How do I get my DMR recordings?

 

Kraken is coming and we all need to prepare for its arrival.  On Tuesday October 19th 2021, Steve K2GOG was invited to the North Star Digital Net to give a quick chat about what does it do and why its important for the future within the broader topic of "software defined radio".

A few people who could not attend the live discussion had asked Jim WA2UMP and Steve K2GOG to see if they could record the audio presentation.   This is a fun problem that needed to be solved first to start this article, so read onward!

How do you record DMR audio?

Steve K2GOG planned to use his Alinco DJ-MD5XTG to talk via his hotspot which reaches the Brandmeister 31630 (STEM) talk group.  A nice feature with this radio, as well as the popular Anytone AT-878 series of radio, is that it can record transmit and receive audio with timestamps and by who was speaking.

Its easy to scroll through recorded audio files one by one or play all your recordings on a loop to play them all in order. This could be helpful if you thought you may have missed some important scheduled discussion or activity on your favorite talk group.

One annoyance is that the recordings save to internal memory on the radio instead of a micro SD card, like on radios such as the D-Star focused Kenwood TH-D74 or the Fusion based Yaesu FT-5DR. 

Both of those radios and even the Icom IC-705, all require the user to remove the SD card from the radio to access recorded audio but that makes it really easy to access those files  on your computer and send them to someone to share interesting transmissions like during a satellite contact. 

In the case with the Alinco and Anytone, you need to connect up a cable to your computer to access the recordings but you can not pull those files off which is super annoying. The manufacturers software seems to lock this function out but would otherwise clearly support this as pictured below.

If you click any of the files listed in photo above, the recording simply plays through the radio speaker but we are no closer to sharing the recordings.

The Alinco DJ-MD5 series of radio uses a simple USB micro cable to program the radio but does not output audio.  The way to solve this problem is to use the headphone port on the Alinco which uses the standard 3.5mm plug found on most all consumer headphones.

Using a 3.5mm stereo to stereo cable, the other end plugs right into the microphone jack on your computer sound card.  If you have a modern laptop which uses a TRRS (Tip, Ring1, Ring2, Sleeve) style connector, you may instead need to use a USB sound card as mentioned in Steve's explanation video below.

Now that we have that problem solved, you can use a program like Audacity with the sound activated record function enabled to "re-record" the audio from the radio to your computer.  While this takes a little while to do, it lets you easily stitch together the audio segments you want with no gaps. 

If you are over a certain age where you may remember double cassette recorders, this activity may bring back memories of less technological days when you had to get creative to make a mix tape from "borrowed" cassettes or maybe songs off the local broadcast station.

Hopefully this modern solution may give you some ideas on getting more from your DMR radio.

Getting back to Kraken

After all that, now we can finally get to the recording you might have missed! 

Here is an MP3 recording mostly of the segment from Steve K2GOG.  

It sounds like he missed a few parts but is otherwise complete. It looks like a time intensive operation to click on all recordings in order, so bear that in mind if you wish to do something like this yourself.

The recorder function works on any "over the air" DMR signal, so using it also to record simplex activity like what took place during the NEARFEST on US national DMR simplex of  446.075 MHz on time slot 1, color code 1 and talk group 99 is another idea.   

But, if you plan to record audio from Brandmeister you can also just use the "Hoseline" function and route that audio from a talk group into Audacity just as easily using virtual audio cables. 

And with that, I hope you are looking forward as much as Steve is to getting the new Kraken once its starts shipping in March 2022.

SPECIAL EDITION: 10,000+ Digital Repeaters - October 2021 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Major Digital Milestone Reached!

In May 2021, HVDN reported that we were creeping ever closer to that 10,000 digital repeater mark and as of our October survey of repeaterbook.com data this important date in amateur radio history is here with 10,035 digital amateur radio repeaters now tracked.  

Here is the latest data based on our semi annual collection efforts since 2016, but no data was collected in 2017.

Our first near casualty of  the digital evolution

Someone will really need to look hard at repeaterbook.com data to ensure accuracy of these D-Star tabulations since it appears that 21 less D-Star repeaters exist in October 2021 compared to May 2021.

It is pretty well documented by now thanks to HVDN and pretty much any radio amateur today that DMR is by far the most popular digital voice mode today with an impressive 155.35% increase over the last 5 years.  

