Alinco DJ-S41C | UHF FM Handheld Transceiver

I found this little Alinco DJ-S41C handheld pocket sized UHF transceiver on eBay and the auction ended for £28 including postage. The radio arrived in perfect condition with virtually no wear and tear. There is little information on Google search about this model.

This radio was released by Alinco around the mid 1990's (likely 1995-1996) from what I can see from the user manual I downloaded off the internet. It is UHF only so perfect for 70cm repeaters. It runs 3.4 watts on transmit which is the only power setting on the radio. Its antenna is fixed on and swings out from the back of the radio when it is in use and tucks away when the radio is packed away. I've never seen a radio with this sort of antenna but I find it really useful as it saves connecting and disconnecting the antenna each time. 

Anyway, I opened the package the radio came in and was pleasantly surprised. As I said before, the radio is in perfect condition and looks hardly used. It came with a small leather protective case, wrist strap and belt clip. 

After inserting 3 AA batteries and switching it on, I managed to feel my way around the keys and programme in my local 70cm repeater GB3MR and open it up with CTCSS and repeater shift function. It seems pretty simple to use and I managed to save the repeater into the memory bank.

Receive on the radio is pretty good considering the size of the small antenna. I tuned into Manchester Airport UHF NATS frequency for the air traffic control tower and it picked up great. Just as good as my Baofeng or other models of handheld radio with the stock antenna so I'm not to concerned about the small antenna. I just need to be careful while the antenna is flipped out because it looks like it wouldn't take too much stick before it snapped.

Alinco made quite a few accessories to go with this radio such as a tie pin microphone, speaker microphone, earpiece microphone, car lighter power adapter and a car holder bracket which would all be handy for mobile use. Unfortunately there is more chance of me working the United States simplex on this radio than ever coming across the car bracket. I may invest in the compatible speaker mike though if this radio proves itself.

I've yet to speak to someone on the repeaters using it due to not having much time but I hope to do some DX tomorrow in the hills with a friend of mine who does the DX contest so I intend to take various handheld radios with me so I'll be taking this little Alinco to give it a full field test. Do you have one? Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.
Manchester, UK.