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Reviews For: Alinco DJ-V5T

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Alinco DJ-V5T
Reviews: 89MSRP: 301.95
Description:
VHF/UHF 5 watt HT with Alphanumeric Display
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00894.5
W2UIS Rating: 2011-05-14
Still Great Little Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just rebuilt my DJ-V5T by purchasing a new antenna and battery. Now this unit is even better than new. No longer in production so look for one for sale then make the changes I did. My rebuild only cost $88.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by W2UIS on 2008-07-04

I'm having fun working 70cm repeaters with a links on 6m and 10m repeaters here in New York working the world with this ht.
KC0ZZH Rating: 2009-07-19
Great Dualt Band HT Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My version of this radio is the clear case which didn't have the wideband RX mod done to it as purchased. Did the mod and opened it up for wide RX. Very impressed with the sensitivity of the radio. I'm impressed with the RX audio and I get good TX audio reports with it.

Battery life was marginal at best with the stock battery, purchased an aftermarket 9.6v NiMH battery for it and it does MUCH better now.

Replaced the stock rubber ducky antenna with a 19 inch Comet whip, much improved results over the stock antenna.

Has more memories than I will ever use.

One drawback to the radio is the way the battery is mounted to the radio...in my experience it's not hard to knock it out or damage the case if you have a big battery pack installed, but otherwise if your careful and don't drop the radio I think you shouldn't have a problem.

Out of the box I would rate the radio a 4 out of 5.0 but with some simple upgrades the unit really shines.

ZR6RBJ Rating: 2008-05-06
Good for a "cheapie" Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Releatively cheap radio for what you get. Okay battery life. Tested against the THF7E kenwood HT. The kenwood will out perform it every time, with signal and audio reports. I had both on the belt and chatted to a friend on simplex, kenwood is far superior. However i am very fond of the alinco it has some nice features. Its not a radio i would be keen to get rid of.
K7GLE Rating: 2007-12-04
Discontinued? Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Earns a 4.5 or higher rating.

Excellent reported audio though I am getting reports of a slight squelch tone audible on transmit.

Manual is OK but primitive...I had to read the QST review to find out that the 2 'audio modulation' levels are for mic gain, not speaker output. Duh.

ALINCO is performing the 'after market mod' (widening the RX range) in the factory now, so the factory spec sheet is outdated.

Can scan by bands, OR between one of 5 sets of scan ranges, OR across all programmed memories, OR across all memories except those set to be 'skipped.' With 200 memories it would have been nice to be able to set memory ranges to scan...between memory 20 and 50, say, if these are your local airport frequencies.

No longer carried in HRO catalog...I had to have it backordered. Is this unit about to be discontinued by ALINCO?

73 - Glenn
N5AGE Rating: 2007-04-27
Nice........... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked one up used (like new condition), works great. Hitting repeaters at 5 miles on 1w power setting. Have also used mobile with an MFJ antenna window holder, using the rubber duck and still works well.
Anyone know if there is software programming cabability for this radio?
W0ACE Rating: 2007-02-12
Excellent Buy! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had used this little rig for about a year now. Works perfect. No complaints. I have 3 packs, 1 factory, 2 eBay ones. They all work good, NiMh packs are nice for a little extra talk time. I use mine mobile also with a dual band mag mount and 5 watts alot. It gets warm after ALOT of talking, but never been a problem yet. I have the matching Alinco pseaker mic and like it. Audio is good, and I like the size of it. This is my third Alinco HT and I haven't had any problems with any of them yet....
KI6HBA Rating: 2007-02-02
Inexpencive Sturdy Effective Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a great little handheld. It has done everything I asked of it and more. The receiver picks up weak signals and the transmit hits all my local repeaters with no problems even on the factory rubber duck antenna. I also like the fact that to open up all the channels just takes a screwdriver and a pair snips to cut 1 wire (no soldering or unsoldering). Its only week points are that the factory battery is a 700ma NICAD and the manual is the pits. If they fix the manual I'd give it another 0.5 and the battery also another 0.5 for a perfect 5.0.

Pros:
Price
Sensitivity on receive
Easy to use and program (once you figure it out on your own)

Cons:
700ma Battery (should me NmH or LiPoly)
Poor manual. (Read it for an overview then just start pressing buttons till you figure it out)
FORMER_W5TD_JOHN Rating: 2007-01-25
Great dualband HT Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned most of the recently made HTs, so when I found a DJ-V5T for sale used at a great price I jumped on it, since I had never owned one of these. Overall it is a great HT, and I enjoyed having it.

Pros:
1. Really simple to use. Only 6 menu items and they are set and forget items. Everything else can be done off of the keypad.
2. Great sounding receiver with great audio. Plenty of audio coming out of the speaker, and it sounds very nice.
3. Got good transmit audio reports.
4. Nice HT size, other than the thickness (see below)

Cons:
1. A little thicker than it needs to be, but still not too bad. About like a yaesu FT50.
2. Wish it had a LiON battery instead of the NIMH I got with it, or the NICD which is standard.

Overall, a very nice dualband HT for 2m/70cm, with wide receive to listen to FM broadcast and TV audio. Too bad it doesn't receive shortwave or AM broadcasts. I can highly recommend this HT.
R2972 Rating: 2005-03-18
Versatile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's a nice little radio. FAT and stubby but managable:) I bought it for monitoring UHF freq since i only transmit at VHF only. I'm able to monitor air traffic control, TV stations, etc. Very fun. Its also a nice back up radio when my main radio is down(Motorola GP88 VHF).
WA2RCB Rating: 2004-12-24
An OK little radio. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My DJ-V5T has been a great little radio for the past 5 or so years I've owned it. The nicad pack finally went bad after 4 years which was a good lifespan considering my Yaesu and Icom nicad packs barely made it past 2 years of usable life. The only complaint I have with the radio is I am starting to see 2 cracks on the side of the radio case where the battery pack slides on. (the radio case...not the battery pack case) The cracks are located right at the corners where the polymer (black PVC?) was injection molded at the factory. I have traced this to mechanical stress from the weight and lateral stress of the battery pack tabs interlocking with the same..meaning the radio case. Only way to fix this is via a whole new case for the radio. as the cracks now cause the battery to move atop the radio when locked into place, once causing a power-dropout when the pack fell off. Apart from this obvious mechanical design defect, the radio is a great little performer. If I was designing it, I would have made the radio case from metal via the sand or die casting process. Does anyone know if a die cast metal after-market case is available for his radio?