Still don't believe you, my local 2m FM repeater is just fine! 

For those into more fancy math if we are talking about growth or declines, compound annual growth rates (CAGR) are often used in different industries to track growth over a certain period. Over the past five years, DMR is still leading the pack at 20.62% CAGR.

However,  beyond the two dedicated non-commercial amateur modes known as Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star, it certainly seems interesting that the commercial P25 standard is growing faster than DMR.  

Using repeaters to track the healthy growth of amateur radio is smart.  Repeaters are expensive and local people with radios are needed to create a need for them to exist or to influence what to purchase. This is why counting repeaters is a great proxy to measure growth and adoption trends.

However, some areas do not have many digital voice repeaters but users are purchasing certain digital radios to use with hotspots. Many of these additional digital adopters are likely learning towards DMR or Fusion as a "my first digital radio" rather than D-Star or the two commercial modes known as P25 and NXDN.

Our secret digital future is already here

We have seen new products brought to market by smaller commercial companies and entrepreneurs, such as the RFinder series of DMR smartphone radios thanks to Bob W2CYK.   

New networks run entirely by the radio amateur community like Brandmeister Network and its amazing development team have opened new doors to expand all digital voice modes, including an entirely new up-and-coming amateur created mode such as M17 thanks to Wojciech SP5WWP.

The community also even has other entirely open source network tools such as DV Switch,  HBlink plus the amazing MMDVM and Pi-Star projects that Andy MW0MWZ, Jonathan G4KLX, Andy CA6JAU and others created to let us use repeaters or hotspots and fanned the flames of the digital evolution fire probably the most.

And, how could I not mention the work that folks like Roger VK3KYY are doing with OpenGD77 plus the equally fine development around OpenRTX which both help create new ways to use existing radios for digital communications, such as the case with modifying the cult favorite TYT MD-380 DMR radio to be used as M17.

We should expect some exciting times ahead for amateur radio as we also cross the boundaries of generational differences for people born after 1980 who will be entering later career stages and will have even more time for amateur radio experimentation.

Maybe its popular somewhere else?

Different parts of the world are at a crossroads today when it comes to adopting or retiring certain types of equipment. 

This is something which HVDN will further track publicly going forward since as the below chart indicates the current split between North America and Rest of World digital voice repeater data.

With M17 Project starting to get more attention, especially with a large investment enabled by non-profit entities Amateur Radio Digital Communications and Open Research Institute it is just a matter of time before something groundbreaking grabs mass attention.

What is next?

Many people do not have the attention span to read articles like this, but they need to pay attention to what is being discussed here very closely if you care about your amateur radio hobby.

Here is my prediction for the next two years (2022 and 2023) for digital repeater counts

While spending time within the HF spectrum chasing rare stations or park activators is good fun and will only get easier as the 11 year sunspot cycle matures over the next few years, do not forget about next generation technology.  

Spending more time on SSB during a 20m contest or CW on 40m will not propel the hobby forward for the next generation. Same also with using local 2m analog only repeaters for casual morning gatherings.

Please, spend some time experimenting with different technologies, modes and new ways of thinking and challenge yourself to try and keep track of how much time you spend in different aspects of the hobby month by month or year by year.   

The more time spent on the future will secure our past and ensure amateur radio exists for the next 100 years. 

Feel free to share some comments below on this and check out our past articles to learn what we are doing which may inspire you to get involved with something new in the future of digital amateur radio.

 Awaiting your rotten tomatoes,

Steve K2GOG

Co-Founder HVDN

80's & 90's Flash Back Hand Held's

Jonathan KC2BNW gives an update on some vintage radios he enjoys using as part of his different SOTA and related outdoors adventures.

Teardown: Alinco DJ-MD5XTG (2nd Generation DMR)

What can I cay, I have always liked Alinco products going back to my first ever HT, the credit card sized Alinco DJ-C1T.  

Much has happened in  the world of amateur radio since and Alinco continues to do interesting things via its latest DMR handheld offering, the DJ-MD5XTG. 

This article details from the inside out, what makes this model different than its predecessor. 

Alinco had different DJ-MD5 radios?

