| AC3DB |
Rating:  |
2024-08-25 | |
| Awesome but wanted more power |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Great little radio and ultra portable with built in battery and good tuner but found myself wanting more power than the 5w so it ended up just being my campfire HF receiver. It was very awesome for sitting by the fire decoding SSTV on my fone all night. I upgraded to the G90 and loving it! |
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| WB4FSR |
Rating: |
2024-04-14 | |
| Fun Radio And Excellent Dealer |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I really like this little radio and I've had a lot of fun with it in the field. Others here have pretty accurately listed it's pros and cons. My favorite "Pros" are its form factor (great for packing in your field pack) and the excellent battery life (really excellent).
My unit deleloped an intermittent receive problem after I had owned it for several months. I kinda knew what the problem was (simple internal mechanical issue) but I wasn't about to break the seal and void my warranty unless I had to. So I contacted Radioddity to see if it could be repaired under warranty. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much, but why not ask? To my suprise, Radioddity appologized for the problem and sent me a UPS prepaid label to return it at their expense! Then they sent me a brand new replacement unit. Wow.
Btw, my replacement radio had a couple of refinements not on my original unit. So it would appear that Xiegu continues to refine the radio as time goes by.
73s de WB4FSR
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|
| F8FEO |
Rating:  |
2024-04-09 | |
| the crappiest radio for cw |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Don't buy the 5105 for all modes :
Cw horrible
FT8 : impossible
SSB : not audible
Service : zéro +
manuel : just sufficient
Tuner : ok
battery : ok
I don't say more but this brick is an horror
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|
| W8IJN |
Rating: |
2024-02-21 | |
| Revised Review: Pretty good field radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
21 February 2024:
I have owned two Xiegu X5105s. The first one I reviewed back in 2019. That review follows this one. I sold the first X5105 to defray the cost of buying an Icom IC705. This review is for the present one, manufactured in 2023, which I purchased from Radioddity a few weeks ago. It arrived within five days of purchase.
Given that this radio was manufactured a year ago, it's likely that it is no longer in production. The one I received probably was in a warehouse for a while since it arrived with a stone dead battery. It did charge -- taking the usual 10 hours to do so -- and was good to go from that point on.
I bought this radio to replace an X6100, which I have reviewed and which I consider to be another fine example of Xiegu owners being beta testers. The X6100 is a dog radio; the X5105, though being lower tech (non-SDR) and less powerful, is still the better radio. No, the X5105 does not have a pretty color screen or easily accessed CW memories but the battery lasts longer and it has considerably fewer birdies and spurs than the X6100. (I logged over 75 birdies on the X6100 on the ham bands between 3.5MHz and 29MHz, no antenna connected.) And the internal microphone on the X5105 works; the one in the X6100 doesn't. Simply put, the X5105 is a more physically robust radio, perfect for travel.
Before this turns into an encomium let's go thru the pros & cons (vs some of the X6100, of course, because comparisons with experience are inevitable).
Pros:
-- Good three hour battery life for portable ops
-- Built in ATU -- tunes pretty much anything longer than 30ft of wire & coax feeds
-- Husky build -- Solid heat sink, reasonable weight (1kg/2lbs)
-- Clearly legible screen with menu selected spectrum & SWR scan displays
-- Illuminated buttons
-- Power level control down to microWatts
-- Decent filtering
-- Internal microphone works well & sounds good
Cons:
-- Battery charge takes hours. Seriously. From full dead to full charge, at least 10 hours
-- Message memories are not easily used or accessible
-- A few birdies, one of which is seriously loud at 28.4 MHz but way fewer than the X6100.
-- Digital/FT8 &c hook up requires external adaptor (no USB port) & cables
In all, however, I still consider the X5105 to be one of the better Xiegu offerings. It's not as pretty or as styled after the IC705 as the X6100 and the message memory set up is clearly not for serious consideration. But the ATU does work, you can see what frequency you're on and the SWR scan is pretty much equivalent to a NanoVNA, making antenna set up pretty easy. As a simple features POTA/SOTA radio goes, it's perfect.
Still a good buy at the price. And now that you can find the schematics (on the groups.io files page), definitely worth it. Five stars easy.
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26 October 2019:
This is a revision of my review of the X5105 from 9 September 2019. I have had this radio on the air many times since that first review. This review reflects my assay of the recent firmware revision (V3.007) that is available from the X5105 FaceBook page to those who have joined that page. The new firmware has not yet appeared on the Xiegu nor the Radioddity site.
I bought this radio through Radioddity, the same firm that ships the radio for Amazon. Their help in resolving problems with the radio has been excellent. I would buy from Radioddity again.
There are two hardware versions of this radio. The serial numbers on the radios mean nothing. My radio is an obvious A-series with a serial number of X0301101. There are A-series radios with lower serial numbers and some with higher numbers.
