Page 1
Mark J. Wilson, K1RO, k1ro@arrl.org
Product Review
Alinco DJ-VX50T
VHF/UHF Handheld Transceiver
Reviewed by Steve Ford, WB8IMY
wb8imy@arrl.net
The Alinco DJ-VX50T is a dual-band (2-meter and
70-centimeter) FM transceiver that is designed to be
a serious contender in the lower-cost handheld
market. It sets itself apart from the competition in
several ways, beginning with its rugged construction.
The radio is housed in a dense ABS plastic case with
a textured surface to minimize slippage. With the
1,800 mAh Li-ion battery attached, the DJ-VX50T
has a hefty, almost heavy feel.
As I examined the exterior, I noticed the external
microphone and speaker ports were covered by a
shield that you can only open by removing a screw.
The robust shield is sealed with a gasket and present
because the DJ-VX50T is water- and dustproof, carrying an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of 67. The first
number designates protection against solid objects,
such as dust and sand. This number can range from
0, meaning no protection, to 6, meaning 100% protection. The second number rates protection against
liquids. It ranges from 0 to 8. So, the DJ-VX50T is
100% protected against solid objects, and it has
been tested to work after being immersed under a
meter of water, which earns the 7 — not completely
waterproof, but close. I couldn’t bring myself to dunk
the radio in a bucket to verify the rating; I’ll take Alinco’s word for it.
The DJ-VX50T is supplied with the usual flexible
rubber antenna and a stand-up battery charger. The
charger is well designed and highly convenient. To
charge the battery, just place it into the charging
cradle. After a few hours — four at most — you’re
good to go. During the time I was using the DJVX50T, a full charge seemed adequate for about 24
hours of normal operating that included a lot of listening time. Of course, the battery life depends
greatly on how much transmitting you are doing.
Bottom Line
The Alinco
DJ-VX50T
represents an
excellent value
for an entrylevel dualband analog
FM handheld.
Exploring the DJ-VX50T
I think the first thing most amateurs do when they
encounter a new handheld transceiver is turn it on.
To do so, they go searching for the
which is often on the side or front of the radio. On the
DJ-VX50T the power on/off function is part of the
volume knob. You just give the knob a twist and the
11⁄4 × 1⁄2 inch amber display lights up (there are two
other selectable color settings). While the display
shown in Figure 1 isn’t overly large, I found it easy to
read under all lighting conditions.
POWER
button,
Reprinted with permission; copyright ARRL.
www.arrl.org QST September 2021 39
Page 2
Alinco DJ-VX50T
Key Measurements Summary
Receiver Sensitivity (12dB SINAD, PV)
2 m 0.14
SINAD
RX
RX
ChRej
Snd
KEY:
Test results for FM and FM-Narrow were identical.
70 cm 0.14
0.25 0.1
Receiver Third-Order Dynamic Range (dB)
I
3
Receiver Third-Order Dynamic Range (dB)
I
3
(10 MHz offset)
2 m 68
70 cm 71
60 90
(20 kHz offset)
2 m 62
70 cm 67
40 70
Adjacent Channel Rejection (dB)
2 m 68
70 cm 67
50 90
Audio Output (mW)
516
QS2109-PR155
800100
Below the push-to-talk button on
the side of the radio, there are two
smaller buttons. The top button
accesses the squelch adjustment.
You press and hold the button until
the display switches to the squelchadjust mode, after which you rotate
the frequency/channel knob to set
the desired level. The bottom
MONITOR
button opens the squelch
whenever it is pressed. If you hold
this button down for more than a
couple of seconds, the squelch
locks open continuously.
Table 1
Alinco, DJ-VX50T, serial number P001337
Manufacturer’s Specifi cations Measured in ARRL Lab
Frequency coverage: Receive, 136 – 174, Receive and transmit, as specifi ed.
400 – 470 MHz (FM); 76 – 107.95 MHz
(WFM); 118 – 135.995 MHz (AM).
Transmit, 144 – 148 and 420 – 450 MHz.
Modes: FM, FM-N (FM-Narrow). As specifi ed.
Receive only: WFM (FM broadcast
band only), AM (air band only).