Let me first start out and dispel a rumor I created that the latest Alinco DJ-MD5XTG would support the 220 MHz band. It does not or at least officially, which makes the band coverage on par with the popular Anytone AT-D878UV, available from vendors such as Bridgecom.

At the time of this article, the second generation Alinco DMR DJ-MD5XTG is available in the United States by DX Engineering.

When purchasing an Alinco DJ-MD5 series radio, there are now three versions that have been created and the most basic DJ-MD5T is discontinued. The major difference between it and the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is the inclusion of GPS functionality.

 If you are looking to sell your original DJ-MD5 series radio to offset the cost in buying the new radio or are looking for a deal, please think about some of the following based on the teardown of the new DJ-MD5XTG.

The major differences

I did the hard work so you do not have to by doing a basic tear down of the DJ-MD5XTG and comparing it to the DJ-MD5TGP, which I also tore down back in November 2018. The below non-RF major component  table will help guide us along. 

Both versions main PCB interestingly both show that they are both considered revision 2.0, but with different date of manufacture codes.

1st Point: You get a faster MCU with more memory

Really the only major difference is that the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG upgrades to a 1024k flash and 96k SRAM memory configuration which is identical to that of the Anytone AT-D878UV.  

The older Alinco DJ-MD5TGP and DJ-MD5T (Without GPS) has the 512K flash and 64K SRAM memory configuration. The GD32F3030 (VGT6) is what is found inside the latest Alinco DMR radio.

The extra memory, like in the competing Anytone radio, allows for Alinco to support a few new features in the software which we will talk about later such as roaming and analog transmission of AX.25 based APRS. There is also a GPS/Baidou toggle, weather alert and few other changes.

If you have really good eyesight, you may notice what appears to be sloppy soldering on the MCU, but this is intentional. 

Alinco has bridged the shown pins on purpose, just like as found in the earlier Alinco DJ-MD5 radio as well as the Anytone AT-D878UV and the earlier AT-868UV. 

I just want to point this out that there is no bad workmanship inside this radio, especially since many find it easy to question construction capabilities of radios made today to save costs because of frugal or entry level customers.

The Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is indeed a high quality product and assembled/manufactured in Japan and not China like most, not all Alinco communications equipment.

However, the absolutely useless instruction manual which is little more than an instruction guide on how to attach the belt clip, connect the battery, screw in the antenna and turn on the radio along with some basic operation instructions is indeed printed in China, so take that for whatever value you want to place on that.

For what the manual is, it is rather well made and laid out, but just lacks any major value.

2nd Point:  Newer versions of other major components

Beyond the MCU (Micro Controller Unit), the baseband vocoder which helps your radio become a DMR radio, has a new production code and but is identical to the 2018 version of the SCT3258TD. 

Everything else is the same too and the only other differences which have not yet been thoroughly  tested  on the the main PCB are some slight changes in the RF front end and filtering compared to the older radio.  The below photo shows the main PCB along with the two RF shields removed on the DJ-MD5XTG.

3rd Point: What does the FCC have to say?

The Alinco DJ-MD5XTG does carry the FCCID of  PH3DJ-MD5, which is the same as its predecessor, so we may see an update on the FCC website in the coming months, but it does not seem like it may mean much from an RF perspective. Here is the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG fully disassembled.

Hardware:  DJ-MD5XTG instead of the Anytone AT-D878UV?

What attracted me to the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP back in 2018 are the same reasons as the DJ-MD5XTG.

Starting with how to program the Alinco with the Computer Programming Software (CPS) is that you use a common USB micro cable used with smart phones instead of a dedicated cable like that of the Anytone and other radios like the TYT, Radioddity, Lanch HG-UV98, Baofeng and Ailunce radios that have been covered across past HVDN articles plus the much higher end Kenwood TH-D74.

This may be a benefit to some people if you have a habit of misplacing things and need an instant replacement. It is also worth noting that while the Kenwood D74 can be programmed wirelessly via Bluetooth, it can also use a standard USB micro cable as well.

Another reason I like the Alinco over the Anytone is that it is a perfect radio for taking hiking. The speaker/microphone connection uses a 3.5mm jack for the speaker/headphone function and the smaller 2.5mm jack for the microphone. 

While this is now considered opposite of what used to the standard, this lets me use a regular pair of wired 3.5mm stereo headphones or earbuds with the Alinco should I wish to listen to communications or music privately.  While its common to have Bluetooth earbuds these days, sometimes a wired version is helpful to have since they do not require rechargeable batteries!

