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Technical Information on Equipment Click here or on the logo above for the main Alinco web site Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ Maintained by Robert Meister WA1MIK

Contact information:
	Alinco USA Inc. As of March 2009 Alinco's USA distributor / service / parts is GRE Corporation (the OEM scanner manufacturer). You can contact GRE America at: GRE America Inc. 425 Harbor Blvd Suite C Belmont, CA Ph: 650-591-1400 M-F   8a-5p (Pacific Time). E-mail: alincoparts /at/ greamerica /dot/ com If you are driving there they are near the corner of Harbor Bl. and Industrial Road, between the 101 freeway and El Camino Real.		Alinco Japan Alinco, Incorporated Yodoyabashi Dai-Bldg 13F 4-4-9 Koraibashi, Chuo-ku Osaka 541-0043 Japan

Alinco USA appears to have an attitude problem with no customer support contact method on their web site, or even with an hour of looking around on the internet. The address, phone number and email address above were acquired via a friend in the industry.
To their credit they have downloadable manuals and programming software on their web site, but no address or phone number.

The contents of this page, like most here at www.repeater-builder.com, are totally dependent on donations of information. If anyone has anything that is NOT at the Alinco web site, don't hesitate to scan it and send it in. If you have a hint or a useful trick please consider writing it up and sending it in.

Modifications and Other Articles

The DR135TE, DR-235T and DR-435TE radios are popular with the IRLP folks as they are inexpensive. Unfortunately the internal CTCSS decoder has very poor performance. I mean it is really bad - it's slow to open and can take from 1/2 second to as long as four seconds (!) to close. Glen Roe WA6MHA uses one as a point-to-point link from an IRLP node to the local repeater. He ended up disabling the internal decoder and adding a TS 64 Decoder. He documented the procedure here (a local copy), or you can go to http://www.irlpcables.com/AlincoTS64.html for the original writeup (offsite link).

Microphone Jack Pinout

Many Alinco radios use a round 8 pin mic jack with 7 pins around the outside and one in the middle. Click here for a photo. There are tiny numbers molded into the plastic on the plug and jack. Several Alinco and Kenwood radios use this pinout: 1 Mic audio 2 PTT 3 Down button 4 Up button 5 +5VDC out (for DTMF encoder, keypad backlight, or both) 6 Audio output (paralleled with the speaker jack) 7 Mic audio ground (the shield of pin 1) 8 Ground for PTT, up and down buttons, speaker audio and 5vDC

Many radios that use the 8-pin modular mic jack ("RJ-45" style) use this pinout: With the locking tab down, and looking into the connector or at the back of the plug the pins are numbered from left to right. 1 +8v DC out (max is 10mA) 2 CLO (data out for PC programming) 3 AFO 4 PTT (input port for transmitter control. DTMF sent on this pin will control the radio.) 5 Mic audio GND 6 Mic audio 7 GND for PTT 8 CLI (data in for PC programming)

"Data" Jack Pinout

Many Alinco radios have a DE-9 connector on the back of the radio. When the EJ-41/U optional TNC board (for the DR-135, DR-235, DR-435, or DR06 radios) is not installed the ribbon cable from the connector is plugged into the control board and audio, COR and PTT signals appear on the pins as per the left side pinout below for connection to an external TNC. When the EJ-41U board is installed the ribbon cable is moved to that board and the pinout changes to the right hand list below. The EJ-41/U instruction manual is here and a photo is here. Note that the EJ-41/U designed to fill the basic packet communication functions, such as keyboard operations and APRS. For more elaborate operations requiring KISS mode, digipeater mailbox functions or node operations, do not use the EJ-41/U, instead use an external TNC like a KPC, an AEA, etc.
Without EJ-41/U optional TNC board 1 COR signal, open collector, active low. Use a 10K resisitor from this pin to pin 8 as a pull-up resistor. 2 Receiver audio output. The audio on this pin is not de-emphasized. Used for 9600 baud packet data. 3 Transmitter audio input. The audio on this pin is not pre-emphasized. Used for 9600 baud packet data. 4 Receiver audio output. The audio on this pin is de-emphasized. Used for 1200 baud packet. 5 Ground 6 No connection 7 PTT input 8 +5vDC out, max current is 50 mA. 9 Transmitter audio input. The audio on this pin is pre-emphasized. Used for 1200 baud packet.		With EJ-41/U optional TNC board 1 Leave unused 2 Serial data in from computer 3 Serial data out to computer 4 Leave unused 5 Ground 6 Leave unused 7 Leave unused 8 Leave unused 9 Leave unused

