LAST MONTH OF 2023 - REVIEW OF THE ALINCO DX-10 PT.1

GO AHEAD AND PINCH YOURSELVES - A NEW RADIO REVIEW TO END THE YEAR!

Hey, I'm pinching myself as well. For the most part, this 23rd year of the new century has been consumed by house hunting, negotiations, moving out of the old place (Monday - Friday, multiple trips by myself, and Saturday & Sunday, multiple trips with items whose size/weight made it take both Robin and I to move), followed by unpacking and getting things where there they're supposed to go. 

 

The review in question is Alinco's DX-10 10m radio. This is one of the radios that I looked the likes of back in 2015, but they were discontinued several years later. Imagine my surprise when I opened up my main Facebook page and saw that Bells CB had a new radio being announced - the Alinco DX-10!

Outwardly, it appeared as if there weren't any changes, which I considered a *PLUS* because, unlike a radio such as the President McKinley EU/FCC, the frequency readout was enormously easy to see, although when I get to reviewing that part of the radio there's a definite downside - and I can't understand why it couldn't be changed. But more about that when I get to it.

Also, before I get any further, Bells did not send me a radio to review, but I like to give credit when credit is due. As far as I know, they were the only ones that had them in stock and I paid for it out of my own pocket. I did not choose the tuneup/alignment add-on because I was curious about how it would perform taken right from the box and plugged into my power supply.

The shipping box lead me to believe this was a much larger radio than I thought, but it turned out that Bells just packs it very well (thank you Bells), which required a larger box. But the actual radio box is slightly smaller than the President McKinley or Uniden's 980SSB. 

IN THE BOX

• Radio
• Manual
• Microphone
• Mounting bracket for radio and microphone, along with all of the necessary screws, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, the sole reason for buying this was due to the larger digital display, and you have several different colors to chose from.

Once space was made on the bench I powered the radio on, and noticed one thing immediately: The channel number display is a very bright, almost lime/yellow color, but the digital frequency readout was definitely not as bright, and there didn't seem to be a way to change that. This was with the radio at the same level as my eyes, but I noticed an improvement in brightness once the radio was at a lower angle then my eyes, so all is not lost.

The menu system is explained in the manual fairly well, enough so that when I wasn't getting any audio output I knew enough to check it's setting, which for some reason came set to 0. After trying several settings I found 31 to be the best for my voice.

Speaking about audio, the stock hand mic kinda sucks. Audio from it was slightly muffled and it felt worse in my hand than a President stock mic did (as a point of reference), so I ended up borrowing the President digi-mic from my McKinley and gave it go. The results: BIG improvement. So at some point I'll have to get another one of these microphones vs. multiple screw off / screw back on, as I switched between radios.

 

 Not surprisingly, the LED readout looks good via my camera (but so did the President Lincoln II). Starting from the left:

• A-F band buttons that divide 10 meters into 40 channel segments. Just below it is your microphone connector.
• Moving right there are 8 buttons, in two rows of 4 that perform different functions. To changed anything (like your microphone audio output) you'll definitely be using the FUNC, or Function button.
• Next to is the RB/BP button (for Roger Beep and regular beep). I almost forgot to mention that this radio had the loudest, most annoying BEEP you'll ever hear, and hear it you will when doing mundane operations, like changing channels.
• Still moving to the right we have the NB/ANL & Lock button. I've found the NB/ANL to be just as lacking as it is on everything these days. To date, nothing works as well as the older Uniden and Cobra radio built from 1977-Mid 90's. The lock button simply locks your panel to prevent you from pressing or moving the wrong thing while you're driving.
  

• The last button on the top row is for your dual channel watch and LCD OFF button.
• On the bottom row we'll start on the left with the SCAN and SC LIST (scan list) button. You'll find information on that in the manual.
• Next is a +10KHz and Hi-Cut button, which limits the treble in your receive audio.
• To the right of this is a button marked COL and TOT. COL will change your frequency display colors each time you press it. And TOT is your Time out control that you can set to turn off the transmit just in case you butt has been transmitting so long the radio gets overly hot, or as the manual explains it:

(2)FUNC+ COL
When pressing this key, TOT ON or TOT OFF would display on the LCD for 2 seconds. Repeat this operation to switch ON/OFF the function. When ON appears on the LCD, users can press PTT to transmit. Then, the radio would time the transmitting duration. Once the duration is beyond the set TOT time (programmable), the radio would emit voice prompt and stop transmitting and back to receiving
state automatically. This function aims to protect the radio against power tube damage from superheating caused by long transmission.

 

• Lastly, there's a button marked EMG on top and S-RF on the bottom. EMG is takes you to the emergency channel which in this case changed frequencies to ch.19, then another press of the button brings you back to the channel/frequency you were just talking on. S-RF seems a bit stupid to me. Its function is to remove the S-RF meter from the screen and/or put it back again.
  