One thing I did learn with the original Alinco MD-5TGP is that using a speaker microphone seems like a burden, even with the nicely made Alinco EMS-76.  

Alinco and its resellers caution every user to only use this microphone with this new DMR radio, but if you have an older microphone wired the same as the EMS-76, it will work just fine. 

Just avoid trying any of the speaker microphones meant for other radios as they will damage your radio due to incompatible wiring.

I say a speaker mic might be a waste since the microphone is nearly the same size as the radio itself. Instead, while hiking as an example, I just clip the radio upside down on my pack strap such as pictured below while visiting Red Hill Tower last September as part of the Catskill Fire Tower Five Challenge.

The Anytone AT-D878UV still offers Bluetooth capability for remote PTT and for pairing to external audio devices.  It would be nice to see bluetooth added in the future to the Alinco DJ-MD5 series, but battery life may then become an issue.

My personal opinion is that I do not see this as any shortcoming. Please also be aware that the SMA-J style antenna connector is used on the DJ-MD5XTG like its predecessors, so this is NOT the same as what is used on the Kenwood D74 for comparison.

Software:  This needs another article or three, maybe four?

There are some new features found in the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG which will really make it appeal to those that enjoy an active converged lifestyle and some future articles will cover:

• What is roaming and do you really need it?

• Analog APRS:  This is the original, not the new APRS or D-APRS

• GPS: How do you set it up and actually use it

• Proof is in the programming:  Basic US Alinco DJ-MD5XTG code plug

• Talking about the band options in the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG

Keep an eye on the HVDN Notebook for future articles all December long about the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG or bookmark this handy link. https://hvdnnotebook.blogspot.com/search/label/Alinco%20DJ-MD5XTG 

Great, another DMR radio? But, with real 220 MHz?

Alinco was the first main stream amateur radio vendor to offer a DMR radio way back in 2016 with its  DJ-MD40 UHF only radio.  Less than two years later, they came to market with the dual band DJ-MD5TGP which included a GPS and was roughly based on the same reference design as the popular Anytone D878UV. Main stream being defined as Alinco often being included alongside Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu.

With many other radios such as the TYT MD-UV380, Radioddity GD-77, Baofeng DM-1801 and Ailunce HD1 offering dual band spectrum coverage at various price and feature differences, it looks like Alinco is about to offer its second generation version of its 2018 released "MD5" radio for short and it will offer a few things not found elsewhere, including a third band for some markets! 

This now further cements that Alinco is only going to focus on DMR for the amateur market, Kenwood and Icom on D-Star and Yaesu on Fusion for the time being until hopefully the HVDN backed M17 project and its TR-9 open source radio finds a manufacturing partner in China or maybe with one of the main stream vendors to stop fragmentation with so many competing digital modes.

How many MD5 are there?

There has always been some confusion while looking at discussion boards on Facebook as to how many different MD5 radios are there and the answer has always been two.

The DJ-MD5TGP has been the more expensive version and included a GPS.  The slightly lower cost DJ-MD5T is identical, but does not have the GPS and typically sells for $20 less.  Both versions are covered under the FCC ID of PH3DJ-MD5. The earlier DJ-MD40 can be found under FCC ID PH3DJ-MD5. 

The new, but not yet FCC certified Alinco DJ-MD5XT is going to likely require its own FCC ID as early documentation shows that this will be the first true tri-band DMR radio which will cover the 2m, 70cm and 1.25m amateur radio bands, plus extended receive above and below the VHF and UHF bands as usual. 

Looking in the just released computer programming software available on the Remtronix website, it clearly shows an option under MHF for 220 to 225 MHz.

Hackers are already salivating....

When it was discovered that certain band combinations would allow reception and transmission above 480 MHz just like in the Anytone D878UV and BTECH 6X2, Alinco was quick to issue new firmware to prevent this, but was easily bypassed with a 3rd party software tool to enable 480 to 520 MHz coverage. 

These extra frequencies are sought after in countries like Australia where there are UHF CB channels and in the United States where first responders such as New York City Police and Fire user channels above 480 MHz. 

