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Reviews For: Alinco DR-MO6TH

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

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Review Summary For : Alinco DR-MO6TH
Reviews: 15MSRP: 259.95
Description:
6M FM Transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com/usa.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00154.1
WA6LTH Rating: 2014-04-21
10 years of loving it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Not all the bells and etc. But it works well at what it does. Wish the receiver covered a bit more coverage. (29-50) Also it has a few features that the manual never covers. You only find out after a few days of working with it. In over ten years of using this radio, it has taken a licking and keeps on ticking. As are my other Alinco radios .
M0PME Rating: 2007-08-08
rx is very good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After 11 years i have started using this rig again and the rx is realy good . I used it in the car and had good reports with it. I had to adjust the dev pot and after that had no problems working GB3FH some 70 miles away.

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Earlier 1-star review posted by M0PME on 2005-08-29

Had this set for appox 7 years but after 18 months the PA block blew. cost £120 to repair.I dont use it now as i have no confidance in it.
I cant afford to have it repaired again. I would never but alinco again.
G8UBJ Rating: 2007-05-11
A bit long in the tooth Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Quite a nice rig for the shack but as someone else pointed out it doesn't have a very good noise blanker and I soon gave up trying to use it mobile.
The speaker is a bit lame and I found 100% improvement by just connecting a good external speaker.

All in all it was good in it day and at the moment there isn't really anything else to replace it unless you want to pay a lot more money.
W5GSR Rating: 2007-02-09
Nice radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got two of thies radio's,one for the truck and one for the house.Good audio reports,and you don't need a degree to put channels in it.It's fm only but thats what I need.
K2JN Rating: 2005-12-07
Fun Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I picked up the 10-Watt version in 1995. It’s been a blast to operate and the rig hasn‘t had any issues. Activity has been light in the northeast. However, when you do make contact, you’ll find that six meters is truly a gentlemen’s band.
KA2AYR Rating: 2005-05-04
Could have been great... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
A while ago, I bought a 10 Watt version. Got to find that the receiver did not meet spec, so realigned and found one stage with low gain. Tried to "send it out," but Alinco was having US distributor and service center problems. A technician who is used to working on Alincos said it was not economical to repair. Went to order parts (which seem to only be available in Japan in bulk quantities, not in small orders) and the same Alinco Japan/ US situation with distributor and service center problems. I ordered the same part from Yaesu with good turn-around. Needed SMT workstation to work on it. In land mobile radio, this would be beyond economical repair.

Couple of thoughts - the power is too low. Even 20 Watts (same radio, different voltages and current handling capabilities to PA) is too low for good mobile simplex work would have been dynamite in 100 W output. CTCSS decode is an aftermarket add-on (ick!). To Alinco - If you are going to sell in the US, get the distributor/ parts situation straightened out and let us have a factory supported service center (these situations may be corrected now, don't know, but I more or less gave up).

If you have one and make sure it won't break AND have it on a Mirage amplifier with a good antenna (mobile ball and spring), it may be a good radio. If.
W8KQE Rating: 2004-05-07
WISH IT WERE ALL MODE! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had this rig for a few weeks now, and it is very nice (was given to me). I do, however, wish it were ALL-MODE. Most 6m activity, in many parts of the U.S., is on or near 50.125 MHz SSB or 50.100 CW when the band opens. I realize that with no VFO, tuning would be 'raster' like, but the added flexibility and value of an all-mode 6m rig is evident. Even the Ranger 5054DX, with it's 'raster tuning', is more flexible than this one.
N2SQV Rating: 2003-03-20
Cool low-band rig Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Cool little mobile rig. Fits nicely attached to the ash tray under the AM/FM radio in my neon. Hears signals really good all the way down to 46 MHz (goes down to 40 MHz but I'm only interested 46.50 MHz). PL encode is standard, if you want decode that's extra. Radio has 100 memories plus VFO. I wish there was a way to lock-out memories and still have them in memory (some memories you just don't want to scan). Scans at a nice rate, but starts scanning after 5 seconds even if the station is still transmitting. Like the out-of -band receive, I listen to the local fire departments when 6M is in-active. Very long microphone cord [mic model is EMS-55 (16 tone DTMF) not what is in the picture above]. Do hear ignition noise (even wired directly to the battery) when receiving a weak signal. Audio is good and loud, even from the top firing built in speaker. Over all, a very nice mono-band radio.
JAMES_BENEDICT_EX_N8FVJ Rating: 2002-12-14
No Issues Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The DR-MO6TH I own is the 20 watt version. The receiver is plenty sensitive enough. My QTH is far away from any commercial transmitters, thus I can not report the selectivity. Heatsink operated a little on the hot side, but not excessive with the ICAS duty cycle I use on the air. I did not have any issue with the microphone unlike the other reviewer.
N7RFG Rating: 2002-12-14
Alinco is an Alinco! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am actually surprised that nobody has complained about the crappy microphone…. Mine fell apart the first month! Despite that problem, what can you expect from Aklinco…. They have improved over the years. It’s not a bad radio if you have the mic replace before the warranty expires. Mine is the 20W version, yet it was dead on at 15w from the factory. A professional radio technician here in town was able to realign the radio to output a full 20w with very little effort. Simple! He said that it was set low. However, he also indicated that 20w was about max for the PA in this radio. So if you have your radio realigned, and drop your SWR’s you will notice a BIG difference in the transmit capability. Now I can hit distant repeaters where as before I could not. One aspect that I do like about the radio, is that it is very small. This makes it easy to carry in your car…… 100 memories…. All of my are used…. So far if you are planning on using it for DX …. Forget it….. not enough power…. If you are looking to get into 6 meters, look at purchasing something a little higher quality…. You will be better off in the long run… 73’s



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Earlier 5-star review posted by N7RFG on 2000-09-25

This radio may not be constructed like an ICOM, but Alinco has done a great job here. My radio puts out about 20 watts. It has 100 memory channels. I have not had any problems since I purchased the radio. This is a very small radio, which makes it nice for mounting. Also, you have expanded receive on the radio which can be changed by re-booting the radio. The radio has a tendency to over heat throughout long QSO's, so keep the unit well ventilated. I would recommend this radio to anyone. Excellent.