Power requirements: 7.4 V dc ±20%. At 8.2 V dc (full charge):
7.4 V, 1,800 mAh Li-ion battery Receive, 330 mA (no signal, max
and rapid charger supplied. volume, lights on), 278 mA (lights
Receiver Receiver Dynamic Testing*
FM sensitivity: For 12 dB SINAD, For 12 dB SINAD:
FM, 0.25 µV; FM-N, 0.5 µV. 146 and 440 MHz, 0.14 µV; 162 MHz,
Two-tone, third-order IMD dynamic range: 20 kHz offset: 146 MHz, 62 dB, 440 MHz,
Not specifi ed. 67 dB. 10 MHz offset: 146 MHz, 68 dB;
Two-tone, second-order IMD dynamic 146 MHz, 84 dB; 440 MHz, 91 dB.
range: Not specifi ed.
Adjacent-channel rejection: 60 dB. 20 kHz offset: 146 MHz, 68 dB;
Squelch sensitivity: Not specifi ed. Squelch range, 146 MHz, 0.12 – 0.31 µV;
S-meter sensitivity: Not specifi ed. For full-scale meter reading, 146 MHz,
Audio output: 1 W at 10% THD. 516 mW into 8 at 10% THD
Transmitter Transmitter Dynamic Testing
Power output: High/Med/Low, At full charge, High/Med/Low:
VHF, 5/2/1 W; UHF, 4/2/1 W. 146 MHz, 4.7/2.1/1.2 W
Spurious signal and harmonic 146 MHz: >70 dB (High, Med);
suppression: 60 dB. 67 dB (Low). 440 MHz: >70 dB.
Transmit-receive turnaround time (PTT Squelch on, S-9 signal:
release to 50% of full audio output): 146 and 440 MHz, 266 ms.
Not specifi ed.
Receive-transmit turnaround time 146 MHz, 24 ms; 440 MHz, 34 ms.
(TX delay): Not specifi ed.
Size (height, width, depth): 4.7 × 2.4 × 1.5 inches (including protrusions); antenna
length, 6.6 inches. Belt clip adds
*There were no measured differences in sensitivity or adjacent-channel rejection
between FM and FM-Narrow.
1
⁄2 inch to depth. Weight, 9.6 ounces with battery.
off), 123 mA (standby, lights off);
22 mA (saver on); 0 mA (power off).
Transmit
146 MHz, 1.67/1.12/0.852 A
440 MHz, 1.68/1.18/0.843 A
0.13 µV; 100 MHz, 1.0 µV (WFM).
440 MHz, 71 dB.
440 MHz, 67 dB.
440 MHz, 0.12 – 0.25 µV.
0.38 µV; 440 MHz, 0.27 µV.
THD at 1 V
440 MHz, 4.4/2.5/1.2 W
Meets FCC requirements.
(High/Med/Lo
, 1.8 %.
RMS
w),
Tuning around the bands, I eavesdropped on several 2-meter and
70-centimeter repeaters. Despite
the relatively small speaker, the
audio was crisp and clear. The
radio delivers more than half a watt
of audio to the speaker, which I
40 September 2021 QST www.arrl.org
found to be more than adequate,
even in a somewhat noisy mobile
environment.
The DJ-VX50T is a dual-band
radio, so you have the option of
switching between the main and
sub frequencies, but the way this is
accomplished is not intuitive. For
example, you won’t find a button
labeled
instructs, you must press the
MAIN/SUB
. As the manual
UP
arrow button on the keypad to flip
between them. The main frequency
is displayed above the sub fre-
Reprinted with permission; copyright ARRL.
Page 3
Figure 1 — The Alinco DJ-VX50T’s simple display is easy to
read under a variety of lighting conditions.
quency, and it is shown in a larger font for easy recognition.
Although the manual doesn’t make this clear, I found
the DJ-VX50T could receive on the main and sub
frequencies simultaneously (but it can only transmit
at the main frequency). You can listen to two frequencies within the same band or monitor two frequencies within separate bands.
If you get tired of listening to ham traffic, press the
FUNC
button, followed by the 1 button, and you’re
suddenly transported to the FM broadcast band.
