| KE7MU |
Rating:      |
2021-04-01 | |
| Radio Meets All Expectations |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had it about 10 years or so and it is still working well. I was surprised at the reviews I have seen here! I haven't had the interior issues others have talked about. I use the supplied duck or a Discone antenna. Tucson has hundreds of repeaters and lots of UHF and VHF traffic, and I don't hear much of this. It isn't a shortwave radio so I don't even try to use it for that, it isn't a scanner either, scanning too slow, so don't use it for that either, but then I did buy it for it's hand held features. I have 20 hand held radios, and of those 3 have failed for one reason or another, all Yaesu radios, so I will not purchase another. I would think I would notice some intermod from a local ham who has a repeater, antenna on a 50 foot tower. I do see quite a few birdies on my SDRplay, but not on my Alinco. Note the radio so the the worst intermod is a uniden BC, which I don't use at all.
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| KC2FQ |
Rating:  |
2021-04-01 | |
| Most horrible intermod I've ever experienced |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I live over 20 miles from a somewhat major city. While checking out the extended receive, a repeater in the ham bands, over 20 miles away, came in crystal clear while I was several dozen MHz below it. There were other similar incidents as well. They other reviewer saying worse than a $25 Baofeng is spot on. |
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| VA2DV |
Rating:    |
2021-02-15 | |
| Not for satellites |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I bought this radio especially for FM satellites since it is advertised as full duplex. Well, sort of. The main band TX will desensitized the sub band ; and in my case, it was on any combination of 2m, 70cm and 1.2 ghz. Well...Ok. Then I will use it as a scanner. Nope, no sensitivity outside of the ham bands. I am in the telecom world since 35 years and the user manual is about the worst I have ever seen. I am proud of my Alinco switching power supply but this HT should have been discontinued long ago. |
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| WD1R |
Rating:  |
2020-08-07 | |
| Worse than a $25 Baofeng |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Right out of the box, no belt clip. You get a little nylon strap you can loop around your belt and let the radio dangle. No option for a real belt clip, and the attachment point doesn't line up with any other radio I have so I can't use a clip off something else.
Power output very low on 2m, ok on 70cm. Transmitted audio quality is poor with a constant background whine.
Screen is much larger than something like a Baofeng UV-5R yet the text on the screen is substantially smaller. Menus are even smaller and harder to read.
Backlighting is weak even when cranked up to 5.
The only good thing I can say about the radio is it is a very good looking radio. Save your money.
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| N2HAM |
Rating:      |
2020-01-01 | |
| Well built radio! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Well built radio, the receive is great. The speaker is a bit weak in my opinion but fine.
Love the 1.2 The 1 watt at 40 miles away works a repeater well! , the radio charges very quick as compared to other radios.
AM receive is good and the FM also.
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| N0FPE |
Rating:      |
2014-11-23 | |
| just fine |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I picked up this radio right after it came out. I flashed the firmware every time there was an upgrade. it works fine. Programming is not all that hard without the software. I find the radio works just as good as any other radio. It works fine in the bands it is designed for. I didnt get it for the wide band receive. I will get a scanner for that
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Earlier 5-star review posted by N0FPE on 2010-02-23
Still working fine. I have updated the firmware and the change was great! I already had the cables and adapters so I didnt have to buy them. I have used it on 1.2ghz and it works fine there. There is still a little delay in the decode side of the CTCSS. If you dont keep the firmware up to date then you have no reason to complain. Good solid radio, plays well, fits my hand well, easy to face plate program and well as with the software. Manuals and all software available for free on the Alinco web site. I would buy again with no hesitation. |
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| N2LAW |
Rating:     |
2014-11-22 | |
| Not quite what I expected |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I recently added the DJ-G7T to my already too-large collection of HTs for precisely four reasons:
1. I really love my DJ-G29T 220/900 MHz HTs (see separate review) and typically travel with one. The DJ-G7T was a logical complement - identical in form and user interface, using the same batteries, charger and accessories, and between the two I would have all 5 bands from 2m to 23cm covered.
2. My only other HT covering 1200 is the idiosyncratic Icom IC-T81A quadbander. One ought to have at least two HTs for any band, right? :-)
3. I like to have a wideband receiver (which the DJ-G29T isn't!) with me when I travel - the DJ-G7T could apparently fill this role so that I would only need the two Alinco HTs.
