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Reviews For: Xiegu X6100

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : Xiegu X6100
Reviews: 19MSRP: 695 Euro
Description:
Xiegu X6100 is an ultra-portable 10W SDR transceiver (Software Defined Radio) for HF and 6m. High performance and rich functionality is provided by a direct down-conversion and sampling architecture. With its compact size and smart form factor X6100 brings you a brand-new experience of amateur radio.
Product is in production
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
83.5193.3
KG9H Rating: 2022-05-15
Nice for the price Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Cannot beat it for the price. Yes they are sill working on firmware but I am happy with the radio as it stands. Battery life not extremely good at 2-1/2 hours but overall I am happy with it. Great DSP, nice display transmit audio nice as well
NE7X Rating: 2022-05-01
Great FUN radio ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is not an ICOM IC705, however it does not cost as much as an IC-705. The bottom line, it works, you can make QSOs with it. And for me, it's a FUN Transceiver. internal battery last 3 hours at 5 watts RF output. Make sure you have the latest firmware V1.1.5 Apr 10 2022 installed. It addresses and resolves most of the issues listed in the previous review comments.
NE7X...
N5ID Rating: 2022-02-08
Terrible radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The X6100 noise reduction is terrible as it distorts both SSB and CW signals even on the lowest NR settings. When using headphones if you push the multi knob to adjust the filters there is a very loud pop in the headphones. With no antenna hooked up to the rig and RF gain set at 50% the noise level is S3. I am sending it back to HRO.
WD8BP Rating: 2022-02-07
Easy receiver overload Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Wanted to try this new qrp radio to use on FT-8 and other low power digital modes. Sent directly from China took 1 week, customs held it for 4 days...not sure why? Physical construction is very robust,minus the stand -up legs;somewhat weak. The pan adapter and all functions appear to work, but in my particular location the radio was unusable; do to overload. Adjusting the rf, limited the overload, but also limited signal strength. Attenuator did not offer much help. Updated to latest version per Radiooddity's suggestion; did not correct issue. Bandwidth is only 2.4kc's on rec/xmit. There is no p/l for 10mtr /6 meter fm repeater use. Not sure why? Radioodity wanted to send out a replacement, but decided to return for refund. Never made a contact on it because could not hear stations very well. Using EFW 75ft antenna with counterpoise radials and #4 copper ground wire. Perhaps there will be future firmware updates that will assist in the overload problem. Antenna tuner did work very well.
5B4AIY Rating: 2022-02-04
A Work In Progress Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Let's first discuss what this is not - it is not a finished product, but a 'work in progress', an experimental rig with which you can participate in the development.

The Good
It has an excellent high resolution display (800x400) which is more than bright enough to be readily visible in direct sunlight. It has a very useful panadaptor and waterfall, with a span of either 50kHz or 100kHz. The audio quality from its diminutive internal speaker is surprisingly good, and even better if connected to a wide range bookshelf speaker. The noise suppression capability is amongst the best I've heard, certainly on a par with that of my Yaesu FTDX101D and the Icom IC-7300. The user interface is reasonably intuitive, if a little inconsistent. (Some menu items are adjusted with the MFK knob, others with the + and - buttons.) It has internal decoders for CW, BPSK, and RTTY. The microphone buttons greatly extend the utility of the control of the transceiver. It has an internal ATU that seems to be capable of matching to a wide range of loads.

The Bad
The internal battery is essentially useless. At an input voltage of 13.8V, the receiver current consumption is about 380mA, 10W transmit is about 2.44A, and 5W transmit about 1.86A. However, there must be an internal DC to DC converter because as the voltage falls, the current increases, and at the nominal battery voltage of 7.4V, the receive current consumption is a staggering 630mA, and 5W transmit is 1.7A. The maximum run-time I achieved in receive was about 3.5 hours, but if you transmit, and use FT8 for example, then you can expect very much shorter run-times. Why they decided to incorporate a 3 A-H internal battery mystifies me, when you would almost certainly use an external 12V gel-cell or Li-ion polymer battery.

