| KF4ULD |
Rating:   |
2019-11-13 | |
| Power and/or Battery issues |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| First off, my hat's off to MFJ service. I bought one, charged the battery to 100% and listened and called 6M CQ for most of the weekend and thought the battery was kicking ass for me but after two days it was at 80% and just died and would not turn on. So, I charged it back to 100% and unplugged it. The next morning it was at 96% having just sat there for about 10 hours. So do the math=not good. MFJ sent me another one with a label to return the "bad" one and it happened all over again with the second one, two times in a row except the 2nd one worked until about 78% battery. I will have to say though, if they fix this issue, I WILL BE BUYING ANOTHER as I loved this thing while using it and is a HUGE BANG FOR THE BUCK and perfect for my mountain day climbs in the PNW. Anyone else have this issue? Thanks for reading. KF4ULD |
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| W8IJN |
Rating:     |
2019-10-26 | |
| Revised Review: Pretty good field radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
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. |
|
| AD0DQ |
Rating:     |
2019-09-30 | |
| Good QRP Radio, bad documentation |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought my Xiegu from MFJ. They are the only authorized distributor in the United States. I am pretty sure that anyone else selling them on eBay or elsewhere is buying seconds from China. Older versions have different hardware that won't run the newer versions of the firmware. So, first and most important thing: BUY IT FROM MFJ.
Now, I had to wait almost a month for delivery, but it was worth the wait. The radio performs to standards sending out a good 5 watt signals on every band. I would have given this a 5 but for the fact that the documentation is awful and MFJ has not stepped up and gotten a radio person to re-write the manual so that the functions of the radio are properly explained. There is very little information about this radio on line, so if you go searching for help, it's like crying out in the wilderness. All that said, it is still a configurable radio and one that can be used for QRP
I threw a Chameleon EMCOMM III up into a tree and was able to reach Canada on 5 watts voice on 40 meters about 2 weeks ago. I thought that was pretty good. Given the recent band conditions I have not tried additional SSB contacts with the unit.
It requires a 13.8 volt 3 amp power supply, and I found one on Amazon (Elenco) for $70. That charges the radio nicely without too much amperage. However, it isn't useful for much of anything else.
I was able to get it set up for PSK using FLDIGI, although it will decode PSK on the unit itself. However, it has no sound card so you cannot send PSK through the unit without a sound card using the line in and line out settings. I bought a sound card from XGGCOMMS in the UK (eBay) and it works quite well. But you have to set it up in FLDIGI as an Icom 7100. You'll have to play with it to get it to recognize it, but it will recognize it.
Since I did not want to mess with the internals of my MacBook, I set up my laptop with HRD and used HRD as the front end for WSJT-X and have made contacts with both PSK and FT8 using the radio. When band conditions come back from Hades or wherever they are, I expect to be able to make good use of this radio as a traveling radio with my laptop and power supply and wire antenna.
A couple of things I noticed. The manual was written with prior firmware, and the menus do not correspond to the actual menus on version 3 firmware. It took me an hour to find the menu setting in the alternate menus to turn charging on. So do not rely on the manual tracking with the radio. You have to press and hold the menu button to get there, and there are not a lot of menu options found there. One that is, however, is to turn charging on.
The ATU works well. The SWR measurement function built into the radio seems to work reasonably well.
Rumors are that if you disconnect it from DC power while the radio is on it bricks the radio. Obviously I have not tried that. I simply use the radio from battery. I operated for four hours on Sunday night and the battery went down to 88%. It's got a battery that is more than up to the task.
Finally, people who bought from Radioddity seem to report a lot of problems with the CW keyer in the radio. These are mostly the early generation radios that the new firmware fails to operate with. There is a Facebook Support Group for the radio. |
|
| SP6CTC |
Rating:    |
2019-06-10 | |
| Good but no cw rig |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
At the beginning, I would like to emphasize that due to its simplicity and efficiency, the basic emission on QRP radio is the cw (A1). X5105 is an example of how to build a radio (or software, btw.my version is V1.0.06) by people who have no idea about the issue of the cw. It is not enough that the radio does not have the possibility of transmitting cw after pressing PTT (with QSK disconnected), it is impossible to transmit cw when setting the switching times rx / tx below 100ms (the setting range available in the menu is from 0 ms!).
Other disadvantages noted are:
- high sensitivity of the radio to the RF field, also its own transmitter,
- it is not possible to smoothly adjust the received bandwidth,
- it is not possible to choose the width of the broadcast band at SSB,
- no possibility of tuning the symmetrical BFO tuning (in my radio I noticed differences in the setting of LSB and USB filters with also cw and cwR),
- no possibility to monitor your own SSB signal,
- WPM speed changes when switching to transmit,
- electrical diagrams of the device are not available.
As a buyer and user of this radio, I expect XIEGU to quickly introduce changes that I hope will eliminate at least the most of the abovementioned disadvantages. As the enthusiast of telegraphy emission, despite of other good features, for today I give a only 3/5 rating.
