Subject: DJ-580 HT review/info (long)

From: [email-masked] (Dale Mosby)
Date: 13 Mar 92 16:43:10 GMT

I mailed information on the new Alinco dual band hand-held, the DJ-580T
to a couple folks that had enquired about them.  These people had some
requests for the information, so decided that I'd just post it.  This
is not intended to be a complete review of the radio, just information
I had e-mailed.

Note: I posted a couple weeks ago about a stolen DJ-160, the 2 meter
Alinco.  I had a few e-mail responses to that post.  It was stolen by
a brother of one of the Girl Scouts in my Daughter's troop.  We now
have it back -- returned after two weeks, one day before I was going
to mail a claim to the ARRL insurance.

The DJ-580 dual band radio is one of the "small" hand helds, not the
smallest thing out but a very nice size.  I think it has a nice solid
feel to it.  Display shows both VHF & UHF frequencies, as well as
indication for which band is receiving a signal.  Lighted keyboard.
Built in CTCSS encode and decode, as well as tone paging.

I purchased my first DJ-580 from Amateur Radio Supply in Seattle (ARS)
at the ham fair in Washington.  Price was $399.  After playing with it
for a weekend I decided that it was a great radio and I purchased
another one for my wife.  The second one was from Ham Radio Outlet
(HRO) in Tigard, Oregon.  Price there was also $399.

At a ham fair in Salem a couple weeks ago Electro-Comm (a small Alinco
only dealer in Washington) sold out of their 580s and had not yet
received new ones.  At the ham fair last week ARS had just received
them -- I don't know how many they got, but every time I passed
their booth I saw someone buying one.  HRO has had two shipments of
10 each, and after I got mine they had one left.  These things seem
to be popular.

They use a battery specific to Alinco.  The battery is *MUCH* improved
over the DJ-160 (2 meter only) radio.  On the DJ-160 the battery can be
easily removed when the radio is stressed in a purse or backpack.  This
doesn't break it, but is a nuisance.  On the DJ-580 the connection
seems quite secure.  It comes with a drop in charger -- standard slow
charge.  I think there is a fast charger for it.  Standard battery is
7.2 volt 700 ma nicad.

I measured the current draw, and with a single band turned on it
draws about 60 ma, and with both bands on 100 ma (squelch not broken
of course).  With the battery saver feature you should get about 60
percent improvement on power consumption.  In battery save you listen
for 130 ms and then drop to standby power for 390 ms.  Unfortunately
it is not easy for me to measure the power used in this standby setting
but I'd guess that it averages out to perhaps a 60 percent savings.

Only thing I worry about a bit with Alinco is that they seem to come
out with a neat new model each year.  The 580 is a clear winner over
the 560 dual band.  Don't know what they will have next year, but
perhaps the 580 is selling well enough that they will stick with it
a while.  Anyway, hope they decide that this is a good
battery design and keep it.

We did put this on a signal generator and it was a bit more sensitive
than the Yaesu FT470 (think that is their small dual bander) we also
had with us.  I hadn't made the out of band mods yet so couldn't
check sensitivity out of band.  I do know that many of the radios
will display out of band but are not sensitive enough to actually
pick up anything.  The 580 does seem to receive out of band quite
well.  As I say though, I don't have any info on intermod rejection.

I was asked about modification of the DJ-580 for out of band operation.
They couldn't have made it much easier:

- Remove battery pack.
  Use a small philips screwdriver (ie. jeweler size) to remove the 4 screws
  that hold the metal battery slide on the radio.  These are at the outer 
  corners of the metal clip.
- Gently lift off the metal clip.  Note that the two power wires are
  on this so don't pull it too far off.  Also note that there is a small
  metal tab on this clip that is inserted in the battery release slide.
  You will want to insert it back in the same hole when you replace the
  metal clip.
- You will see a small RED wire loop as well as a small BLUE wire loop.
  You can gently pull these up with some needle nose pliers.  Cut the
  loops and then cover the ends so they don't contact anything.  My
  method was to cut them not quite at the top, so one wire was a bit
  longer than the other.  I then slipped a small piece of heat shrink
  tubing over the wires so the ends could not contact each other again.
  This is probably adequate. I took a CLEAN soldering iron and used that
  to shrink the tubing a bit just so it wouldn't move.
- Push the wire loops back into the radio.  The metal battery clip will
  push up against the circuit board running down the center of the radio
  so you don't want the wire loops crossing over the circuit board.
- Replace the metal plate -- remember to stick the projection into the
  small hole on the battery release slide.
- Replace the battery pack and reset the radio.  You reset the radio by
  holding the function key down and turning on the power.  Note that 
  this clears all memories, so make the mod early -- this thing has
  40 memory channels - a lot to reprogram.

I cut both jumpers.  Documentation I have, as well as verbal instructions
was that the RED jumper opens up the out of band receive -- aircraft
and cellular, while the BLUE wire opens up the out of band transmit.
You certainly can't transmit in the aircraft or 800 band, I don't
know just what transmit limits are, don't have any reason to stray
outside of the ham band.

Also, the default memory set up is 20 channels for VHF and 20 for UHF.
You can allocate these differently if you wish, for example 30 VHF
and 10 UHF.  The manual describes this procedure.  The manual that
comes with it isn't too bad -- at least not for the "simple" stuff.
I don't know if it does a good job of describing things like cross
band repeat.  If you get one of these radios contact jay Appell at
[email-masked] and tell him you have a 580 and would like
to have him e-mail you a manual.  He has one in progress now.  I
have the first draft and it is pretty good.  Think the second draft
will be out in a month or so.

73, Dale.

-- 
  [email-masked]         OR      uunet!sequent!dale
  Dale Mosby   503-578-9842  N7PEX  // Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
  15450 SW Koll Parkway             // Beaverton, Or.  97006-6063