Alinco DX-SR9 reviews

I read the previous review and do NOT agree at all. I recently purchase a like NEW DX-SR9T and works just fine. I have compared it on receive to my Yaesu FT-991a and I can hear the DX stations on both with about the same S meter reading. As far as transmit I get excellent audio reports with it. The previous review complained about no SWR meter built-in, well what HAM does not own a SWR/RF meter. The power adj. is not great but it does what it states. If you want a small rig for you RV or something to take to the park for operations it works just fine. As far as the screen being terrible, I find that the large numbers are excellent and the screen is bright and easy to view.

I will try to convey why buying this instead of a good rig is a very bad idea.

First off if you got it for free, then it's not too bad. As it's better then nothing

If you bought it for 200 from a ham that decided to upgrade to a real radio and sell this one super cheap to get rid of it . That is also not bad. Then maybe you can just keep this thing in a bag pack or something and use it as a punching bag or maybe bring it to field day and hook it up to a pre tuned 40 meter dipole and let the Newbies screw around with it for fun, might be okay

But for someone who is going to seriously buy this for their main mobile or desktop rig , don't . For one basic reason why in the heck would you buy this over a yaesu FT 450 ? I mean if you were going to spend 500 or 600 of your quality hard earned money on a HF rig why not spend just a little bit more and buy something that is really good and proven good. Pause , go to giga parts right now and look up the Yaesu FT 450.

This radio the FT 450 is so much better then the sr8/sr9t that it's a crying shame of a product for the amount of money they are being sold for .

If you were still not convinced let me explain a little bit about why the SR8/9t is not what you want to spend your valuable hard earned money on .

It's probably designed and sold as a value added radio however your value is absolutely terrible with this thing .

I'll try to break it down for you .

Okay let's start with the basics the way it looks . It looks like a piece of shit. The LCD screen is not so bad but the overall front of the radio looks like shit .

Secondly features in specific your transmit how you only have 3 adjustable settings that's a 1 W 10 W and 100 W that's it so if you want any power setting that is not one of those three you are out of luck .

Well to be fair you're not completely out of luck I mean you can open up the unit and it just micro pots on the motherboard to adjust the one watt and 10 W settings but to me that is just absolutely retarded of a response to this issue .

And to be fair there are some pads that you can solder inside the machine to lock your maximum transmit power to 50 W you could also drill a hole in your radio and install A toggle switch and and solder some wires to the pads alternatively but, to me, again, this is a bunch of hodgepodge bullshit .

Next there is no SWR meter, what the hell .
Nope no SWR for you sorry too bad so sad, I guess.
I guess real ham operators don't need one anyway right?

The receiver the receiver is not terrible but there's just your If and your shift that's it buddy nothing else, bare bones .

Don't get me started on the SR9T you have to pay like $200 more and the complete S DR proprietary software package has been depreciated yes it is that terrible that Alinco has depreciated their own proprietary SDR software. They say just use something else , yet the price of the radio is still where it's at .

The problem with this radio is also that it might be something that new hams might be looking at simply because of the price yes it is one of the cheapest new HF rigs out but only A little less cheaper than something really good from I come A little less cheaper than something really good from Icom or yaesu when talking about new rigs if we're talking about used rigs like, good used rigs on eBay, you could get a stupendously better rig for what this Alinco costs new .

There are also more downfalls to this radio but if you don't get it right now then there's not much anyone will be able to say to you so . If you're a new ham and reading this the FT 450 trust me is so much better than this it's just not even fucking funny. No I don't have a love affair with the FT 450 I just am choosing this radio specifically due to price . I mean literally for less than $75 more depending on the rebates or sales, makes the FT 450 a great specific radio for comparison .