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Ok, this is not a review per se. I can review some Alinco ham radios if you like, since I currently have them in VHF/UHF mobile, VHF handheld, and HF/6M mobile form. Suffice to say that Alinco makes some great radios. They really don't get the respect they deserve. Having said that, the point of this thread is to let you guys know about some radios you might not be aware of. They are Part 90; AFAIK they don't carry Part 95. What you do with that is up to you; I think that subject has been pretty well hashed and thrashed. Also, with either of these two rigs you will have to buy the programming cable and software. That will cost you an additional $45 or so. HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) has both of these. Probably some other sellers do as well. The DJ-A40T is a 5 watt, 128 channel handheld. It is currently about $90. The DR-438 is a 45 watt, 200 channel mobile rig. Its price is about $250. If you check them out at the Alinco USA website, you can download pdf brochures, owner's manuals and even (in the case of some of the amateur radios) service manuals, free of charge! Note that the DR-438 is about the same price as the MXT400, and it absolutely blows it out of the water. Of course, like I said you do have to buy the programming cable and software, and there's the whole Part 90 thing. Note that I'm not recommending that you use Part 90 radios on GMRS. Refer to the sticky notification at the top of this section, if you have any questions about that. Btw, no I don't work for Alinco. I used to be in the radio business, but no longer.

I just got two of these Kenwood commercial mobiles, from two separate sellers on fleabay. I had made an offer on one, bought another via "buy it now," and then my offer on the first one was accepted. Both showed up today. What attracted me to the 805s is that they are front-panel field programmable; no software required (although they can be programmed that way as well). Both of these rigs came with a mount bracket, mic and mic hanger. The one I made an offer on did not have GMRS channels programmed in; it had two 461 MHz frequencies. It's a little beat up but not bad, and I think the mic is a new replacement. I had to remove the top panel and move the jumper to enable front panel programming. Once I did that, programming it was a snap. I put the 8 repeater pairs in it and set up the aux button to enable "talk around" (simplex). I also put one ham radio repeater pair in it; a nearby repeater that a member here owns. The other one looks like brand new. I paid a little more for it, but still got it for well under $100 including shipping. It came from an actual radio store, and they offered free programming. I took them up on it. These are 16 channel radios. The seller emailed a Word form for channel information and I had them program the 8 repeater pairs, Talk Around for simplex, and the 9 interstitial channels for a total of 15. These are billed as 25 watt radios, but according to my cheap VHF/UHF meter, both are putting out right around 40 watts. I'll probably turn them down to 20-25 watts to conserve the finals. I've seen a couple of comments online to the effect that after programming, you have to return the jumper to the "user" pins before they will receive and transmit. Not true. The only reason for that jumper is to prevent the appliance operator from inadvertently (or otherwise) messing with the programming. It works just fine with the jumper in the programming position, and the great thing is that you can pull over and modify a channel in just a minute or two. Bottom line: I like these radios!