. . . The original A-series build is usually delivered with the simple screen shown in the info box at the top of this page. Radios delivered without a plexiglass screen over the display are definitely A-series builds. These radios usually come with Version 1 firmware from late 2018. You can upgrade the firmware but the early Version 3 firmware (V3.006) has a bug in CW. With this firmware you will get a hiccup in the CW note. Dits will come out d-dit; dahs will come out d-dah. You will not notice this if you listen on another receiver near the X5105.
. . . The second hardware version of this radio looks just like the A-series but it usually has the V3 firmware installed. Reports from other users on the FB group hint that some of these radios will not have the CW bug. Others will have the bug.
Xiegu recently released an updated Version 3 firmware (V3.007) that appears to cure the CW bug and provide the owners of both A and B series builds with the updated screen, a much more manageable menu system and CW, RTTY and PSK decode as well as VOX. The older firmware deep menu functions have all but disappeared. Some of those settings have been moved to the standard operating screen menu. This includes RF gain.
. . . My experience with this new firmware is positive. However, there are some interesting "features" involved in this new firmware.
. . . While the CW operation has been improved and debugged, the new firmware allows the keyer to act as a PTT if the radio is in SSB modes. If the radio is in CW mode, the PTT button on the microphone will produce a CW note. This means the PTT button can be used as a straight key. Interesting feature.
. . . The new firmware appears to make the receiver a lot more quiet but there is still an obvious white noise hiss from the receiver when the radio is not connected to an antenna. This annoyance is somewhat controlable by the RF gain setting on the front menu. (There is a deep menu function to adjust the S-meter gain to match or coincide with the RF gain control.)
. . . The DSP AF filter and noise reduction filter appears to be improved. It's hard to make side-by-side comparisons when you only have one radio.
Over all the X5105 is a pretty decent & manageable field radio. The enclosed battery is less easily serviced than on one of the Elecraft boxes of similar size. The antenna tuner works well with wire antennas and coax feed set up, though I am the kind of person who prefers the ATU to be at the end of a transmission line at the base of the antenna (which is easy if you're running a wire at the beach from the side of the radio). The AF gain is seriously adequate and the AF modulation seems to be quite good in SSB and FM.
. . . The new firmware makes the X5105 a radio worth a try. And at a price easily half of that of the American-made competition, it's worth the money. Thus the move up to four stars. The one star minus comes from the reluctance of Xiegu to share the circuit and firmware details with users. |
|
| HB9DTC |
Rating: |
2023-07-21 | |
| The most perfect SOTA device ever made. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| In my opinion, after two years of use, the Xiegu X5105 is the most perfect SOTA device ever. Top robust, top battery, top readability in bright sunlight, top antenna tuner, top price performance, very good receiver or sound but only with headphones, the speaker should definitely be improved, the sound is very weak on the speaker. Very good modulation with Icom microphone even top. Later I bought the Xiegu 6100. This is less useful for extreme Sota, so I sold it again. What I don't like at all is the BNC connection, even a 180g telescopic antenna pushes the BNC connection on Pedestrian mobile to its limits. But I also run FT8 and FT4 etc. with a USB Digimode-4 from home with great success. Longest distance 24'000 km LP to Australia with FT4, what should be even better? However, the device is poorly documented. It is a pity that the robust concept is no longer pursued. |
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| KT8DX |
Rating: |
2022-09-29 | |
| Holds its own in the ARRL CW DX Contest |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Ordered it on a Tuesday from Radioddity and got it on Saturday. Unboxed it and started contacting stations in the DX contest without reading the manual.
Yes, there is a little receiver desens but nowhere near what I expected. I've certainly used worse over the years.
Yes, its $500 but frankly the most impressive $500 rig I've used in quite a while. I owned an 817 for a long time, but the small display and poor ergonomics were annoying. I also have an 857d, which is perhaps a better radio but again, the form factor for portable and current drain is a problem.
There are lot of great reviews here, and I won't duplicate them. I'm just one rather picky old ham here who is very pleasantly surprised with this rig. I think it is the beginning of a beautiful relationship...
Bob KT8DX |
|
| W4TU |
Rating: |
2022-02-26 | |
| Excellent QRP rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I bought my X5105 a little over three years ago. It covers 6 -160 meters at 0.5 - 5W (your choice), The built in 3800mAH battery lasts a very long time. The automatic antenna tuner has successfully tuned anything I've thrown at it. Really, really nice little QRP portable radio. I've had no problems at all.
It does have DSP bandwidth filters which you can adjust to your needs but they are buried in a menu so you probably won't be doing it on the fly. There is also very decent DSP noise reduction, a notch filter (probably also DSP), and a really decent receiver. I had a Yaesu FT-817ND until recently and in terms of receiver performance the Xiegu is worlds better. If someone has found this radio to be "deaf" or lacking sensiivity then theirs needs repair.
