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Reviews For: Alinco DR-635

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

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Review Summary For : Alinco DR-635
Reviews: 53MSRP: 375.00
Description:
2M/440 full-duplex capable, remote-able
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00533.6
VK3ZAZ Rating: 2022-06-14
Bought and sold one then bought another back. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As soon as I sold it I missed it. The kenwood with external tnc did not come close.
EJ50u tnc changes this radio into a great home digi.
As a mobile wiring in the gps with the flimsy cabling is something I do not want to do just like the dr-135 mini stereo gps feed.
But for a home digi once you use terraterm to program the tnc and read through many of the new paradigm aprs settings, it scrubs up well.
Certainly easier than the kenwood split panel rigs.
RT systems software and the usb cable allow cut n paste channels across all your radios from 144-500 mhz tight up to 477 truckers channel, plus copius airband channels.
All the new uhf repeater offsets are on drop down menus.
Do not much like the technicolour display so just use the bog standard orange/amber like the 435/135 do.
Fan screams a bit but cools the radio well.
73 vk3zaz.


VE3TMT Rating: 2021-11-26
Good..but not without faults Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I like the dual band receive, great for monitoring the local repeater and .52 or local airport. No 440 machines around here. Reports on my signal have been good, the RX sounds nice with an external speaker, internal speaker is a bit on the low side.

Serious design issues..for example, if I tune VFO A to 147.015 it throws a full scale carrier on 146.52 on VFO B. If I dial up 146.345 on A, full scale carrier on 145.625. Also 146.670 to 146.060, and I could probably go on. Fortunately my repeater doesn't fall on one of these phantom signals, but it would be a major issue if it did.

I have not found a menu setting to change the bandwidth from wide to narrow or vice versa to see if this would help. Even the cheap Chinese radios have this setting!
KA7NIQ Rating: 2017-04-10
A Total POS Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this almost new, in the box, at the Orlando Hamfest.
It never really worked right. At high power, it hummed, and would suddenly stop transmitting, in the middle of conversations, so I reduced power.
Now, it has stopped working, so I used my MFJ 269 analyzer to check my dual band antenna.
The antenna is ruler flat swr, so the radio is the problem.
It did have great TX Audio, when it worked.
I bought a Chinese dual band TYT 8600 for 95 dollars brand new, delivered.
I can't get the out of warranty Alinco fixed for that!

N2MDV Rating: 2017-01-11
The RX fix for the DR-620T. Great alternative to the big three. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had the DR-620T and liked how well that rig performed, except for the out of band intermod in heavy strong RF congested areas, like metros. From what I've seen from the newer DR-635T, it's the RX fix to that. Much tighter intermod rejection. Other than that, I didn't see the difference to the DR-620T. Good perky TX audio, and like pretty much most Alincos, maybe too much TX audio. Easy enough to adjust, but there's two POT's for that, DEV V for VHF and DEV U for UHF. (Just be sure that you have a deviation meter for this, or something else for audio measurements.) Good, perky, RX audio as well. One minus? On cold weather days below freezing, the UHF side drops its Squelch, until the rig warms up. Don't bother getting the Digital board, since it doesn't seem to be compatible with any format out there. Other than that, a nice alternative to Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood.
WB2JIX Rating: 2015-06-19
Has a mind of its own Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was out of town for a week and my wife called me and said "your radio in your car turned itself on". I had to explain how to unplug it.
When I got back home, I plugged the power back in and now I couldn't turn it on. Many times, the power button just seems to do its own thing. I have to reach under the back seat and unplug it and plug it back in.
For this reason, I can't rely upon Alinco.
K2ADK Rating: 2015-01-21
This will teach you... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is a pretty radio with lovely colors on the LCD. It has good receive sensitivity and somewhat less than stellar transmit. The big problem is its delicate construction.

I live in northern New York, where the temperature can drop at night to 10 degrees any time from October through April. Believe me, this rig will not work in temperatures below the stated 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Which makes it useless for use in my car. So I use it in the house, and put my old Yaesu 2800 in the car. This morning it was minus 12 degrees, and that workhorse performed flawlessly.

This is a good radio if it's kept inside, like an exotic bird. But it's not truly for mobile use.
WA1SFH Rating: 2014-06-30
Choose another Radio... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The only reason I have the Alinco DR-635 was due to three reasons:
- the specifications on the company brochure,
- a positive recommendation by "a friend" (whose status is pending).
- A really good price from a local ham who had one in near mint condition.

Here is THE GOOD NEWS:
It is very easy and intuitive to manually program memory channels on the fly.

The rest is a disappointment, and I will be changing out this radio as soon as I have some extra cash available to buy the Kenwood TM-V71a

The BAD NEWS:
#1: The layout of the memory channels is VERY STRANGE. Did the lay out the 200 Memory Channels sequentially? Noooooo.....
- They broke them up into 3 separate groups!
80 Ch. for VHF,
80 Ch. for UHF, and
40 Ch. for Mixed VHF/UHF.
- WARNING: Accessing them in a hurry, without extensive training time invested, is a pain in the rear.
- If you are in a certain memory section, it won't display the 2 VFOs simultaneously.

#2 Intermod - as explained by others.

BOTTOM LINE:
The is a 2nd Class radio (I am being kind).
Choose Another Radio manufacturer!
You will be much happier.
W4ETR Rating: 2014-01-26
Great radio Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Following up on my previous review. Now we own 3 of these radios, have experienced none of the problems other people are posting in their reviews. Still a 5 in my book, and if I find myself needing another vhf/uhf radio this will be my first choice.
KD0SB Rating: 2014-01-23
FM only Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Rate the radio a 4 ! Only because it is not all mode. My first radio after my first ticket August 2012. Didn't understand I wouldn't be able to do other modes-my fault. APRS and digital possible, but hesitant due to difficulty in compatibility with additional hardware and software. Waiting to upgrade to HF/VHF all mode rig. OTHERWISE, has been a GREAT radio for mobile with diamond mag mount and base with Ed Fong jpole. No issues. No problems. My problem is I didn't fully understand this is FM ONLY - that's why I 'say' a 4 but the radio is actually a 5. Gotta consider the great cost too.
KD8TUT Rating: 2014-01-06
Meh... I'd have avoided it if.... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just bought this radio as a birthday present to myself in November. And have been getting complaints about transmit hum.

After checking power sources, grounding, connections, pl tone level, and confirming on battery power with tone off on simplex. My particular radio is defective on transmit. The hum, matches exactly the RFI picked up by a pair of badly shielded computer speakers I have.

As a new ham, I'm somewhat disappointed. At best this will be a 3 hour round trip drive to Milwaukee for an exchange, at worst a few weeks to ship the thing to an Alinco service center.

I guess I wouldn't be as disappointed if I had a bunch of radios laying around. It's supposed to be my first "good" radio. But it's back to an HT an unspecified period of time.

Not sure this translates into Alinco making bad radios. But really a problem like this should have been caught by quality control.