Heavily Biased Personal Opinion:

I do not recommend Alinco mobiles for use as a point-to-point link radio or as a repeater transmit radio. Buy a used YaeComWood or even a Motorola GM300 - but watch the duty cycle. Why? For one, the CTCSS decoder in the Alinco is slow to decode and does not release properly. Adding an outside decoder (like a Communications Specialists TS-64) fixes that but why should the customer have to buy another piece of hardware to patch Alinco's bad design?
Alinco should fix their design - or copy the one in the cheapest Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom - any of those does a better job. It's not a difficult design, even my old Motrac did it better, and it was built in 1962, 50 years ago.

Secondly, the Alincos seem to work when new, but you have to leave them in carrier squelch. Plus, over time I have had nothing but trouble. I was helping a gentleman that was putting up a 2m repeater on a extreme budget. It took an original and three replacement radios over 17 months at one location before we got something that lasted - and no, we were not abusing the duty cycle, nor was the operational temperature out of spec (how do you abuse the duty cycle on a UHF control receiver?)

Manuals and other Literature

The official source for manuals is Alinco Manuals Download Page at Alincos own web site (offsite link) However the documentation on some of the older radios and other equipment are no longer there...

	DJ-180 and DJ-480 Instruction Manual   485 KB PDF Single band handhelds, 2m and 440 MHz
	DJ-296T Service Notes   501 KB PDF A 220 Mhz handheld
	DJ-G29T Instruction Manual   2.7 MB PDF Dual band handheld, 220 and 902 MHz
	DJ-G29T Service Manual   3.6 MB PDF Dual band handheld, 220 and 902 MHz
	DR-06T, DR-M06R, DR-135LH, DR-03T, DR-M03R Instruction Manual   1.22 MB PDF (undated) The DR-03 radios are 10m, the DR-06 is 6m, the DR-135LH is 40-45 MHz (non-USA). The "T" models are shipped with DTMF microphones. All radios covered by this manual except the DR-06T are wideband only. The DR-06T can run wide or narrow and also has an internal TNC.
	DR-135, DR-235 and DR-435 Service Manual   5.3 MB PDF dated 2000 Single band mobiles, 2m, 220 and 440 MHz
	DR-135FX and DR-435FX Service Manual   2.1 MB PDF (undated)
	DR-135T/E, DR-235T and DR-435T/E Instruction Manual   680 KB PDF Copyright 2000 Single band 2m, 220 or 440 mobiles
	DR-235T Mark III Service Manual   1.6 MB PDF (undated)
	DR-135T/E Mk III, DR-135FXE, DR435T/E Mk III, DR-435FXE Instruction Manual   1.23 MB PDF   (undated)
	DR-570: Instruction Manual 640 KB PDF       Service Manual 2.6 MB PDF
	DR-600 operators manual   260 KB PDF
	DR-610 service manual   2.6 MB PDF
	DR-620 service manual   6.9 MB PDF
	DR-1200 Data Radio   Instruction Manual   175 KB PDF file         Service Manual   1.03 MB PDF file     Both are courtesy of David Leeper K6DWL The user manual says that this radio is specifically designed for packet. Unfortunately the audio output pin on the mic jack is speaker audio (i.e. low impedance and it varies with the position of the volume control) so you have to be real careful with the level going into the TNC. If it had been line level out it would have been a lot better. There is a little common info between the two manuals, so you will want to download both. The service manual has a full parts list but no schematic, only a block diagram and some rather poor board layouts. Does anyone have a real schematic?
	DM-1350 Power Supply complete schematic   36.7 KB PDF file