Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Dual Band DMR VHF/UHF HT Part 90 with GPS Transceiver

UPDATE: Aug-21-2019I own 3 of these now, and IMO the DJ-MD5 is arguably the best DMR radio under 200 dollars today. I also own 2 Anytone 878UV-GPS DMR and this thing is tiny compared to those Anytone bricks... oh, and the Aliunce HD-1? heck, that thing is bigger than a cellphone from the 80s...I am still impressed with the audio quality of this radio, even at 9 miles simplex base-to-ht, audio was clear; and I am sure with newer firmware the radio will get even better.It takes a little bit of tinkering to understand the DMR lingo, but once you grasp it, there is no going back to analog...--INITIAL REVIEWI just got this radio today, with GPS. So this is a "first impression" review rather than a long term one. I have yet to try the radio on DMR, only FM analogue, but I have to say that if the DMR portion is as good as the rest of the radio I think I am going to be keeping this radio.Also, this is not my first foray into a DMR radio, I've tried going DMR before with another DMR radio before, which was big, bulky and mediocre at best...But enough of the old stuff...The radio in itself is very small, compared to the cheapo imports that are the size of bricks, this radio is small, I would say that if you've held a TH-F6a in your hands this radio is just slightly bigger, HUGE WIN. No more 1980s cellphone-like device. Check.The screen quality is really good, I think it rivals top of the line flip phones made a decade ago, which is impressive for "a radio" at this price point. I lowered brightness to the min, still readable even in bright daylight.The radio menus, buttons an dials are VERY responsive, menus have no lag, you click, and it pops. Compared to the old DMR radio I tried this thing is a Ferrari. Firmware 1.05 came on it, and I haven't ventured into upgrading the firmware yet., again this is a first impression.The antenna is amazing without any tuning for the ham bands. I ran it on the analyzer and it comes to -40 dB return loss at 144 Mhz, which makes it the best rubberducky antenna I've ever tried on my T100+ analyzer, besting the amazing UV82 antenna I tested a long time ago. In 440 Mhz the antenna "puts out" a solid -15 dB return loss, which is pretty good too.All my other HT antennae are tuned and all put out respectable low -30s db return losses at around the same freq as this one. So the comparison in receiver performance was done against radios that have very similar performance to the stock antenna of this radio. The antenna alone is probably worth 1/4 the price of this radio... IMO.So we ran a quick NOAA test procedure vs. the TYT-8000E (I always carry that radio around) which is, probably, the best FM receiver I've encountered out of all these inexpensive radios (and I've tried a crapTON of these, trust me) The TYT-8000E is the closest to the almighty TH-F6a in terms of receiver performance on weak signals, out of band too.So I went through all the 10 NOAA stations, from 162.400 to 162.550 and found out the ones that cut out or the ones that don't open squelch at level 1 on both radios. The test was performed atop the hill located at the Pheasant Branch Conservancy, near Madison WI, at an altitude of 262 meters ASL according to the DJ-MD5 GPS, and the target frequency was 162.525Mhz, which opened the squelch on both radios but very intermittently. So, while the TYT-8000E squelch did in fact open, the audio signal wasn't really there, we tried moving the radio around but the audio wasn't getting any better. Enter the MD5... while the squelch was going in and out like the TYT, the actual signal was legible, and I was able to determine that this NOAA station was coming from Rockford IL, around 62 miles away!! I was impressed, very impressed. Specially when the last DMR radio I tried couldn't hear its way out a paper bag in VHF... We tried many other NOAA stations and the MD5 always came on top, it consistently produced better audio in every single test.... and while I have yet to pit it against the almighty TH-F6a, I suspect its going to be nearly identical in receiver performance and audio quality... which means, this radio is a keeper!All in all, a very capable radio. Hope this helps.G.

My impressions are more about the radio rather than the DMR protocol itself. A lot of people portray it as very complicated; I tend to disagree. If someone has IT background it would seem easy, albeit not very intuitive. One more evidence that hardware engineers cannot make software.The radio is very small and the screen is pretty bright with good resolution. The sound is very good.I tested with a repeater that is about 5mi away and the analog receiver is less sensitive than my BF-F8HP. Even if I open it the signal has more noise than the BF.GPS is a joke. It simply does not work in house, even on the 10th floor balcony. You have to be up in the mountain, in the open field to get a signal. If you still want this radio save yourself some $$$ and get the non-GPS model. A phone GPS is way better.There is no way to see the channel name and frequency at the same time. There is a way to switch between the two but it is cumbersome.Overall, the menu system is somewhat cumbersome - frequently used items are buried in sub menus. You can assign speed access to keys but for some reason you cannot do that for any menu item - the set is limited.Please realize that, while having color LCD is nice, it drains the battery faster than the non-backlit LCDs.The PC software has weird quirks. For example, combining two channel lists has to happen in Excel - importing one wipes out the other even if the channels do not overlap.Despite the claim in the menu, SMS does not follow Moto or Hytera standard. Good luck if you try to send/receive with those.I really wanted to like this radio, especially for its size. However, there are just too many weird things going on (mainly in the firmware) and the weak receiver was the nail in the coffin for me. BTW: Good luck finding support for this thing. Nether Alinco nor the distributor has that.

GigaParts (the actual vendor) wants customers, so they respond quickly and accurately. Really good!I'm doing this as a partial review from the things I've already learned.1) The "manual" is a farce. The first thing it does is to refer you to the distributor to get software and instructions.2) If this is your first excursion into DMR, learn a LOT about DMR before attempting to use this one.3) This guy is . . . small . . . but has amazing capacities. It will accommodate 250 Zones, with up to 250 channels in each zone! AMAZING!4) The one item I've found so far that is not what you would hope for is the cover for the speaker/microphone which I can NOT get to stay in place (I'll work on that).5) There are questions posted about Part 90 compliance. The real answer (that I've found so far) is that if a transceiver has FCC type acceptance for something outside of the Ham bands (in this case Part 90), AND covers some Ham spectrum, a licensed Ham Operator is allowed to use it IN the ham bands, with no other requirements.I'll add to this review as I find more information. So far, so good.

At the last club meeting we had an introductory session on DMR. Some members had units from multiple manufacturers. The overall opinion is the Alinco is the best. It may not be worth getting the model with GPS since the DMR networks prefer you turn it off in order to minimize network demand.

Probably the best of the handheld DMR radios out there. Easy to program with free software. Has a terrific battery that can monitor traffic for 36 hours continuous. I live 2 miles from a DMR repeater and have no issues with it. Great sound. Love the color screen. There is also a group.io that offers peer to peer support. Gigaparts got the order to me fast.

Great radio so far.

This Alinco DMR Radio was very easy to program and use. Nice compact size with nice clarity.

It’s good