a great rig for demonstrating split on a single receiver. It is generally easy to operate. It was worth accepting it for free as a donation for the club, but I would never actually buy one.
Joseph Durnal NE3R
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WA5MAH
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 19, 2007 08:46
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Even better with aftermarket audio DSP!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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After nearly 30 years without an HF rig, a buddy found a DX-77T on eBay, and convinced me to buy it. It's amazing how many other things you have to buy, just to get the rig online, but I should have expected that, hi!
I've used it about 6 months, and was getting increasingly disappointed in its receiver. The hiss was overpowering, and really limited my SSB and digital ops.
I recently spotted this link: http://www.qsl.net/5b4agv/5b4agv-alincomod.html and ordered the kit from w4rt.com. The installation was a breeze... far easier than with the FT-817 that they designed it for. No surface-mount caps to remove!
The hiss is gone! I can hear anything my buddy can hear with his 2-kilobuck radio.
I love my DX-77T, and once again am having fun with HF and DXing. If you have one, add the DSP. If you're considering one, it's a great little radio (with the DSP added!).
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PE1NPG
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Rating: 3/5
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Oct 5, 2006 11:43
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comparison
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Had both the Dx-77 and the Icom-718. The last one was far superior in quality and options. I'am still very glad with the Icom, and returned the DX-77 to its owner, who borrowed it to me.
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KS4UA
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 4, 2006 11:26
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KS4UA
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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As a Ham who had been without any HF rig for way too long now (having sold off my ancient HF gear several years back) I was recently in the market again for a basic "starter" HF rig.
My general criteria were nothing too fancy, but it had to be relatively modern - all solid state, at least some level of computer control, and half-way decent reciever performance.
No need for ultra-receiver performance with tons of built-in DSP and filters, though. This wasn't going to be a contest rig, although it had to be able to interface with my shack's PC, for computer control, PSK31, and other modes available through the soundcard interface.
With that in mind, my budget was around $500 - max - for the base tranceiver. Obviously, I couldn't afford a new rig at that price. Whatever I ended up with, I wanted it to be something that worked reliably when I first turned it on and would provide about 100 watts out on all bands.
After reading numerous rewiews on eHam and endless browsing of the usual websites (QRZ, QTH, etc.) I narrowed my choices down to the usual suspects: ICOM IC-718, Yaesu FT-840, and the Alinco DX-77T.
You can find all three for sale on a regular basis through the used equipment channels and they fit the price range that I had in mind.
Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I won't repeat them all, but some of the differences are: The Yaesu and Alinco both offer FM mode for 10 meters, while the Icom doesn't have that. The Alinco has a built-in PL tone board and a factory installed 500hz CW filter, which are options on the others. The Icom offers a factory option for DSP, a high-stability oscillator, and voice operation. Not available on the Alinco. Etc.
Looking at the used market for those three radios, I noticed that the Alinco often comes up for sale for less $ than the other two, but couldn't find a good reason for that, other than the fact that Alinco has less market share than the other two.
Honestly, I think any of the three radios would work just fine for ~90% of those hams out there who just want basic HF functionality. For me, it basically came down to finding the best deal on one of them...and it ultimately turned out to be the Alinco DX-77T. Got one in nearly mint condition, with the factory service manual, well within my budgeted price.
One big question that I had about the Alinco, though, was how well supported it was by software control. Alinco provides all the details for free, but the excellent Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) doesn't currently support the DX-77T in a native mode.
A little more digging and I found out that the equally excellent (and equally free) DX Commander does indeed support the DX-77T, as long as you have an ERW-4 control cable installed. That cable seems to be in short supply these days from Alinco dealers, although equivalent third-party cables are available for less $ on eBay.
I've had mine for about a month now and it's working as I expected.
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N1KSN
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 5, 2006 06:20
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Excellent email technical support
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I got my Alinco DX-77T in partial trade for another rig for use as a backup and maybe in an emergency portable HF station. The previous reviews give a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of this radio, so I won't repeat their observations.
However, I want to put in a good word for Alinco technical support from Ham Distributors. I had a mysterious problem, with the radio kicking out on key-down at random times. This also happened at times on SSB. After fooling around with cables and grounding, thinking it might be an RF feedback problem, I emailed the tech support people from the link at the Alinco website. Much to my surprise, I received an answer in just a few hours the same day.
The person who answered said that they had only once run into something like my problem, and it had been a DC power plug crimp made over the insulation, so that the radio received inadequate power when transmitting. They also attached a pdf file with the service manual! When I inspected my DC cord's plug, I saw that the female pins' inside diameters had be increased from use. It took a few moments with a pointed soldering tool to return them to their original diameters, and my "rig" problem was gone.
So my experience with Alinco tech support was very positive and their tentative diagnosis was right on.
I will mention that I have gotten excellent reports on the radio's audio on SSB and its CW note when using code. The stock mic works very well, and I can use it on my Elecraft K2 as a bonus. (I wired my K2 mic plug to emulate Kenwood.) Even better, I can use a variety of my K2 mics with the DX-77T.
It was very easy to find on the web the mod for opening up the tranmit to all frequencies. I just had to remove solder from one solder jumper on the front panel board and reset the radio. This gave me 60 meter capability, made easy by programming the five 60 meter channels into Memories 01 to 05.
While I was at it, I programmed several other memories to contain frequencies and setups for the CW and SSB portions of all the ham bands. I can now use the MEMO and UP/DOWN keys to quickly get to the sub-band I want.
The previous owner had used my unit for digital modes almost exclusively. To that end he had mounted fans on the heatsink. However, when I opened up the rig I saw that it already had a thermostatically controlled internal fan, blowing air out through the heatsink fins. If you decide to mount an external fan, be sure it is pulling air from the inside of the radio out over the fins. Otherwise it will be fighting the internal fan.
Last, I must tell you (in the true style of irrelevant detail sometimes found in these reviews) that I got my first European DX in a long time while playing with the DX-77T on 30 meters the other night. France and the Slovak Republic with a low inverted vee and 50 watts. This little radio can provide lots of fun.
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