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Reviews For: Alinco DR-110T

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Alinco DR-110T
Reviews: 6MSRP:
Description:
45 watt 2m FM mobile transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com/Archives/Mobile/dr110spec.pdf
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0064.3
NK4K-1 Rating: 2008-02-01
Great workhorse Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had 4 of these guys on packet links running digipeaters 24/7 since 1989. To say they are reliable is an understatement! Mine have survived lightning on the 250 ft tower and power surges from the unprotected line.
As you see in other comments, the lamps are a bit of a problem. They can get hot and reduce life if you don't use 14+ volt bulbs. I don't recommend seriesing two 12 volt bulbs, as the result is way too dim to use in sunlight.
You can get a display from the factory that goes in the DR-1200 or DR-112 that is white background LCD and no lamps are needed. Or you can replace the bulbs with white LED's -- a bit of carving may be needed.
Audio on both TX and RX is excellent and these units are easily modifiable for 9600 baud packet. Service manuals and owners manuals are readily available on the web in several places.
VK6HGR Rating: 2005-05-03
Good all-round Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Bought second hand from ebay.

Had to first replace the display lights and have to live with a small part of the LCD which was burned by the globe and appears now to be always on.

Good transmit and receive performance and reasonably easy to get going.

Biggest gripe is the way the CTCSS decoder works while scanning. Scanning is carrier, not tone based so if you have a nasty pager which is bleeding in on your scan channel the radio will lock up waiting to try and decode a tone on that channel. Most other rigs will 'give up' on that channel after a second or two.
KG4WBM Rating: 2003-10-31
Very nice radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned my radio for about three to four weeks now and have over all been very pleased with this radio! I got it for about $65.00 and so far have not been very disappointed. One thing I did not like was that the keypad on the microphone can not be used for direct frequency entry - something I am not used to with my other radios. Another thing was that the radio only has about fourteen memories. Around here because of so many repeaters I need a little more than that. Other than that though, it's a great radio. Just remember to be careful and check before you transmit, you must program the offset of a repeater, it is not done automatically like many of today's newer two meter rigs. So if you want to use a repeater in the 147.400 - 147.995 MHz range, remember to change it to a negative offset, and visa versa for the lower portion of the band. This radio is also capable of recieving on 350 - 370 MHz I think, as well as 870 - 890 MHz. Very nice radio! I would recommend it to anyone looking for a simple, easy to use radio for mobile use.
KC0NII Rating: 2003-08-26
Nice basic radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased one used for $60. No problems with the unit other than the before mentioned display lights. I replaced all bulbs with 14V lamps and no problems since.

I really have nothing exceptionally great to say about the rig but certainly nothing bad at all to say about it either. Take it for what it is - a low cost single band rig that has no major flaws and all of the basic functions that you would want.
K1ACK Rating: 2002-12-22
I liked it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had one of these and liked it. I wasnt expecting anything fancy. Very simple to use, 14 memory channels, one used for the odd offset tx freq, 2 used for search limits, 1 for call, but all 14 could be used for normal memories too. I agree about the display lamps, they went out on me too, but it was more like 1 year, not a month. CTCSS encode AND decode standard was a big bonus at the time. Also added hidden feature of 380mhz and 870-890 coverage by pushing
function and I think the button to the right (mhz?) while in vfo mode. There was actually a board inside for the 800mhz, the DR-1200T would do the function, but it lacks the board to actually receive. I didnt have any problems with it, other than the display lights.
KG4MEX Rating: 2002-03-23
decent buy, display not the greatest Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Purchased a DR 110T new in box from an auction.

Nice radio, crystal clear tx audio. not the greatest speaker, but good enough.
rejection and selectivity are ok considering the price.

Biggest problem?

Heat, they get real hot, but no problems noted yet.

Display lights.

The display is hard to read anyhow, but the lights seem to last a month before they start burning out.

HINT: Radio Crap sells the incandescent bulbs for 1.99 a 3 pack, BUT high output LED's, (white) work fine, it'll take some aiming, but i've had em in for months, and they work flawlessly.