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A quick follow up on the battery life. Yesterday I had the radio on for almost exactly 15 hours monitoring with a few key-ups before it died. The battery meter isn't real accurate, but at least it starts to notify you when it's getting weak. 15 hours of life is pretty good!

... is the bomb-diggity. Please keep up posted of "long term" test results, etc.

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ButtFuzz in the Mobile
KG4ZPN

I'm out camping this weekend and managed to get an EVDO wireless internet signal while I'm waiting for a satellite to pass over that I'm going to attempt to use this radio on.

I have two things to report in the interim:

1. Alinco Tech support abolutely B. L. O. W. S. I sent an email in at the beginning of the week asking for details on the supposed mods reported on eham about the ability to TX on all bands via a software mod. No response. I followed up with a phone call a couple of days ago and they took a message (tech support unavailable). Apparently their tech support is one guy. Now, I have a good, perfectly legal reason for requesting this info and I included a copy of my Navy MARS license, call sign, etc. as proof. I have yet to receive a return email or phone call. Obviously, this issue doesn't have much to do with the performance of the radio, but it does speak volumes for the performance of the company.

2. The scan speed on this radio is slow. I don't have anything scientific to report; it just feels a lot slower than other HTs. Not a major issue, but something to consider.

I'm still trying to make my first satellite contact with it to see how well the full duplex function really works for satellite ops. If anyone wants to send/build me a 1.2 Ghz yagi to try on the satellits, that would be apprecitated, too

I just made a few contacts using the DJ-G7 on SAUDISAT (S0-50). The duplex option really is useful for working the satellite. I set the SUB band on the RX frequency and the Uplink frequency on the MAIN band. Of course, you have to adjust the RX frequency for doppler shift. It is very useful to hear yourself back through the satellite on the SUB band, letting you know that you're making it in. Of course, RX'ing your own signal through the satellite is a little distored, but at least you know you're making the trip. All things considered, I think I will continue to use this HT for the satellites...it worked very well.

how do you pronounce Alinco?

Uh-lynn-co

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Ronnie-The Toolman
CB Handle--Six Pack
Lake of The Ozarks

I thought it was

A-Link-O

So, Allen Co...

Just tellin ya what I was told when I was cking on some prices at one of the big radio companies. Have no idea if it is right or wrong..... You ask an I told ya what I know...:o)

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Ronnie-The Toolman
CB Handle--Six Pack
Lake of The Ozarks

I spent some time programming a few frequencies into the radio. I've seen the comments on eham about it being a difficult radio to progam, but I'm not sure what they're talking about. I just followed the instructions in the manual and had it done in no time. It's actually almost simple enough to figure out for yourself. You can delete memories and even move memories from one bank to another. Even the Yaesu VX-8 can't do that. The radio is capable of storing 1000 memories organized in up to 99 standard banks and several other special banks. The special banks are as follows:

-Progam Scan
-Dual: The main and sub band are coupled togehter and registered in one memory
-Priority
-Call channels
-Pass: A bank for memories you want to skip while scanning
-Transmitter Search - If you're into T-Hunting, program your often used frequencies here

The radio also has a "Quick Memory" function which is very similar to speed dial on cell phone. It even programs like a cell phone: After you've stored the memory, recall it and just hold down one of the numeric keys (1-90) to associate the memory with that key. To recall at any time, you just hit the number, followed by the V/P/M key. It really works well, and I wish more HT's had this function!!

One other special bank of memories that are used for "bug detecting". I guess this is the James Bond function of the radio: It will scan frequencies often used by bugging devices as well as any additional you select so you can determine if SPECTRE has recruited your neighbor to spy on you. If someone will send me some bugging devices, I will test this function out, otherwise I really have no clue as to why I would use this. It did get a good chuckle out of me when I saw it, though.

Here are some quick tips for using the set menus. This isn't the easiest part of the manual to follow, but setting the various parameters aren't real hard.

To enter "Set Mode", hit FUNC, then press down on one of the top knobs. A portion of the screen will display a menu item from one of the main categories like, "<SCREEN DISPLAY>" or "<SOUND>" and so on. To change from one menu group to the next, just rotate the top dial. To dive into one of these setup groups to change individual settings, press down on the dial again. If you want to get back to change menu groups again, hit the MONI button on the side. After you dive into a particular menu group, the display changes to the individual settings. For example, if I press down on the dial while looking at the <SOUND> menu group, the first setting displayed is "Beep sound Lv." To adjust the setting, just rotate the lower dial above. If you're finished making the adjustments you want, hitting PTT takes you all the way out of the Set menus, or hitting MONI on the side takes you back to the Menu group selections. It's pretty simple.

There is one menu setting that I found that is not discussed in the manual: Under the <SCREEN DISPLAY> group, there is a setup entry called "Opening String". This item lets you replace the standard DJ-G7 opening screen at boot-up with whatever you want...in English or Japanese. If you stumble across this menu item, it works completely different than all of the other setup menus: Once you have rotated the top dial so this item is showing, rotating the top dial again starts to adjust the first character of the opening string. If you hit any button on the keypad it moves to the next character. When you hit the CLR button, it goes backwards to the previous position. If you hit the SUB button, it clears all of your entries so you can start over. Pressing the MONI button is the only way I found to escape from this menu item once you have completed your changes. This menu item is undocumented at the time of this writing and is a little frustrating. I hope this helps someone.