Sticking with the left side of the front panel, and below the buttons you'll find your mode switch to change functions to PA, CW, AM, FM, USB, and LSB. To the right of that selector is the on-off, volume & squelch controls.

Next up is your Echo-Tone controls (or echo "off"). If I forget, remind me to bring up the Echo again. Moving further to the right is the RF Gain and RF Power controls. Before purchasing this radio I'd read that the model sold several years ago had a very sensitive receiver that could be over loaded by strong signals. Nothing has changed in this respect. You'll realize your RF Gain is set too high when stations become garbled or "fuzzy" sounding.

I recommend backing the gain way down. It will help combat this issue, and make your receiver a lot less noisy. I was rather glum about turning the RF Gain down so far but one day I ran across a particularly weak station around 28.400 while spinning the "wheel of fortune" (VFO) on my ICOM IC-705, then switched to the DX-10 and to my surprise it seemed more sensitive, not a lot, but just enough to hear the other station better. As a triple check I then switched over to my faithful Kenwood TS-50 and received the same results. So even with the RF Gain control backed off, I could hear the weaker station better than the other two radios! BTW, I had the ICOM's power amp set to 2. When I turned it off completely I couldn't understand what the other station was saying at all. The moral of the story: Having a hot receiver isn't so bad, provided you can control the RF Gain.

The last two control are the clarifier and channel selector. The clarifier is adjustable by pushing the knob in briefly. Each push changes how much the clarifier will adjust the frequency. These changes are called STEPS in the owners manual, with the default step being 10Hz. Each press of the control increases the size of the steps as follows: 10Hz, 100Hz, 1KHz, and 10KHz before returning back to 10Hz.

My personal preference is 10Hz. Being the smallest change, it makes it's easier to tune a station so that you'll both be in sync. The only thing I don't like about the clarifier is the click-click-click sound it makes while making an adjustment. I wonder how long that control will last before it starts skipping clicks that no longer work?

One more point about the Clarifier is that you can make it a receive-only, transmit-only, or receive/transmit tied together (my preference).

The rear of the DX-10 looks like many of the modern radios. A larger heat sink and sparse connections, which are:

• SO239 coax connector
• CW key connector
• USB connector for software programming
• External speaker jack
• And a standard 3-pin power connector

SIZE

By placing my President McKinley on top of the DX-10 I thought it would give you an idea of how the compare.

 

 

The McKinley is slightly taller, and as you can see, the DX-10 makes better use of the front panel by not only having a separate channel selector, but a longer display for your frequency, which has nice large numbers.

 

This brings up a pet peeve of mine. I've read several manufacturers say that it's not the easiest to have a channel number and frequency display in the same space, thus the tiny frequency readouts you'll see with the President McKinley, Uniden, and other such radios.

 

If you've been a faithful reader of this Blog you already know what's coming.... "I CALL BULLCRAP" about this excuse. Over two decades ago Midland was able to do this in such a simple way:

 

 Their 79-290 AM-SSB mobile had large frequency numbers, but if you wanted to see the channel number, all you had to do was press the FRQ button on the front panel. That button would toggle the display between channel number and frequency. I may be wrong, but I don't think anyone has done this every since. Interested in the Midland? Do a search within my Blog for the review, along with links to other reviewers (one from Popular Communications magazine). Okay, my rant has ended, so back to the review...

 

 

 

 

From this side view it's obvious that the McKinley is not as deep as the Alinco and its heat sink which may be a deciding factor when trying to determine which radio would fit best in your vehicle.

 

"As far as the microphone, I'd send it to the Island of misfit mics and pickup a President Digi-mic" 

 

 So, back to the Echo feature. I'm not a fan of echo on most radios, but some of them allow for such fine tuning that it's just barely noticeable. This one doesn't have a fine adjustment and I didn't care for it, as well as the click-click-click Clarifier tuning. 

 

As far as the microphone, I'd send it to the Island of misfit mics and pickup a President Digi-mic. 

 

I've reached the end of Part 1, because I'd like a week or two more of daily use, as well as discussing the software and USB cable required to program it. But before I go, I'd like to thank the staff of BELLS CB!

 

All of our communications were done via Facebook Messenger (they have a page of their own), and every response but one was replied quickly. The one that took a little longer was one that they apologized for. They had to contact the manufacturer and the manufacturer wasn't as quick to reply as BELLS CB was. From my experience with them regarding the DX-10 I'd rate their after sale support as top notch!

Along with the other additions in Part 2 I'll include a few photos of the inside as well.

I've been asked over the years on when I'd return to video reviews. Except for some non speaking antenna reviews I haven't done a full face, talking review since around 2001, but if I get the equipment I need I may indeed return to that format, as for now, you're stuck with reading this and all of its spelling and grammatical issues...and Ooops! I forgot to mention this radio can be converted to 11m (at your own peril of having "Uncle Charlie" come knocking on your front door)

73

Woody