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Reviews For: ALINCO DM-330MW

Category: Power Supplies

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Review Summary For : ALINCO DM-330MW
Reviews: 13MSRP: between £77 to £99
Description:
30A switch mode psu. pre-set 13.8V or adjustable voltage to 15V. Front panel display switchable to show V or I. Controls for voltage adjust and noise shift. Terminal posts on rear panel, 2 sets of ush connectors and a single auto lighter socket on the front. Fitted with a fan.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.alinco.com/usa.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00134.4
KC2OYZ Rating: 2008-06-22
Hash Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have owned two of these - small, nice looking, well designed PS - built rugged, great meter and nicely laid out - particularly I liked the pre-set voltage feature.

But, in spite of Alinco's claims, this power supply can nail you with some really nasty RFI, and the noise offset circuit just moves the hash around, doesn't eliminate it.

The severity of the problem depends on your rig and your operating frequencies: I do some MW-BCB DX'ing etc with my rigs as well, and all of them (718,746Pro, 840 and 900) were severely affected by hash on BCB.

With the 718, 746 and the 840, even on 20m there was background hash, although I was able to eliminate most of it through the noise offset circuit. The 900 seemed to be immune on HF, but on BCB there was terrible hash on 900khz that was impossible to get rid off - although I didn't detect any on the 900khz harmonics.

So, if you know what you're getting into with this PS and are ready to deal with it, go for it. Otherwise keep away. I myself am allergic to RFI - I have enough RFI at my QHT that I can't control - I certainly don't want to introduce more voluntarily - back to linears I go.



G4IPZ Rating: 2008-06-14
Seems there are good and there are bad. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I now own two of these since one came up new at a price, even with my previous experience of band noise, that I couldn't refuse.
Side by side with my other on e it is absolutely physically identical; same model, even same serial number run however it radiates nothing like as badly as my first version.
It does still radiate shash on 80m particularly but at much wider intervals and at a much lower level.
Unlike the other reviewer I have found that the fans on both my units turn on even when only providing receive power to my FT690 and FT290.
I have also noticed that on both of the units the noise generated on 80m shifts around the band even when I am just altering the audio output levels of any rigs attached to the PSU.
I often find that on a busy day on 80m I am tuning the noise shift on the PSUs more than I am tuning the VFO on my TS130s.
OK they are a reasonable PSU for the money but as I said before, be prepared for radiated shash. However it seems that some are better than others. Oh and earthing the case by the screw tag seems to make no difference at all.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by G4IPZ on 2008-03-04

Right, well this PSU is actually pretty good, happily providing enough oomph to drive my TS130S flat out with no hiccups.
It will drive all my VHF rigs and linears at once, again with no problem.
But.........
This psu has a noise offset shift control in case there's a problem with switching interference. A good job it has one as it needs it!
When you hit a noise signal from this beasty you can be looking at an S9 +20 screech. And sod's law always puts it onto of a weak signal.
The amount of noise spikes on 80m are quite staggering and 40 isn't much better. Now this may be because I choose to run longwire antennae but it's still too noisy in my opinion.
It does improve the higher up the bands you go but be warned if you like the lower frequencies you will need the noise offset control to hand!
DO3MIB Rating: 2008-03-04
Well done, Alinco! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a great little PSU. I got the european version (DM330-MVE). I use it to drive my 706, Autotuner and an Amp. Theres no problem, no noise. Neither in SSB nor on PSK the unit gets really hot, max power i need is about 24A. The vent is silent an comes on rarely.

The only thing i dont like: In a dark ambience the LEDs for Power and Preset are too bright. A resistor
solved the problem.