Don't ask me why, but ever since Alinco began building HF radios, I have wanted to buy the Alinco DX-77 HF transceiver. You don't see a great many of them come across eBay; the DX-70T/TH are much more common. I owned one of those and found it to be an “OK” transceiver, though I thought the removable front panel arrangement was very poorly engineered.
The performance was excellent, however. I had to send mine back for some bandswitching relays that had to be replaced. I sold it after I received it back from servicing, but not because it didn't function as advertised. I didn't like the VFO knob as it had absolutely NO weight to it. The other controls were fine, the display worked well and the CW filter was excellent, and was standard.
So with this history in mind, I finally snagged a DX-77 transceiver on eBay worth the money. I wasn't really sniping it as much as I was being there at the right time. Apparently no one else was watching this auction end, and I bought it worth the money.
Alinco rigs tend to have lower resale values than the “big 3” name brands, and the DX-70T/TH really offers some great values compared to the other HF mobiles. The DX-77 has been discontinued, but it was in near mint condition.
The rig is likely based on the same main board as the DX-70T/TH; the functions of the rig and features are just about identical. The rig has a front-firing speaker, which I like; the display is well lit and reasonably large. There really aren't a lot of bells and whistles with the rig, though it does have a front-mounted key jack and an internal keyer.
The noise blanker actually blanks noise; the rig features IF shift and RIT/XIT. The CW filter is very good. Again, the main VFO knob is plastic and lightweight, which detracts from the feel of the tuning. With that said, the Alinco is a solid performer and I've been impressed with it. It's NOT an FT-2000, but it isn't in that price range. It's the type of rig that's in the same class as the Icom IC-718, Yaesu FT-450 etc. — an entry-level rig with some very good features (though no DSP).
Under normal operation, the DSP isn't a huge issue, though frankly, I find that I use the DSP on my FT-2000 frequently to cut down QRM. The IF shift feature just doesn't do much to help QRM when running phone, or that's my experience.
The beauty of this rig (and the DX-70 variants) is price — for $300 you can get on HF from home or mobile, and have a reason set of features on a rig. The entry-level newer rigs are selling used on eBay quite a big higher (the IC-718 at about $500 and the FT-450 higher than that).
In that same price range — $500 — you'll find a host of much older HF rigs, including the TS-140, 430, 440, the IC-730,735,740, etc.; and the FT-757GX, FT-767GX, etc. I would probably opt for the newer (and less expensive) Alinco in this instance. There's parts and service still available for the Alincos; parts for some of those older rigs are unobtainable.
I'm going to enjoy the DX-77 awhile, then … who knows? One thing for certain is that it will generally continue to hold the value of the price I paid, and in the mean time, I get to use a rig I always had a hankering to try.