Without spending time attempting to get an Alinco MD-5TGP with or without the patched 1.13c or 1.10 firmware to work with the CPS 1.09a meant for the new Alinco DJ-MD5XT, it would likely appear that the new Alinco DJ-MDXT due to having a band option meant for 1.25m should suggest there is different hardware inside that will offer safe operation of the 220 MHz band.

While many radios mentioned in this article can be "hacked" to give the impression they will work on the 1.25 band, it is not suggested to transmit as it will ruin the RF power amplifier and filtering in the radio since it is not designed for that spectrum.  Hopefully the Alinco DJ-MD5XT will support this great and underutilized band available only in the United States and few other countries globally. 

Related Reading

• FLASH NEWS!: Alinco MD-5 Series Cleared by FCC (Published Sept 20th 2018)

• The Official "NOT" Review of the Alinco MD-5 Series (Published Oct 4th 2018)

• Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio (Published Nov 7th 2018)

• Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review (Published Nov 18th 2018)

• Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP (Published March 7th 2019)

Alinco DJ-MD5TGP: Upgrade Vocoder Process

It has been widely confirmed that the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP,  BTECH 6X2 and Anytone AT-D878 are essentially the same reference design and only have a few differences in hardware or software.

As discovered by Jason Reilly and his excellent page regarding the Anytone 868 and 878, it is possible for the user to change the vocoder.  This is done via software and is detailed here.

Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Baseband

HVDN was the first to point out that it was possible to expand the frequency range of the Alinco MD-MD5TGP.  The procedure for that was not far different than that of the Anytone, so upgrading the vocoder followed the same procedure with just a few differences.  Proceed at your own risk in doing this upgrade.

In our "Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review" article in November 2018, we pointed out the SICOMM SCT3258 chip and this is where the magic vocoder resides.

Go ahead and download this file from Jason's Tiny Upload link for the Anytone 878.  You can follow his instructions closely, but for the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP you will need to:

• Hold down # and PTT while turning the radio on to enter boot mode for SCT

• In the SICOMM software, you need to set the speed to 115200, not 9600 baud.

The Alinco DJ-MD5TGP used for this test already had version V2.01.05NJ. It was simple to upgrade to V2.01.07BA.  The receive audio seems to be even more pleasant now on DMR and preliminary audio reports seem positive, but more testing needs to be done.

Thank you Jason for all your great documentation!

More about the Alinco MD-5TGP via HVDN:

• Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review

• Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio

• FLASH NEWS!: Alinco MD-5 Series Cleared by FCC

• The Official "NOT" Review of the Alinco MD-5 Series

• Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP

• October 2018 Global Digital Repeater Round Up

NXDN: What is it and where is it?

Digital Mobile Radio or DMR for short is where most of the digital voice activity is taking place in amateur radio today followed closely by Yaesu's C4FM based System Fusion.

On the rise, but still far away in terms of users and repeaters is NXDN.  Just like DMR, NXDN is an open standard and was jointly developed by Icom and Kenwood, who in the amateur radio world only have the well aged D-Star mode on offer to cater to digital voice amateur enthusiasts.

Yaesu Fusion is not an open standard although it shares some similar attributes with NXDN because of underlying technology. Alinco is the only current non-Chinese original vendor to offer an amateur grade DMR radio.

The History of NXDN

After 3 years of development, the NXDN standard was finalized in 2005 and product aimed towards commercial users appeared one year later.

NXDN is based around frequency division, multiple access technology which allows different communication streams to run concurrently with only minor frequency separation.  While Yaesu Fusion is also FDMA based, it is not compatible with NXDN or dPMR, which is starting to become popular as PMR or FRS unlicensed analog radio replacements in certain parts of the world.

DMR which is TDMA or time division multiple access based interweaves two different communication streams together in one 12.5 kHz wide channel. 

NXDN can make used of its FDMA technology to run in either a signal communication stream mode in a channel that is 6.25 kHz wide or marry two streams together and still work in one 12.5 kHz stream.  DMR can only work in one 12.5 kHz channel and offers no narrow band option.

Both NXDN and DMR can support voice/voice, data/data or voice/data essentially at the same time in the same 12.5 kHz channel which is very efficient. DMR is the only mode in use today in amateur radio that is actively capable to support this "two discussions, on the same frequency, at the same time" functionality though.

