Turbo68
Member
Hi Fred have u done this on your Alinco DX-R8..
Regards Lino..
Regards Lino..
Alinco R8T review
- Thread starter ka3jjz
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Yes....However as I noted in my reply, The frequency step changes that you make, will NOT be operational when using the Tuning Knob for scanning a frequency band.....the step change ONLY works when you use the "Up or Down arrow buttons" to scan a frequency band.
Fred
Fred
Last edited:
Turbo68
Member
Hi Fred thats what i thought all of my other receivers can change the steps to what ever u want except the alincos which is strange for some thing that most people would use to tune with the rotary knob..
Regards Lino..
Regards Lino..
yes it would be nice to be able to change the tuning steps of the knob!!!
NB on Alinco's is not their strong suit.
Just forget that button is there. Then again, we are loop fanatics, so that in itself might be better than a noise blanker.It might soften the blow from the spark plugs from a neighbors leaf blower, but that's about it...
I was just hoping that someone with better eyesight than mine might be able to identify a resistor or some other simple mod that would make the vfo step a little faster.
In the meantime, the best I can do is set the button step for about 2.5khz, and use the buttons that way to sweep roughly across the band, and hone in when I get close to something interesting with the vfo knob.
In the meantime, the best I can do is set the button step for about 2.5khz, and use the buttons that way to sweep roughly across the band, and hone in when I get close to something interesting with the vfo knob.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be a R8T yahoo group - yet. However there is one for the transceiver that it's based from, and I wouldn't doubt that there are many similarities
Yahoo Groups
Mike
Yahoo Groups
Mike
MarkWestin
Member
KD8ZCM
Member
Thinking about buy one of these. Besides the 12v power cable that come with this, looking to see if there is a mounting bracket that comes with this? I have seen photos of looks likes mounting points on the side of the radio.
Deboradio
Member
I ordered mine last night....I wanted to get a R75, but due to some issues in the end I decided to get this.
Deboradio
Member
I used the Alinco DX R8 while in Oman and it is a very solid radio, depsite the fact that I needed a good Antenna. Now I am in KSA and the radio is back in my home country which is Cyprus...
Overall I can say that the radio is an excellent stand alone desktop receiver with all the possible functions one would wish for. I have listened to many distant shortwave broadcasts on it, although I wasn't able to locate and SSB signals. It is a beautiful looking radio with a quality feel to it.
My only criticism of this radio is the small number buttons and the inability to traverse a big tune change easily. The tiny up down arrow buttons have to be used and this may be awkward to some especially if your fingers are thick.
Overall I can say that the radio is an excellent stand alone desktop receiver with all the possible functions one would wish for. I have listened to many distant shortwave broadcasts on it, although I wasn't able to locate and SSB signals. It is a beautiful looking radio with a quality feel to it.
My only criticism of this radio is the small number buttons and the inability to traverse a big tune change easily. The tiny up down arrow buttons have to be used and this may be awkward to some especially if your fingers are thick.
bongobilly
Member
DXer.ca
Hello.
I see again that knowbody has mentioned how to turn or off the front facing led.
Bongbilly
Hello.
I see again that knowbody has mentioned how to turn or off the front facing led.
Bongbilly
How about a 4 year followup?
Sold the gear a few years ago, and guess that I liked the rig so much I bought it *again*, warts and all. This time, I'm leaving it alone and enjoying it for what it is - and not trying to turn it into something it's not.
Same as before, only no chuffing from the vfo, which was very very light. Must have been an early one before. Very pleased now.
IF-shift: something not mentioned before is the importance of slightly tweaking your IF shift just a hair off dead center or so when you go between usb / lsb for best sound. Or whatever floats your boat. Most know this..
However some reviews have stated that the 1K narrow filter is useless on ssb as being too narrow. Not so! The ceramic has wide enough slopes that it can fake a narrow 1.9k or so filter on other rigs. BUT, you must manually center the filter response with the IF shift when you activate the narrow filter on ssb. It is a very fine adjustment, but once there, you'll know it. Thing is, it usually takes some activity on the band to fine tune this narrow filter just right. You'll know it easily enough when you hear it.
Dxer.ca - re the led.... on the rx-only version, the led can be turned off easily enough from the setting menu. Something you can't do on the transceiver version.
After all these years sure wish that instead of sdr (I have better receivers for that), they would have updated to a faster vfo knob. Oh well, I'll have to deal with it.
I think the Alinco's are still a good value for their price-point - although one can always walk themselves up the "for $50 more you can do this" ladder.
Sold the gear a few years ago, and guess that I liked the rig so much I bought it *again*, warts and all. This time, I'm leaving it alone and enjoying it for what it is - and not trying to turn it into something it's not.
Same as before, only no chuffing from the vfo, which was very very light. Must have been an early one before. Very pleased now.
IF-shift: something not mentioned before is the importance of slightly tweaking your IF shift just a hair off dead center or so when you go between usb / lsb for best sound. Or whatever floats your boat. Most know this..
However some reviews have stated that the 1K narrow filter is useless on ssb as being too narrow. Not so! The ceramic has wide enough slopes that it can fake a narrow 1.9k or so filter on other rigs. BUT, you must manually center the filter response with the IF shift when you activate the narrow filter on ssb. It is a very fine adjustment, but once there, you'll know it. Thing is, it usually takes some activity on the band to fine tune this narrow filter just right. You'll know it easily enough when you hear it.
Dxer.ca - re the led.... on the rx-only version, the led can be turned off easily enough from the setting menu. Something you can't do on the transceiver version.
