Alinco DR-610 Desense

I have an Alinco DR-610 that I've had for years and now use it as a backup/portable base radio.

I've noticed that in weak VHF signal applications, the left side of the radio has good sensitivity, but the right side of the radio has decreased VHF sensitivity on the same frequency. I've tested this with several frequencies (146.760 repeater on Mazourka Peak when I'm in the Owens Valley and 162.525 weather radio in SoCal). Both are low level signals showing only one bar on the left side S meter and no bar on the right side.

The left side will break squelch on the lowest squelch setting while the right side will not. I've fully reset the radio and made sure the attenuator isn't active on the right side. I also checked under the hood for loose screws or obviously bad solder joints and couldn't find any problems.

I have not noticed this on UHF.

Any ideas?

Roger
N6YDT

In my experience with all brands of dual band dual receive radios when I try to receive VHF on the UHF side, it's not quite as good. Similarly when I receive UHF on the VHF side, it's also not as good. I can't really tell the difference when the signal is good, but when the signal is weak, VHF is weaker on the UHF side, & UHF is weaker on the VHF side. Hope this helps.

My 610s were like that since new. Yes, it can receive VHF on the UHF side, but with some loss..

Thanks MOONBOOTS and n9mxq. That confirms my suspicion.
I'll have to do weak signal VHF on the VHF side.

Roger

Have fun, great little radio. Still have one, but the UHF final is toasted. Had it on Echolink during a shuttle mission and the 5 inch cooling fan quit on me..