Specifications

From January 2005 QST © ARRL
Alinco DJ-C7T Pocket-sized VHF/UHF FM Transceiver
Figure 10—While not quite as slim as a
credit card, this radio won’t make a big
bulge in your pocket.
Figure 9—The
compactness of this radio
is evident as it’s almost
lost in the author’s hand.
Reviewed by Rick Lindquist, N1RL
Senior News Editor
For some time now, I’ve marveled as
cellular telephones have at once become
smaller and slimmer, more feature-laden
and fit unobtrusively in a shirt or jacket
pocket. So, to balance out that super
model-skinny cell phone, here’s a
comparably diminutive Amateur Radio
dualbander for that other pocket. Dick
Tracy, eat your heart out!
It’s been a long time coming, but
Alinco—the manufacturer that amazed
the amateur market in the late 1990s by
pioneering its series of so-called “credit
card” handhelds (see “Alinco’s Amazing
Credit Card H-Ts,” QST, Oct 1998)—now
has trumped its own ace with the DJ-C7T.
A direct descendant of 1998’s dualband
DJ-C5T (itself the progeny of the even
tinier DJ-C1T and DJ-C4T), the DJ-C7T
reflects further evolution in several
respects. In fact, Alinco refers to it as a
“new generation credit card-sized VHF/
UHF dualband micro transceiver.”
Tiny is as Tiny Does
Let’s be clear up front: Like the DJ-
C5T before it, the DJ-C7T is petite not
just in terms of size but also in power
output. As is the case with most 300 mW
class transceivers, when operating from
its internal battery, it hears much better
than it hollers. The unit’s size means it
also must make the most of available
idea is that you can balance the system
gain for the various types of signals. You
can set the gain of the band-pass filters
by mode. In addition you can set the SSB
noise reduction gain as well as the CW
noise reduction gain.
Oh, And There is a Clock, Too!
As if all this isn’t enough, the KDSP2
also includes a real time clock and
calendar. The clock provides date and time
readouts on the K2 display, and includes a
lithium battery to keep the clock running
even without connection to the supply.
Changing the minutes when you set the
clock will zero the seconds to synchronize
with WWV. You can enter the time display
from any DSP menu by pressing and
holding the
STORE and RCL buttons
simultaneously.
A Few Nits to Pick
I don’t suppose any Product Review
is complete without pointing out a few
things the author didn’t like about the
product, or at least a short wish list of
features to add.
The clock is a good example to illus-
trate a problem that began to become
apparent to me during the KDSP2 phase
of this review. You can either display the
time, or the date, or the operating frequen-
cy or other menu options on the K2 display.
If I have to hit the
DISPLAY button to go to
a DSP menu, and then hold
STORE and
RCL every time I want to see the time, to
log a contact, then the clock seems a little
less useful. Turning the main tuning dial
returns the display to the operating
frequency. As long as you don’t change
mode or filter settings, the clock display
will come back if you hit the
DISPLAY
button, but if you change any of those
settings, then you will have to go through
the DSP menu to recall the clock.
The menu choices and the methods
of accessing the various menus on the
K2 is becoming much more complex as
all these new features are added. With
every button serving two functions, and
with those functions printed above and
below the buttons, I have always found
the K2 operation to be quite intuitive. I
may simply need more time to become
familiar with the new options, but my
feeling is that my K2 has started to go
beyond intuitive operation. Until now I
have seldom needed to pull out the
operating manual to remember how to
access a certain function.
I have to wonder how much more
Elecraft can add to the K2 with the current
single-line display and menu system.
Perhaps it is time to think about a mod
that adds a multi-line display or even a
larger package that could include a few
more buttons, switches and other controls.
The K2 started out as a great radio that
has gotten even better with new features
added. Where will they go from here?
Manufacturer: Elecraft, PO Box 69,
Aptos, CA 95001-0069; tel [phone];
fax [phone]; www.elecraft.com .
Price: KAT100-1, $239; KAT100-2, $219;
KDSP2, $219.
front-panel space, combining control
functions on a single button or its one
rotary knob. This makes for a somewhat
steeper learning curve, but with few
exceptions, it’s not a daunting one.
Reading the appropriately pint-sized
Instruction Manual is a must, however.
But size and strength aren’t everything.
The C7T more than makes up for its
300 mW of RF (500 mW with an external
6.5 V dc supply) by providing listen-only
access to the FM broadcast band, the AM
aircraft band and a wide expanse of VHF
and UHF spectrum outside the amateur
bands. It also offers a whopping 200
memory channels as well as a priority
channel and five pairs of programmed
scan-limit channels.
Some features we’ve come to know and
love on our larger handhelds are absent on
the C7T. For starters, there’s no—gasp!—
DTMF touchpad. While it’s a dualbander,
full duplex operation is not available,
although it is possible to transmit on VHF
and receive on UHF—or vice versa.
No surprise: The teeny, thin speaker
doesn’t sound like a Bose Wave. At top
volume while listening to an FM broad-
cast station, I found the sound loud, clean
and crisp, although lacking any thumping
bass. On the ham bands, it’s “good com-
munication quality.”
Another thing: While the receiver in the
C7T is an improvement over the C5T, it’s
not going to perform like your higher-
priced mobile or maybe even your heavier-