Alinco: Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio

[w2xq]

HVDN Notebook: Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio

From the Hudson Valley Digital Network, a comprehensive review of Alinco's new DMR portable is, IMO, an interesting read. A "teardown" article is forthcoming.

 

[N4KVE]

I played with one at Dayton. Very easy to program a freq, TS, CC, & TG from the keypad. Interesting to see how this radio turns out.

 

[djs13pa]

Important thing to consider. Chinese firms haven’t a NA service capability. Alonso does.


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[N4KVE]

Important thing to consider. Chinese firms haven’t a NA service capability. Alonso does.

Excellent point anyone considering a dual band DMR radio should consider.

 

[N9PBD]

The accompanying teardown article is here: HVDN Notebook: Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review

 

[kb9hgi]

I have one of the Alinco DJ-MD5 with gps so far so good love this radio

 

[Hans13]

So far, I really like the DJ-MD5TGP. APRS on analog would be nice.

I wish Alinco or Anytone would develop a very large capacity battery for this and the DJ-500. (The Anytone 3318UV-A, DJ-500T/TB, and DJ-MD5/TGP all share battery compatibility.)

I had one incident that I am trying to duplicate and figure out; assuming it wasn't a one off. I was having a somewhat long conversation on a DMR repeater. GPS was on. I relocated to a part of the house that might have blocked GPS after previously having a GPS lock. I received an SMS while transmitting. The SMS notification showed up and when I let go of the PTT, the radio reset. After it came back up, I read the SMS. Each time I hit the PTT and let go, the radio reset. I turned the radio off and back on. It hasn't done it since but I also haven't been able to duplicate the situation again.

 

[Hans13]

Does anyone know what happened to the HVDN Notebook links? They haven't worked for several days.

ETA: I went from the home page and found this, HVDN Notebook: Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review. I guess the link moved?

 

[Hans13]

Another observation... I haven't been able to assign anything else to one of the two side button if it is programmed for analog monitor (open squelch). I tried setting it at long press and at short press. I have tried to set it alongside other options for the buttons but no joy. On the DJ-500, you can set the monitor to momentary or lock on and off. On the DJ-MD5/TGP, momentary is the only option as far as I can tell.

 

[Golay]

So Hans13, a question. I seen a video on this radio. The scan rate looked to me, by watching the video, as slow as a UV-5R.
On my Beofeng, it seems to take 10 seconds to scan 40 channels. To me, that's kind of a big deal.
Seeing as you have one, can you confirm or deny the scan rate being comparable to the UV-5R?
Thanks.

 

[Hans13]

I scanned once on analog and it seemed very slow; UV-5R and DJ-500 slow. I have to set up an analog and a digital scan list to verify. When I do, I will post back.

 

[dazey77]

I picked one up as well and indeed its scanning is slow, similar to a Baofeng or CS-580

I havent got SMS to work yet. going between Hytera radios in Hytera mode and DMR standard mode I can send from the alinco to the hyteras (either format seems to work) but can't seem to receive any messages.

 

[Hans13]

@dazey77 Are you trying simplex, repeater, hotspot, or all for SMS?

 

[dazey77]

Was trying simplex. I must give it a try with my openspot too but not got around to that yet.

 

[hardsuit]

Personally, I want Alinco to make the DJ-MD5T into a Modern Digital scanner/Receiver, just use the Case and Screen as is but only add a Receiver board with a SDR chipset. Receiver board should be Similar to ICOM having Continious Coverage from 100 khz - 1300 or 3000 mhz. as to it a SD card reader and User Defined memory like Whistler, no pre set Banks of Channels, as a Alinco Receiver, it should do CW, SSB as well as all of the HAM Digital modes out of the BOX. it should receive P25, NXDN and DMR as well. If Alinco builds this I would buy one, given Alinco Receiver history.

 

[dazey77]

A little update to my DJ MD5 SMS lack of inter-op!
I have finally managed to get a sms message into the DJ-MD5 but only from an openspot (using ETSI)
I havent got a single message from another radio to the DJ-MD5. This includes a motorola (in DMR standard mode, not motorola), hytera in DMR standard mode and hytera in hytera mode. The motorola and hytera in DMR standard communicate just fine between themselves.
have tried private and group messages with no luck.
I can send from Alinco to hytera but not the other way around.

I also can't exchange any GPS info between Hytera and Alinco. I get a 'failed' if I try to get the alinco position from the hytera. If I try and get the hytera position from the Alinco it sends a text message to the hytera with lots of squares. Got to love standards. . . .

 

[Hans13]

That's odd about SMS. I have been able to send back and forth between different manufacturer radios without issue. I am using a repeater directly instead of a hot spot. IIRC, we were also successful sending simplex. Sorry if I asked before but do you have your SMS type set properly at Brandmeister dashboard (or, I guess, anywhere else it might need setting for repeater/hot spot operation)?

 

[dazey77]

I am going simplex between radios, I have not been going via a repeater. I am sure going through brandmeister would work.


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[chief21]

I wish Alinco or Anytone would develop a very large capacity battery for this and the DJ-500. (The Anytone 3318UV-A, DJ-500T/TB, and DJ-MD5/TGP all share battery compatibility.)

Anytone offers a 3100 mAh battery as standard with their AT-D878uv. Is this battery compatible?

 

[dazey77]

Firmware 1.10 up on remtronix. New CPS has a broken link to the firmware update tool so the instructions don't work but the update tool is in the applications directory and works if you envoke it manually. If you install cps 1.10 on top of 1.01 and then delete 1.01 it deletes stuff you need for 1.10 so you need to reinstall 1.10. Not exactly smooth but works and seems to add APRS functions.