Why I Don’t Buy Alinco Radios - A Late Note
Decades late now, but due to my experience, I am at absolute best reluctant if not outright rejecting the idea of purchasing an Alinco product. It’s not their products, as such. It’s the treatment I had about one.
Many long years ago I dreamed of having a nice dual-band handheld trasceiver (Handi-Talkie or “HT”) and I saw that this new-to-me company had one at a slightly lower price than the Big Three of the day (Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu) and the ad said it had everything I wanted. It had decent power, which mattered as I did not reside in the city and low power meant “will not be heard.” It covered the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands. It scanned, so the ad said. Since I was then in area that did have multiple frequencies in common use, this was something quite desirable.
So I worked, saved up, and ordered. And when it arrived, it had power to be heard even out in the sticks. It had coverage of both bands. And it did NOT scan. I re-read the manual a good many times, figuring I must have missed something. I finally called Alinco USA and asked about this - and I was told they were working on a module or such to add that feature, could I wait a little while? Well, that seemed reasonable. I should have boxed up the radio and returned it right then and save up a bit more for an Icom like everyone else, but… youth and hope.
I could get it to ‘scan’ in a crude way that involved a wedge on the channel up button and a rubber band, but that would not stop the ‘scan’ if the channel was active. It was a crude hack I should not have had to resort to.
Some time later, I’d heard nothing and so called again. Same story. Well, in all the time I had the thing, there was never a scanning module. Nor was there ever one (I kept looking for some time after I’d given up, sold the thing, and went with Icom - who lived up to their claims). So, even if Alinco products are good now, even if they do everything claimed, I am more likely to go with just about anyone else.
Why?
Alinco lied to me.
This has never been made right in any way - not even a simple apology. After all this time, I do not expect it to be made right. And on the way to me right now is a radio made by Baofeng. I’ve heard that it’s ‘cheap junk’ and maybe it is. I don’t care: Baofeng hasn’t lied to me.