Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Hemphill (WD9EQD) who writes:
Hi Thomas,
Last night, I was watching the movie “Hollow Man.” Being a ham, I’m always watching for ham gear being used in movies. Quite often they use various Kenwood or Icom handheld radios.
At about 1 and half hours in the movie, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was one
of the more usual (and unlikely) ham heldhelds:
Just from this screen clip, I was pretty sure that I was looking at the Alinco DJ-C5 credit card HT.
I was able to capture another clip that confirmed it:
In the late 90’s, Alinco made three credit card radios; DJ-C1 for two meters, DJ-C4 for 440 and finally the DJ-C5 dual band that could also receive the aircraft band.
The C1 and C4 were earpiece only radios while the C5 had a small speaker added which made it a lot more usable.
They are quite amazing little radios. It was great fun seeing them appear in a movie.
Here’s one of mine with a ink pen next to it to show size:
Thank you for sharing this, Bill! I remember when these credit card-sized HTs were on the market and I wanted one if for no other reason than to feel like a spy! Great catch, OM!
Legal operation if in Europe, 446PMR channel.
446PMR ? The European equiv of FRS.
I had both the 2M and 2/440 versions at different times. They both worked really well – always used an earphone with them as the speaker wasn’t very loud. As long as I was within 10 miles of a repeater with no tall buildings or hills in between, I was able to make QSOs. Batteries eventually wouldn’t charge so I disposed of the . Fun while it lasted.
Steve,
It’s a shame you disposed of them. You can get replacement 3.7v battery packs for them. I have replaced the battery packs on my two DJ-C5 and they just keep on working. In the house or in the car, I find the speaker is loud enough, I have an Allstar node at the house and a portable allstar node for the car. The C5 is perfect for communicating with the nodes.
73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