As of the time of this article, the only way for amateur radio operators to use NXDN is through commercial new or surplus equipment. There is not one single amateur grade or market NXDN radio available.  It is possible for users of Yaesu Fusion and DMR to talk to NXDN users by way of mode translation offered my MMDVM hotspots, but this is not the same as native speaking NXDN to NXDN radio.

In past HVDN articles, we have covered the rise of DMR by looking at the number of repeaters deployed globally.  When it comes to NXDN, we will track registered users and also repeaters moving forward starting with this article.

United States: NXDN Amateur Adoption 

DMR started life as a commercial communications solution but in a few short years started to see second life in amateur radio. NXDN may be the eventual front runner for digital amateur communication for a few reasons. Lets first look at the current state of NXDN adoption in the United States which holds much of the global activity so far.

As of the May 2019, there are only 1,963 global registered users ID's for NXDN and 61.6% of them are in the United States. 

Of the 61 represented countries in the radioid.net database, 6 other countries capture 20.3% of the remaining NXDN ID's which leaves 54 countries around the world to account for the remaining 18% of users not yet accounted for.

The total number of NXDN user IDs grouped by major geographic regions indicate that the south eastern part of the country is the hotbed for NXDN users with Florida and Arkansas holding the two largest pools of users as of the time of this article.

Another view through the lens of FCC amateur radio regions illustrates that regions 1, 4, and 5 are far ahead of the rest of the country. With a total of 20 states represented out of 51 (Including D.C), there is much room to grow in other areas.

NXDN United States Amateur Repeaters

Over the last few years,  HVDN has used repeaterbook.com to keep track of digital voice repeater data with our latest tracker being issued just before Hamvention 2019.

In the data captured on May 9th 2019, there were 119 NXDN repeaters globally.  With Hamvention over, there is already one additional NXDN repeater according to the same data source bringing the total to 120.

NXDN: Future Outlook

With only commercial equipment for both radios and repeaters being available to amateur radio operators, should a vendor such as Icom or Kenwood introduce the next generation of digital voice radio based around NXDN, they may possibly create a similar growth trajectory that DMR has experienced in recent years. 

This may put Yaesu in a tough position to maintain control over its single vendor C4FM/FDMA/YSF/Fusion ecosystem unless it opens up its standard to all other vendors to promote inter-operable digital voice radios across vendors. 

Chinese vendors like Ailunce,  TYT, Radioddity and Retevis may also be challenged to compete, but may eventually offer lower cost NXDN equipment. Alinco does currently offer NXDN capable radio such as the DJ-NX40, but is aimed at commercial users.

Further reading:

• May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

• October 2018 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

• Digital Voice Radio Made In South Dakota?

• Watch! Two Time Slots In Action

• That was quick:  NXDN to DMR

• May 2018 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP

The Alinco DJ-MD5TGP can now easily be expanded to receive up to 520 MHz which is helpful to those that live in areas that use frequencies above 480 MHz such as New York City.

After upgrading the Alinco from FW 1.00 to the not 100% publicly available FW 1.04, I decided to try some key commands that did not work before while trying to reach the same frequency expansion results in the past.

Given that the Anytone AT-D868UV, AT-D878UV and BTECH 6X2 all share certain design elements as the Alinco this not all all too surprising with the latest firmware update rolled out to the Alinco DMR dual band radio.

How To Expand

Step 1: Hold down the 1 key, PTT and the side button directly underneath PTT while turning the radio on will show "DJ-MD5 TEST MODE" quickly followed by the Alinco splash screen.

Step 2: Rotate the multi-selector knob on the top of your radio to the desired operational mode and then turn off the radio.

Step 3: Your radio now will function as the mode you selected.

Using with CPS

If you read the data from your radio using the "Model" function, it should show which of the 14 options available through the test mode with the latest CPS v1.03.

Its now safe to start writing a new code plug or importing channel data again back into your radio.

Please note that you will need to inhibit or enable the transmit function on a per channel basis per your legal requirements.

Enjoy your new "receive" capability if you were looking to access frequencies above 480 MHz with a much smaller DMR capable radio compared to the Anytone or BTECH models.

Looking for interesting discussion about getting the most from digital voice communications?  

Check out www.northstardigitalnet.us for details

Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review

In a short amount of time, the new Alinco DJ-MD5TGP has become an easy favorite by the author. 

