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Reviews For: Alinco DJ-S40T

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

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Review Summary For : Alinco DJ-S40T
Reviews: 6MSRP: 89.95
Description:
Mini 440 HT
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0064.7
M3XPR Rating: 2007-10-23
Super little handheld Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up an Alinco DJ-S40 CQ new on eBay for £20.
After a couple of minor mods it’s the same spec as the DJ-S40T except the CQ has a non removable folding antenna.
It’s a fantastic little handheld and opens my local repeater from 5 miles away with 100mw.
Audio is very nice for both send and receive, it fits nicely into a coat pocket and is extremely portable which is why i bought it.
In addition to CTCSS it also has Tone burst very useful for older repeaters.
I have had some good reports on simplex as well with people not believing that I was running at 100mw or 1 watt.
KE7EYQ Rating: 2006-01-14
No bells and whistles but gets the job done Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I use one of these HTs with my Arrow handheld yagi as an FM satellite receiver. It works great for receiving AO-27, SO-50, and AO-51. I also made a QSO through the ISS crossband repeater once using this HT with 3 alkaline batteries! Programming is difficult to figure out without the manual, but manageable. The one thing I wish it had was DTMF tones for repeater autopatches.
W7RJR Rating: 2004-05-27
Great value! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a perfect HT for someone starting out in Ham Radio or someone that needs an inexpensive but feature filled HT. The price apparently necessitates a plastic case, but it seems fairly sturdy. Comes with an SMA antenna connector which is easily remedied by an aftermarket adapter to BNC ($5.95)

Microphone and speaker plugs on top of HT accomodate standard headsets like the kind sold in Radio Shack (works great). Rig is turned on and off by pushing down momentarily on the volume control (top of rig). Volume is adequate by certainly not enough for mobile or noisy environment operation. Some distortion occurs with volume set at greater than 50%. Transmitted audio is of adequate level and clarity and received good signal reports. Even at high power (1 watt) this little HT stays COOL. Power is somewhat adjustable with AA batteries .5 watt and with 13.8 VDC or 6 volt NiMH about 1 watt.
There is a low power setting (.2w) which I have not tried. This little HT runs on anything that produces DC voltage not in excess of 13.8 VDC. Nothing proprietary here!!

Programming is STRANGE, but once learned is not difficult. This is a full featured rig and I was surprised how many features it contained. The manual leaves much to be desired (of course) but careful reading will reveal all you need to know.
It took me a while to figure out how to set the offset for repeater operation :-)I have yet to notice IMD, pager or overload problems.

I use this little HT as a dedicated link to a UHF repeater on ECHOLINK. Works like a charm.
Easily fits in a pocket. The belt clip is simple but effective.

The optional NiMH battery charges up using any DC voltage source (as mentioned earlier) and takes about 10 hours to fully charge.

This is a winner! I hope Alinco makes another one just like it for 220 Mhz. I will be first in line to get one.

73, W7RJR

KD5RHR Rating: 2003-04-30
Good handheld Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Needed a 440 radio and decided on this one only because of the 2 previous reviews, the small size, and the price... Catalogs have for $70 or $80, I paid $50 new at a tailgate. Easy to figure out programming. Less than 1 watt but that's all I need. Main gripe is the poorly designed rubber jack covers... you just pick up the radio and they open. If not for that would've given it a 5. Other than that a pretty good radio.
KG4RUL Rating: 2002-11-16
Good Rig BUT! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The first thing I did with mine was to get rid of the stock antenna and replace it with a 17" unit with a BNC connector. This necessitates the use of an SMA-to-BNC adapter (a good idea in any case). This greatly improves the performance on the 3 AA battery pack.

I have even used this HT to receive UO-14 Satellite downlinks using an Arrow hand-held beam.

Dennis - KG4RUL
AA2T Rating: 2002-11-15
It's real handy ! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Has good features, a bit goofy to program, but the size is great for your shirt pocket (much lighter and slender than VX-5). Has great coverage around our town with a local 440 repeater. 1W out w/6V NiMH pack is great, do not recommend 3-AA rechargeables (voltage is too low, audio distorts/limited run time). Will run on 3-AA alkalines just fine. Built in charger is great so you just need a wall-wart. Note that for the programmable battery setting, bp-2 is for charging 6V and bp-1 is for 4.5V packs. Audio level ok, but not enough to use in moving car. Performance is good, best feature is the packaging, making it the nicest HT to carry around when out at that eye ball, club meeting etc.