The only reason I may move on from this radio is the X6100 once Xiegu works out the bugs. It's an excellent QRP rig that I do recommend. |
|
| M3VXJ |
Rating: |
2022-02-21 | |
| Could be a lot better |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had my X5105 for more than 12 months, also owning Yaesu and Elecraft products I feel well placed to comment:
Pros:
Great package supplied with power cable, USB cable, and remote control microphone
Neat transceiver in a solid feeling case with low profile controls - handy in the rucksack.
Long battery life
Feels really good quality
Covers top band to 6m
Regular easy to install firmware updates (so far)
Internal ATU seems to tune anything including the fence around my house!
Cons:
Suffers from awful RF feedback into radio. Necessary to fit ferrites to USB cable if you are planning any digital work.
Earphone socket useless. The radio is fitted with a stereo socket and documentation advises you that only stereo phones should be used. Persistent RF into the headphones is coming from somewhere. Apparently (Xiegu say) socket is not designed for headphone use and recommendation from other users is to use bluetooth wireless headphones or to use the socket to feed into an amplifier. Very poor.
Charging takes an age.
The receiver on mine is mediocre at best. Although other people have not reported this.
Supplied manual is pointless.
Comparisons:
I compared this in the field with a very old FT-817ND recently using a tuned dipole. The FT-817nd far outperformed it with a better receiver and better reports from other stations on transmit. The Yaesu benefits from 2m and 70cm too.
There is no real comparison to KX line. The X5105 has 6m band which the KX2 doesn't have, but when it comes to usability, both KX2 and KX3 outperform this rig on the airwaves. The X5105 is no cheap KX alternative but then it doesn't pretend to be.
If I were spending the money again I wouldn't bother with it but invest a bit more in the FT-818nd or FT-891 - or better still save up for a KX3.
Overall - disappointing so far.
Update
Feb 2022. Okay. Time has moved on. I regret this has now become a 5* paperweight on my desk. As a HF/6m portable it is pointless. Deaf on the airwaves, poor RF output. Xiegu seem to have abandoned any firmware updates in favour of newer models. Lack of circuit diagrams and manuals mean investigating performance further is nigh on impossible. I doubt I will spend any more money on Xiegu hardware unless something changes or improves with the company. |
|
| RW9OA |
Rating: |
2021-04-29 | |
| Requires revision by the manufacturer. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I changed RS918 to X5105 for the sake of the prospect of working at 50 MHz. Controlling the transceiver is much easier, but that is where the benefits end. It is also possible to note the excellent protection of the transmitter output from load mismatch. I work most often in FT8 and it turned out that the transceiver-interface-computer bundle is very sensitive to interference from the antenna, moreover, from the magnetic component of the field most of all. Under the same conditions, there were no failures in the operation of the RS918. This is upsetting. I had to abandon the CAT system, perhaps this is useful as prevention of dementia! |
|
| WA4GKQ |
Rating: |
2021-01-19 | |
| Great Ergonomics Compared to Elecraft KX2/KX3 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
There are already many excellent reviews here of the Xiegu X5105 and I mostly agree with them. It is simply a great little QRP radio, especially after the Version 3 firmware upgrade.
I also own and use an Elecraft KX2, which is probably the closest competitor to the X5105. My observations here relate more to the X5105's comparison to the KX2, not so much technically but more related to user ergonomics and usability.
My comments are based on several years of experience with electronics products from USA companies such as Elecraft, MFJ, and others, versus Chinese products such as the X5105.
For reasons I don't pretend to understand, products such as the KX2 and MFJ's products that are designed electronically and mechanically by US companies, tend to be less well designed from an esthetic, ergonomic, and user's point of view --- very basic, unattractive, square corners, complex menu systems, confusing multi-function buttons, controls and connectors in the wrong place, and displays that are often non-intuitive.
Asian products, even cheap ones, seem to have been more carefully designed and engineered with the user in mind. The Xiegu X5105 is a good example. It has somewhat inferior electronics specs, compared to the KX2, but it "looks" better, it "feels" better, has more "useful" user features, and it is simply "better" to use. Everything about it seems to have been well thought out, whereas the KX2 seems to be a "just make it work" and "basic box" product, although somewhat technically superior.
I could mention numerous examples but I'll just point out one here. The X5105 has the mic jack on the right side of the unit. Most people are right-handed, so the cord from the mic will not cross over the rig while using. The KX2's mic jack is on the left side. Why??? Same with the key jack. ???
Based on my years of experience with not only radio products but several other categories of products, including automobiles, Asian companies are creating products that, in my opinion, are significantly superior in terms of user features and user interface (UI) when compared to US-designed products. Apple might be the only exception.
Why is this? Is there some kind of cultural thing in China that says users are just as important, or more important, than technical specs, or cost, or expediency? As a former engineer myself, there was (is) an old saying that "engineers design products for other engineers, not users."
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