After doing a fairly basic review that highlighted the programming software as one great feature compared to other DMR radios, I thought it would be good to continue onward with an internal review much like the two part teardown for the TYT UV-380 a few months ago.

Do your own review? If you would like to download Alinco CPS 1.1 for the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP, you can do that here since it is not yet available on the Alinco website. 

The Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is priced to sell and is feature
packed and few of early launch quirks like many other
competing DMR hand held amateur spectrum capable radios

Some Additional Review Thoughts - External Feelings

Before we dive in with some internal photos and details, here are some additional thoughts on why this radio is earning high marks in my opinion. 

The Good: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Display -  At 1.7 inches every bit of information on the color display is well thought out and organized. The closest competitor to the Alinco is the Anytone D868UV and newer D878UV.  

Many features made famous by the various aftermarket firmware such as MD380tools and its variants for TYT or Retevis radios certainly provided inspiration for Alinco.

The only non-DMR radio that would even compete is the $500 Kenwood TH-D74, so for between $170-$190 for the Alinco - you get a lot of thoughtfulness in display layout design.

Alinco DJ-MD5TGP on default level of brightness
showing a typical level of DMR information

The Good: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Side Buttons - Besides the PTT button on the left side of the radio, there are two others.  

Both buttons can be reassigned for too many combinations including a separate function based on a long press or short press, so technically its like having four buttons just like many larger radios. It is also possible to lock out both side buttons which is potentially a nice feature.

The Good: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Connectors - At first, a thought on the change to the SMA-J reverse polarity antenna connector was going to be annoying and force me to rethink all future antenna or connector purchases. 

.... ...- -.. -. .- ..- -... ....

Author Perspective: I think I now understand this is a beneficial connector and not a cheap option that has been found on all the inexpensive "Baofeng" type of radios plus few others that are more premium like the Ailunce HD1 and Anytone D868/D878.  The common SMA Female as it is known on radios like the Icom ID51, Yaesu FT2DR, Kenwood TH-D74 may be the last of that generation to make way for more SMA-J style connectors on hand held radios.

.... ...- -.. -. .- ..- -... .... 

This antenna connector seems like it will prevent potential stress fractures that happened with the MD-2017 connector and anyone who has ever "accidently" dropped a radio.  

While the antenna connector is the same as other non-Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom radios, I welcome the change back to what I think of as standard mic/ear connections. 

Important: The larger 3.5mm plug is for speaker and the 2.5mm is for microphone. 

The benefit with this is having easy ability for most standard headphones to plug in to listen to music via the FM broadcast function or to any other frequency the radio is capable of receiving.  This was standard until opposite became standard, so now we are going back to the old ways. Make sense?  Have a look at Radio Shack HTX-202, Icom W32, Alinco DJ-496 plus other radios of that vintage to better understand.

Alinco DJ-MD5TGP outer casing removed to show GPS
antenna placement, waterproof covering for volume
and channel knob and SMA-J antenna connector

A Baofeng, Kenwood or Retevis microphone will
not work with the Alinco and that may be a good thing

The most exciting option on this radio is the micro USB connector found on pretty much every smartphone aside from the latest USB-C based options like the Google Pixel 3 or Samsung Galaxy S9. This makes future replacement super convenient and inexpensive. 

Standard USB cable for the Alinco, just like the Kenwood TH-D74.
Will all radios soon have common programming cables?

The Good: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Sound -  Audio for such a small radio is loud and not overdriven. As we will see in the tear down, the keypad is essentially in front of the speaker and microphone holes which saves on space to make this a compact and sturdy radio. 

The Good: Alinco DJ-MDTGP Super Features -  There are many cool functions found in this radio, but I am only going to mention two here that may relate to what we will also see in the teardown.  

One is the ability to monitor (listen) to both DMR time slots on the same frequency at the same time thanks to the "Digi Monitor"  function with "Double Slot" enabled. 

This can be off and single slot - which is like "promiscuous mode" or "Group Match Off" found on other radios. 

Pay Attention!! A function like this makes it possible to never, EVER miss any DMR communication on one frequency when "Color Code" is set to the "Any" function.    

This is great if traveling or wanting to casually monitor, but this feature may get annoying if there are two different discussions taking place at the same time on different time slots since the audio on both is at the same level. 