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|
| EI3IBB |
Rating:      |
2019-06-08 | |
| Great little radio ! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a great little radio, I use it portable with a hyendcompany.nl portable mini 4 band 100 watt end fed, no radials and no earth. First time I used this antenna in my mothers I got into Slovenia on 20 meters from Ireland with the X5105, mounted about 20-25 feet in the air between two trees, He called , I answered and he heard me straight away, first time. Good antenna for this radio when portable.
The tuner is brilliant. Will tune pretty much anything. But don't really need it with the 4 band endfed from hyendcompany.But I have used it to tune random lengths of wire and my myantennas.com base antenna the 8010 on 160 and 60 meters no problem.
To make use of as much of the 5 watts as possible using a resonant antenna will be better than using the tuner but it's useful for flattening our any swr that may exist.
Receiver can be a bit noisy on the lower bands but I have been lucky enough to test the upcoming firmware and NR is good but NB does nothing so far , it does not reduce electric fence noise However this is at my QTH and I'll be mainly using it portable and not on 80 meters and the FW I am using right now is in beta, NB never did anything anyway. It shows Xiegu are committed to keeping this transceiver updated.
Battery life is good and saves carrying around a separate battery and it's much better then others that have to use AA NiMh cells and it outputs full power until depleted.
The SWR analyzer is a very handy feature !
I have not yet used any digital modes.
It's a good radio , as good as the elecrafts ? I don't know , I don't have one but can it be almost 3 times as good to reflect the price ( E.U price ), does it have Lithium battery and can it output full power to the end ?
The X5105 is a good little radio and I'm making contacts on it and that's what it's all about. Throw in a small bag with a small end fed antenna and find a tree or get spiderbeam 12 m pole and off you go.
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|
| KJ6MC |
Rating:     |
2019-04-27 | |
| Nice, in spite of MFJ |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I was worried at first. The fact that MFJ was selling these was a definite negative, as, after two decades of experience, I have always associated MFJ with low-quality products and lack of customer service to match. But the X5105 is an excellent radio in spite of MFJ. A completely self-contained, well-thought out and exceptionally easy to use radio, don't let the unfortunate stain of the association with MFJ dissuade you from an otherwise great radio. |
|
| 2M0AYZ |
Rating:      |
2019-02-06 | |
| Very nice rig for QRP portable. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I've been using mine for a while now, and haven't had any issues with it at all. The build-quality is very good. It feels robust and solid. The kickstand (legs) are just right for portable operations. The display is good even in sunlight. The DSP and filters work very well. The battery and built-in ATU are what sealed the deal for me. It's a very complete radio.
I can't think of anything else to say.
It just works. |
|
| KB6LA |
Rating:      |
2018-08-23 | |
| A very good QRP rig for the money |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I picked up an X5105 second-hand in mint condition. I found it to have a very good receiver, and the tuner is definitely a capable piece of hardware. I don't do too much mobile work, but I wanted to tune down to 40m and forgot I still had a 20m stick on my mag mount. The SWR was off the charts when I tuned down, but I ran the ATU, it tuned up, and I logged a contact before I decided to get up and change the stick!
For the money, it has some cool high-end features, like an SWR spectrum function where you can view the SWR between certain bandwidths, both with the antenna hooked up to the tuner and direct.
To be honest, I'd probably give the rig a 4/5 (still a very good rating), but I decided to go with the 5/5 because of the service!
The rig was purchased by the original owner direct from China, so MFJ would not service it. A few weeks ago, it went deaf - couldn't hear any sort of signal except for really strong AM signals. So I emailed Xiegu with a description and video of the problem, and they had me send it back to them. I just had to pay for return shipping to China, but they repaired for free it in 2 days, sent it UPS Expedited back to me for no additional charge, and I had it back in my hands 2 days after that. That is better service than some commercial radio manufacturers I deal with in the USA!! When I have done the "overseas rig" thing in the past, I just figured the cheaper price was a bet I'd never need service, but in this case, color me impressed. |
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| M0CLS |
Rating:      |
2018-08-09 | |
| Great Portable |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
As portable as you can get in a HF set. Small, battery powered, fantastic ATU, big screen, speech processor, DSP, the list goes on! I use mine for both SSB and Digital FT8 and it works extremely well. The battery lasts a very long time and the tuner will tune almost any antenna you throw at it!
I pondered and pondered whether to buy this radio, my main concern was the fact it was not made by one of the top brands. But after reading only great reviews I decided to buy one. I’m glad I did! If you like SOTA or backpacking this radio will be perfect for you! I use mine with a bandspringer antenna from Sotabeams and that set up works really well. 5w from the top of a hill with a length of wire and a built in speech processor to boot feels more like 300w from my usual qth.
If your wanting a portable qrp transceiver and come across this then buy one, you seriously won’t regret it! |
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| AE7YD |
Rating:      |
2018-07-24 | |
| great radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
In my previous review I was complaining about one of the radio's keyer input dying.
Well, I liked the radio so much for all its features that when I had the opportunity
to buy a used one, I did. I had the same problem with the keyer except that this one
came with a box of accessories including spare stereo jacks. After reading the review
of AA4EX and replacing the jack from my paddle with one that came with
the radio everything now works fine. The first ones came without anything except
the radio and the mike.
I am really happy that it worked out and I hope that I didn't discourage anybody to
buy one. It is an excellent radio. And a keeper. |
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