Alinco DR-150 VHF Mobile Review

I don’t have a large collection of Amateur Radio equipment and over the years I have had to sell most of what I had accumulated due to family commitments. I have owned some fantastic bits of kit including the Kenwood TMG 707E and the Yaesu FT8900r. I have always been heavily into 2 meters and 70 centimeters, in fact I have never used or been interested in HF, I know I am weird.. 😉

My father in law has kindly lent me his awesome little Alinco DR 150 to use until I get my new Retevis RT95 in a couple of weeks, I must say I am very impressed with this little radio, its a no frills 2 meter only FM set but is quite easy to get to grips with even though Wayne had already programmed a lot of the 2 meter repeaters in it already so I didn’t have to, this radio allows you to recieve (but not transmit) on 70 centimeters and that’s good to know as I don’t have much else in the way of radios so at least I can have a listen to that band also.

The radio is quite small and compact and would be ideal for use in a vehicle or caravan for example, I will include a photo of the specifications of the radio within this review so you can take a closer look, one thing I am not keen on is there isnt a cooling fan on the radio, there is however large cooling fins and they seem to do the job adequately without issue.

The speaker is another pleasant surprise, beautiful audio, nice and crisp and certainly loud enough and ideal for use in a vehicle. The radio lights up a familiar yellow colour, nothing unusual here, the buttons all feel really good quality and have stood the test of time very well indeed. There is a rotary squelch and volume knob and I really like that, too many radios nowadays have menu driven squelch and volume controls and you can’t beat a rotary knob in my opinion. In fact this radio is not menu driven at all, all the bottom row of buttons has a dual purpose simply by pressing the function button then pressing the desired button.

The microphone is also very nice, it’s the older style 8 pin connector and it lights up too! I have had some fantastic reports on this mic and is really nice in the hand, it also has a switch for a keypad lock and DTMF lock. The top has buttons up and down for navigating the memory channels or frequency whilst in VFO mode.

The Alinco DR 150 also has 3 power output levels, 50w 25w and 10w so if you are a foundation licence holder like me you will be able to use the radio on its lowest power setting and as a bonus the radio will not get too hot so no need to worry about longer conversations as there is no cooling fan.

This radio is a very simple 2 meter radio so it’s absolutely ideal for people who prefer the style of radios without all the fancy menus and complications, I will also include the manual in PDF format here for you to download completely free of charge. So if you are wanting to have a closer look into the specs and functions you can do and see if this radio is for you.

My conclusion on the Alinco DR 150 VHF radio is a very positive one, I am not sure what I expected when I borrowed this radio, not being from a manufacturer like Kenwood, Icom or Yaesu I was not expecting it to be as good as it is, I mean i know that Alinco is a good brand but I have had no experience of them so have been pleasantly surprised, The radio is really well built and has really stood the test of time. You can probably get one of these radios for a very reasonable price and I would say go for it and buy it, yes the radio is only VHF but for the right money this would make a great radio for your vehicle or caravan.

You can download the manual here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this review, please check out my other reviews here. I also have a youtube channel with some fantastic radios there too. I will also film a review to accompany this shortly.

Matt

M6CEB