The second super feature is almost laughable, but allows you to customize the maximum receive volume level. Setting a low level gives greater range of control across the entire rotation of the volume knob. This feature helps solve some of this sort of issues with digital audio that is hard to have good automatic gain control (AGC) to solve.

Teardown Key Points

The following sequence of photos include comments as to the "internal" impact on what makes this radio unique. 

The only other radio that is considered the most popular DMR radio is the Anytone D868/D878 which is roughly the same size as the TYT 380 style radios or re-branded Retevis options.   There is already a decent teardown of the Anytone D868 here  and here which we will learn has some similarities to the new Alinco and possibly even more with the new Anytone D878, including the screen and layout.  

Do better features come in smaller packages? 

Behind the front cover PCB

Alinco has seemed to engineer this well and may not suffer this issue as found on older keypad designs.  All buttons are interspersed with the speaker grill opening. The speaker is behind the button overlay.   

Note the GPS antenna positioned at the top of the display which gives it excellent reception compared to the TYT MD-UV380 and MD-380G which uses the identical antenna, but poorly positioned.

Rear of behind front PCB

Two springs contact the speaker from the bottom main PCB and a multi pin connector completes further connection for the keypad and display. This is much better design than ribbon cables that have proved a fault point in main other radios or short soldered wires for the speakers which can be easily broken. 

Front of main PCB

The front side of the main PCB shows the springs and connector that mate to the front PCB.  The large RF shield covers the "front end" of the radio which helps create a receiver that suppresses any internally generated noise. 

A smaller RF shield towards the bottom of the front PCB protects other critically sensitive parts of the software defined radio (SDR) heritage of this radio but is not direct conversion based on the multiple TCXO and real time clock (RTC)

Main PCB of Alinco DJ-MD5TGP prior to removal
of RF shield covering the bulk of the RF front end 

Alinco DJ-MD5TGP main PCB with RF shield
section removed to show the L C filtering

Rear of main PCB

The underside of the main PCB of the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP shows some exciting things. First is the properly placed RFPA that contacts the large metal backing of the radio found under the main battery. 

The main CPU for the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is the GD32F303 which is a cloned version of the ST Micro version called STM32F303. The differences are mostly negligible, but "on paper" specifications list some improvements with this version which also licenses ARM Cortex M3 architecture.

This microcontroller selection may contribute to how Alinco was able to offer the DJ-MD5TGP for the price of $169.99 to $189.99 USD in late 2018.

Also found on the underside of the main PCB are the AT1846S popular SDR chipset used in many DMR radios  Interestingly, the Texas Instruments  very low power stereo audio codec chipset with pretty decent DAC properties is also involved. 

These two chips alongside the main MCU (GD32F303) create some powerful capabilities in such a small package dual band radio.

AT1846S as found in the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP

Texas Instruments AIC3204 as found in the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP

Big Deal:  Dedicated DMR Baseband

We still have not found anything too interesting, but we have yet to talk about the SCT3258 which is a dedicated baseband chip for DMR with built in AMBE3000+ capability. 

This is where the magic likely happens for the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP and may enable interesting future upgrades based on cursory glance at the SiComm specification sheet. 

Finally, we arrive at the RDA 5802 FM receiver chip that offers some music reception capability in this unique radio.

What does all this mean anyway?

There is a lot of interesting engineering involved with the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP which is far different compared to radios like the TYT MD-UV380 and Ailunce HD1.

Many manufacturers today no longer include schematics to help in the repair and possible future modification or improvements that could be made at the hardware level.

Instead, the hardware tools are here and only an interest in further software modification can potentially unlock more functionality with modern radios.

Hopefully this teardown may inspire further curiosity in this Alinco radio to educate a buying decision or even the possible eagerness to intentionally void a warranty to poke and prod around the inner workings of this fascinating radio.

The final image to share is that of the ATGM336H GPS chipset.

Basic Bill of Materials 

Use this handwork to estimate the bill of materials for this radio based on these highlighted chips and determine if the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is a good value or not.

I think you may find this latest radio by Alinco represents the best of a modern digital amateur radio as of November 2018 and it will be interesting to see what is the going to be the next big advancement in amateur radio hand held radio offerings.