I've never done any work on the 1.25m band, so I decided to go all in and pick up a mobile transceiver. I didn't think this would be as hard as it was but the fact is, there are not many choices at the moment. I did see a Kenwood TM-331A on the usual auction site but it was priced high. There was another from outside the USA but its price was also quite high.
For new radios, I could only find a couple of options, but I wanted quality gear, so I chose the 50w Alinco DR-CS25T. As you can see from my picture, its physical design is compact and lightweight. The buttons and controls are arranged fairly well. The push & hold power button is good but the mic barrel can inhibit the press depending on the angle of your finger. I really didn't think it'd be a problem but (after mounting) it started to become a little annoying.
[Beware of the multi-band mobile transceiver. Most of them do NOT provide full power output on 1.25m]
I have the transceiver plugged into a ESP-12 Uniden speaker. It's a no-frill speaker but it can output pretty good sound. It's approximately 6 feet behind me in my SUV's trunk area. The CS-25 does a few things really well (and some not so well) but let's focus on the good. The audio quality is excellent! I am very impressed with the audio quality. Frankly, it makes the annoying issues fade away very quickly into the back of the mind.
I had a brief simplex QSO and while the other party was running only 5w, we talked as if out vehicles were side-by-side. (He was approximately 5 miles to the W-SW of my location.) The audio was crisp and very clear. Whomever did the audio tuning should get a pay raise. (Note the audio sounds great using internal or external speaker.)
One of my pet peeves about mobile rigs is the microphone. A bad microphone can really ruin the overall experience. I was very nervous about the Alinco microphone (given its appearance) but thankfully this was completely unfounded. It works very well and has one of the best PTT switches on the market. Its cable can be slightly annoying -- I think it's just tight and needs to get some use -- but the force of the cable can twist the mic body. So it kind of fights you some times. The Kenwood mic in the picture is the best microphone I've ever used.
The other key positive to this rig is its overall function. It does work and seems to perform well. Getting the radio to that state can be a challenge but overall it's not that bad. It just takes some patience. (Not my strong suit.)
One note about programming. It requires a USB to microphone cable and while Alinco offered a cable for sale, they don't any longer. You have two choices: build your own OR purchase a high-quality cable from RT Systems. (I did the later for just over $30.) You probably won't need it very much but it does make adding text much easier. I finished my codeplug of about 36 entries in an hour.
I'll sum this up to say that while the DR-CS25T is priced around $260 -- it should be sold for no more than $175-ish -- however its excellent audio makes up for it.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Positives: Excellent design/shape. Good placement of controls and buttons. 50w output. Excellent audio quality.
Negatives: User/menu interface. A lot of disabled features/options. Alinco CPS CS-25 programming software has too many QA issues (but it never crashed.) Requires USB to Mic programming cable -- despite USB micro rear port.
PS. I read somewhere that this specific transceiver was/is sold as a commercial unit by someone. This is evident everywhere as many features are disabled by Alinco as they didn't even bother to remove the text labels from the microphone. Lazy manufacturing but it was likely a cost-cutting decision.
