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write your own review of the Alinco DJ-190.
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KC0UBJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 16, 2005 17:50
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Good radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought an almost new unit about three months ago, and have had no serious problems with it other than when you run it on high power and talk for a while, it will get very hot. Almost too hot to hang on to. I use mine as a portable packet radio and it works great, the speaker is a little quiet, it can be a little hard to hear on the road sometimes. I use two sets of nimh batteries in a dry cell case and swap them out when needed, but usually try to run it on an adaptor because the batteries won't last long if you talk much on it. It will scan all day though, and still have enough juice to talk a while at the end of the day. I'm sure a regular battery pack would last longer. I treat it fairly rough sometimes, it gets tossed into a work truck in the morning and usually rides in a cup holder or on the seat. It has been knocked in the floor and fallen out of the cup holder a few times and it's still working fine though, so it's able to take some rougher handling than some other radios I've seen. I gave it a 4 only because of the heat it puts off on high power, everything else works great.
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N8MRC
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Rating: 5/5
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May 24, 2005 21:04
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Use everyday as my main HT
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought this radio back in '99 though TechAmerica/Radio Shack for $99. Over the years I bought a Ni/Cd battery pack and a Nickel Metal Hydride battery pack. It came with a 4 'AA' dry cell battery pack. I use it everyday on the local repeater and on simplex to chat with the wife. For the price I paid for it and how long it has lasted it is well worth the money for the radio. I did buy another HT antenna, a 17" flex duck. I have talked over 10 miles on simplex with the antenna. Very, very reiable radio....
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KD5UGS
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 16, 2005 08:46
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Really simple 2m HT to operate
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I use to have a DJ190 until I sold it to a very good friend of mine & I think the DJ190 is great
2m HT since it is so very easy to figure out.
Nice options on the menu too!!!!!!
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N0VKG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 27, 2002 04:30
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excellant!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I absolutely love this slim radio. Its a change from most HTs w/ no keypad. But its controls are are well thought out. I use it quite abit on my trips to Southern Missouri where everything is VHF-Only. Most ham stuff in St louis is also VHF. Also, all EMS, Fire & Pd activity is in the VHF range in southern Missouri. UPDATE on 01/26/02 at Winterfest 2002 in Collinsville, Il I went ahead and invested in new Ni-MH battery packs for it. I consider the investment well worth it. I bought 1: 4.8v 2150Mah pack and a 9.6v 750Mah pack. The 4.8v for when I expect to only use the dj-190 as a recieve-ONLY radio and the 9.6v pack radio when I need 5-watts to hit a distant Mountain-Top Repeater.
My only complaint (if it is a complaint) is that the CTCSS-Decode function requires a plug-in card. But, hey, its worth it. I only use this rig for portable ops. Meaning, I only use the radio with its -stock- rubber duck antenna. Alinco is known for making radios with bad receiver front-ends. I will never hook it up to an external antenna for any reason. So, Alinco's rather poor reciever history will not play a part in my usage. I too got mine thru Tech-America )Radio Shcack) for $99.00 a number of years ago (1998). One of the wisest investments in HTs I ever made. 73 from Todd Hartzel / n0vkg in St Louis, Missouri
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K0REX
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 6, 2001 17:12
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Great reliable simple handheld
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought a 190 new from Tech America(Radio Shack) with a AA battery pack for $99.
The 190 has a nice big display, simple controls and has been very reliable. I have had only one problem(transmit was cutting out). I sent it back to Alinco and they fixed it promptly and sent it back. It was still under warranty. That was two years ago. It has been in use almost daily use since then with no problems. The unit has forty memories which is plenty, even with the 16 Civil Air Patrol frequencies I have programmed in. Honestly, how many memories do we need and really use? The long thin case fits nicely in your hand compared to the newer short fat rigs which just don't feel as comfortable. I liked it so much, I have purchased a second used one, with Ni-Cd battery, charger and a filtered cigarette lighter power cord for a little over $120. Having two units comes in handy when I am teaching the cadets in our CAP squadron how to properly use radios. I'm not overly impressed with HT's that have all kinds of features that will probably never be used. Even the CAP cadets(11 to 18 years old) prefered the DJ-190 to the unit's Yeasu Ft-11R(A good radio!) I think they were intimidated by all the buttons and the hard to read display on the FT-11R. Our ham club treasuer's(Mark, N9XTN) uses a DJ-190 in his near space balloon payload which has gone to over 70,000 feet!
The only improvement I would make is to make the case more water resistant. Mine got soaked in a down pour helping out with a parade. I took it home, toweled it off, opened it up, let it dry completely, and it is back in operation with no problems.
A good HT at a very affordable price. 73, Rex
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JASPER
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 1, 2000 20:02
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Too hard to program
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've had several HT's before and all of them have had their programming issues, but this radio takes the cake. You have to program everything inside of a menu. It's not user friendly at all. The best thing to buy with this system is the ERW-4 computer programmer. This allowed me to program the HT quicker than one frequency at a time. Excellent screen display though, big and bright. Overall OK for back-up but not as your main HT.
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KC2FVR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 23, 2000 09:47
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Top notch easy to use two meter monoband
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The DJ190T is easy to use in part because it has a very large LCD display. I found that it performed remarkably well both as a mobile rig or as a handheld. The standard Radio Shack Speaker/Mic works well with this radio. It has good transmit and receive audio. The combination of the large display and easy of use make it a model for how HTs ought to be designed.
Its a pleasure to use. Has good sensitivity, and intermod rejection.
DJ190 does not have touch tone pad so get the DJ-191 model if you must have autopatch capability.
Some good discounts exist: This radio was avalable for $79.(with dry cell case) at the Radio Shack commercial site. NickleMetal Hydride batterys worked ok with this radio. An excellent buy for the money.
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