After all these years sure wish that instead of sdr (I have better receivers for that), they would have updated to a faster vfo knob. Oh well, I'll have to deal with it.
I think the Alinco's are still a good value for their price-point - although one can always walk themselves up the "for $50 more you can do this" ladder.
CW ops: forgot to mention regarding the IF shift for cw whether it's the R8T or the transceiver version..
For cw operations, one needs to take the IF shift just a *smidgen* off the center detent. It is tempting to leave it centered like that, BUT
What happens is that you will hear the other side of the slope briefly as you tune through just a little bit. Ie, full signal, the you tune through zero-beat, and very briefly the other side of the slope.
Moving the IF shift just a hair off the center detent prevents that, so after zero-beat, you hear nothing like you are supposed to. More expensive rigs automatically do filter offsets.
That's what I like about the Alinco - you just need to "drive it" a little for best performance.
For cw operations, one needs to take the IF shift just a *smidgen* off the center detent. It is tempting to leave it centered like that, BUT
What happens is that you will hear the other side of the slope briefly as you tune through just a little bit. Ie, full signal, the you tune through zero-beat, and very briefly the other side of the slope.
Moving the IF shift just a hair off the center detent prevents that, so after zero-beat, you hear nothing like you are supposed to. More expensive rigs automatically do filter offsets.
That's what I like about the Alinco - you just need to "drive it" a little for best performance.
When I sold my gear, I also got rid of my old standby speaker - Yaesu SP-8. Like all manufacturer speakers, it is waay over-priced. I tried to justify it as a 20 year purchase, especially when the speaker is half the cost of the Alinco alone!
This time round, I picked up the Yaesu SP-2000 and it performs just as well. For the first few years, I kind of cringe at the cost, but trust me, it gets easier over time.
The point here being that I really like the selectable *passive* audio filtration - the Alinco R8T only runs about 580ma on rx, and hanging a dsp box on it that draws an amp or more kind of defeats the purpose. Might as well get a more upscale rig with all of that included.
If you are using the IF shift as a major tone-control, then consider a 20-year cost-justified purchase of a speaker with selectable passive filtration. In the case of very old new-old-stock, or a hamvention find, you may want to replace the two electrolytic caps inside.
If Alinco is listening, how about a more up-front, cost effective matching external speaker with passive filtration? My external Yaesu SP-2000 speaker really makes the Alinco shine, but many won't realize how good it can be when manufacturer speakers cost half of what the R8T does by itself!
This time round, I picked up the Yaesu SP-2000 and it performs just as well. For the first few years, I kind of cringe at the cost, but trust me, it gets easier over time.
The point here being that I really like the selectable *passive* audio filtration - the Alinco R8T only runs about 580ma on rx, and hanging a dsp box on it that draws an amp or more kind of defeats the purpose. Might as well get a more upscale rig with all of that included.
If you are using the IF shift as a major tone-control, then consider a 20-year cost-justified purchase of a speaker with selectable passive filtration. In the case of very old new-old-stock, or a hamvention find, you may want to replace the two electrolytic caps inside.
If Alinco is listening, how about a more up-front, cost effective matching external speaker with passive filtration? My external Yaesu SP-2000 speaker really makes the Alinco shine, but many won't realize how good it can be when manufacturer speakers cost half of what the R8T does by itself!
Mode-change tip:
Blowing your ears out when you switch to step through modes between AM/FM/USB/LSB etc? Forgetting that if you press and hold the mode button, it will flash and you can up/down arrow to do so and not blow out your ears - yet you STILL get it wrong like I do?
Heh - the foolproof way is to SQUELCH, change modes, and UNsquelch. Save your ears.
Misc - even though the R8T receiver obviously does not have an 8 pin microphone plug, behind the missing plug are the open solder holes to accept one if you take the faceplate apart. While there is no way to transmit (hi!), you may find the up/down pinout useful for your own use if you like to step through the bands manually like I do.
I might fully take the faceplate apart, drill out the hole for a microphone plug, just so I can easily use that for an external up/down switch, rather than mash and hold the up down buttons on the faceplate. There's always the scanning feature, but sometimes I like to "spin and grin" my way around.
Initially I tested this when I put the DX-SR8T transceiver face-plate on the receiver. Aside from the obvious differences in function button features, and the inability to transmit of course, the receiver worked with the transceiver faceplate. That's when I opened up the receiver faceplate and tried shorting the empty up/down traces to the center ground. Works fine.
Blowing your ears out when you switch to step through modes between AM/FM/USB/LSB etc? Forgetting that if you press and hold the mode button, it will flash and you can up/down arrow to do so and not blow out your ears - yet you STILL get it wrong like I do?
Heh - the foolproof way is to SQUELCH, change modes, and UNsquelch. Save your ears.
Misc - even though the R8T receiver obviously does not have an 8 pin microphone plug, behind the missing plug are the open solder holes to accept one if you take the faceplate apart. While there is no way to transmit (hi!), you may find the up/down pinout useful for your own use if you like to step through the bands manually like I do.
I might fully take the faceplate apart, drill out the hole for a microphone plug, just so I can easily use that for an external up/down switch, rather than mash and hold the up down buttons on the faceplate. There's always the scanning feature, but sometimes I like to "spin and grin" my way around.
Initially I tested this when I put the DX-SR8T transceiver face-plate on the receiver. Aside from the obvious differences in function button features, and the inability to transmit of course, the receiver worked with the transceiver faceplate. That's when I opened up the receiver faceplate and tried shorting the empty up/down traces to the center ground. Works fine.
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