4. I found one at a very good price.
The G7T's full-duplex capability was intriguing -- the only other 2m/70cm HT I have that can operate full duplex is my ancient Yaesu FT-470. But a number of reviews I read said that desensitization made the DJ-G7T's full duplex essentially useless, at least for satellite work, so that feature wasn't a major factor in my decision.
All in all, after a couple of weeks with the G7T, I am not dissatisfied with its performance as a triband HT. It seems at least as good as my old IC-T81A on 1200, though due to the scarcity of 23cm repeaters here in the northeast I haven't had a repeater QSO with it yet, just tested it out on simplex with the T81. I *can* get into the one 1.2 machine that is within reach of one of my QTHs (my T81A gets in too), but no one has answered my repeated calls yet, so I can't get a real signal report.
Performance on 2m and 70cm seems competent as well. The audio is fantastic, battery life is great and the HT just feels solid and enjoyable to use. I was already used to the slightly quirky user interface from the G29T so I quickly came up to speed with the very similar G7T.
The really big disappointment for me is that the DJ-G7 isn't very good -- honestly, is lousy -- as a wideband receiver. It's got birdies and image signals all over the place -- scanning is an exercise in futility. Ham repeaters and broadcast FM signals in the AM air band -- public safety FM in the 6m band -- it's a mess.
And, while it's advertised as continuously tuning 0.5-1300 continuously and supporting AM, FM, and WFM, the truth is less impressive. It supports only WFM in what it thinks of as the VHF/UHF broadcast bands -- this means for example that in large metro areas such as NYC where frequencies in the 470-480MHz range (UHF TV channels 14 and 15) are used for public safety radio, the DJ-G7T will not let you listen to those frequencies, because it insists on switching to WFM mode (and channelizing the VFO). Similarly, forget bringing this to Europe and listening in on the 4M (70MHz) amateur band -- the DJ-G7T will receive WFM only there. WFM only in the 800Mhz band too. This is so short-sighted that I can barely believe that Alinco messed this up so badly. WFM is essentially useless in the television bands anyway now that TV has moved to digital -- something that was already a done deal by the time the DJ-G7 was introduced. And as spectrum is reallocated from the VHF and UHF TV broadcast bands to other uses, the DJ-G7 won't be able to receive it (true, it's not likely to be carrying analog FM anyway, but...)
Anyway, this HT's performance as a wide-band receiver is a disappointment to me. I suppose it might be useful in a pinch (so long as you're not trying to, say, listen to the police dispatch in New York City) but it won't replace a good scanner.
So, in summary -- nice solid triband HT, good modern way to get on 1.2, but don't be fooled by the alleged wideband receive or for that matter by the full-duplex functionality; these features don't cut the mustard.
I'm not sorry I bought it (especially at the price I paid) but I'm not in love with it. It's still starting to replace the IC-T81A as my travel HT, because it complements the DJ-G29T that I also like to carry, and while the T81A can do 6m that's not not all that useful most places I go. (And the T81A is missing some other things, e.g. DPL.) Between the G7T and the G29T I've got 144, 220, 440, 900 and 1200, and they can share batteries and charger (and other accessories such as programming cables). |
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| AC5PS |
Rating:     |
2014-05-11 | |
| Wanting to try 1.2ghz |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Well I never made a contact on 1.2, not because of the radio but instead of paper repeaters. But as for a 2m / 70cm transceiver and a scanner I think it does a good job. The 1200mah batteries don't last very long and since I don't have to change or reprogram very often I have to get the manual out if I have to do so. |
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| AD0AM |
Rating:      |
2013-07-22 | |
| Great Tribander |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I have owned this radio for a few months now and am really impressed in all the stuff packed into it. I don't see any reason you would have to hook up to a computer as the computer software only programs the memory channels that I can do myself. The reason I bought this is the price along with it having 1.2GHz, not 220. And also thw wide recieve. I keep learning more and more cool stuff about this radio and have found that keeping the manual close does help until you start remembering how to set it up. Definately a radio I would recommend to anyone wanting a multi band HT and is like me in an area that has no 220 repeaters or use. Other great use would be for satellites. You don't see too many with 1.2 anymore. But Awsome Radio. |
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| N4ZBO |
Rating:  |
2013-07-10 | |
| not good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This has got to be the worst h/t I have ever owned.
I have 3 of the baofeng ht's I fell that thay are in a lot of ways as good or better than alnico dj-g7.... I just got it and it is not a rig you can do much with out having the computer soft ware or usb cable...I will call alnico and see what thay can tell me and if thay can't tell me any thing if not then it will go back to where I got it....
I will rewright this review later.... |
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