Reception is strictly monaural, though. More button
presses will bring up AM reception in the aviation
band, and even NOAA Weather Radio channels.
These are features you don’t always find in a transceiver in this price class.
Other than the lack of stereo, FM broadcast reception was excellent. With just the flexible antenna, I
was able to enjoy not only the 50 kW behemoths, but
also several low-power college stations in my area.
Aviation listening is always interesting, and I’m fortunate to have a substantial amount of air traffic in my
area. Even so, monitoring aviation can be a challenge because of the constantly changing positions
of the aircraft. While I was able to eavesdrop on highaltitude airplanes with the stock antenna, receive
coverage was vastly improved when I connected the
DJ-VX50T to an external antenna.
The DJ-VX50T sports several scanning modes, and I
was pleasantly surprised to discover that they work
even within the FM broadcast and aviation bands. You
also have 200 memory channels to store whatever
you stumble across, amateur or otherwise. Each
memory channel can be labeled with alphanumeric
characters.
On the subject of memories, like most modern transceivers, the DJ-VX50T memories can be programmed
through external software. I couldn’t test this feature
with the DJ-VX50T, but I’m confident that it performs
similarly to other software packages I’ve used. It is a
matter of loading the transceiver’s memory contents
into your computer by attaching a USB cable to the rig
and placing the radio in the clone mode. Once loading
is complete, you can modify existing memories, add
new ones, and make other changes. This is much
easier than doing memory programming by hand
through the keypad. The software and cable are available from RT Systems at www.rtsystemsinc.com.
On the Air
The DJ-VX50T is capable of 5 W output on 2 meters
and 4 W on 70 centimeters. If you prefer to extend
the battery life, you can select a lower output power
setting.
With the flexible antenna and maximum output, I had
little difficulty accessing all repeaters in my local area.
Transmit audio reports were consistently good.
Taking the radio on the road, I replaced the flexible
antenna with an SMA-to-BNC adapter and connected it to a dual-band magnetic mount antenna.
Even at the lowest output power setting, the coverage was impressive.
The DJ-VX50T features voice-operated transmit/
receive switching (VOX). I thought it might function
only with an external speaker/microphone or
headset, but I soon learned that the VOX works with
the internal microphone as well. The feature toggles
on or off with a push of the
3/VOX
key. I discovered right away that it pays to
adjust the VOX delay setting in the transceiver menu.
The default seemed to be 3 seconds, which can feel
like an eternity when you’re waiting for the radio to
switch back to receive.
FUNC
key, followed by the
Reprinted with permission; copyright ARRL.
www.arrl.org QST September 2021 41
Page 4
Speaking of voices, the DJ-VX50T is equipped with a
voice annunciator that will call out the channel numbers when you are operating in the memory mode.
This is convenient when you’re in a low-light environment, or in those situations when you simply can’t
look at the display. The transceiver will also bark
“Error!” if you’re attempting to enter an incorrect frequency or trying to otherwise make the radio do
something it prefers to avoid.
As I mentioned earlier, the battery is sizeable, and I
was pleased with how long it lasted on a full charge,
even with frequent transmissions. Interestingly, however, the DJ-VX50T includes a clever “battery save”
feature. When enabled, the radio will essentially go to
sleep and then periodically reawaken. When asleep,
power drain is minimal, so your battery life is
extended greatly. The sleep mode deactivates if
you’re operating the controls, scanning frequencies
or memories, or if there is a signal present on the frequency you’ve selected. It’s only when everything is
quiet that the radio decides to take a snooze.
Conclusion
The Alinco DJ-VX50T is a capable dual-band FM
transceiver that departs from what could be considered basic. Its durable design and wide range of
features distinguish it from its competitors, yet it is
priced to appeal to a wide audience, including new
amateurs.
Manufacturer: Alinco, Osaka, Japan; www.alinco.
com. Distributed in the US by REMTronix, Lathrop,
California; remtronix.com, and available from a
number of amateur radio dealers. Price: $100.
42 September 2021 QST www.arrl.org
Reprinted with permission; copyright ARRL.
Loading...