There are numerous 'features' which either do not work, or are only partially functional even with the latest firmware version (17-January-2022). In my case the WLAN simply does not connect to my home router despite recognising it, nor to any other router I've tried. The Bluetooth function only connects to one of my 6 mice, and not at all to any of my Bluetooth headsets or speakers. The HOST USB port requires a USB 'A' to USB 'C' cable with a USB 'A' female to female adaptor, to which you can then connect a keyboard or mouse. However, the functions available to either the Bluetooth or USB mouse are so limited that it's not worth bothering. Only the tabs on the bottom of the display screen are active, and in the RADIO SETTINGS 1 only the TX power and AGC slope are adjustable, in the RADIO SETTINGS 2 only the RIT is adjustable, and finally in the DISPLAY only the RF FFT AV is adjustable. Why bother? Although the mouse cursor moves over the whole screen, you cannot select a frequency, or hover over a carrier and click on it to have the radio tune to that signal, or click on any of the display items, such as Preamp, AGC, NB, MODE to change them.

The CAT protocol appears to be an emulation of an Icom IC-7000, but there are no menu items that allow you to view much less change the device address, or set the TRANSCEIVE mode. The port speed is also fixed at 19,200 with no adjustment. Why anyone would actually choose to use this complex protocol rather than the simpler ASCII one mystifies me. At least with the ASCII protocol you can examine the commands and responses with a terminal program, rather than having to decode HEX.

And The Ugly
Sadly, when we allowed microprocessors, synthesisers, LCDs and other high-speed logic into our radios, we opened the door to all sorts of spurious signals, and this radio is no exception - it is plagued with them. Sufficiently so that the MW band is mostly unusable. Try tuning to 1.827110MHz for an example of a S9+20dB spur. Or, just to show that this is not a low frequency only phenomena, tune to 51.168MHz for a really nasty multi-spectral one. True, most of the spurs are either at or below atmospheric and man-made noise levels when using a good antenna, but even in this case many are clearly audible. When operating portable with a compromise antenna, then many more will be audible, and there are literally dozens of them.

The sensitivity is adequate. Xiegu state that it is 0.2uV/-121dBm for both SSB and CW, this is suspicious, because there should be at least a 6dB difference simply because of the different bandwidths. I measured my radio, and the mean value from 160m to 10m was -111dBm/0.63uV SSB, and -116dBm/0.35uV for CW. On 6m, it was -105dBm/1.26uV SSB, and -111dBm/0.63uV for CW. Not spectacularly sensitive, but bear in mind that incoming noise will, for the most part, determine what signals can actually be copied.

So, this radio is not a serious competitor to either the Elecraft KX2 or KX3, much less the Icom IC-705, but then, it costs far less than these radios. And it is certainly usable, despite its indifferent receiver. My best contact from Cyprus using the internal battery and 5W SSB was VK4KA, long path, using a Hexbeam antenna, as well as lots of European stations, so it is a fun rig to use. Nevertheless, my final comment is that if this rig were to be destroyed today, would I replace it with another? The answer is no, it's a nice enough rig, but for me, not that nice - hence only 2 stars.

Adrian, 5B4AIY
WA2TLY Rating: 2022-01-30
Receiver overload is hard to overcome Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I like the idea of an all in one 5w qrp rig. antenna tuner, battery etc. all in one compact case. I live about 3 miles from a 50KW AM station and I get a s9 noise level from front end overload I think. All my other radios have s2-s3 noise level. I may try a pre rig filter but that kind of defeats the purpose of an all in one box. Otherwise I like all the other features
N1IG Rating: 2022-01-28
Nice, but not ready for prime time. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was extremely excited about the X6100, and picked one up. 7 days later it was sent back.

The user interface is beautiful, the case extremely rugged, and the receiver is amazing. The onboard antenna tuner matches pretty much everything I put to it, and the audio coming from it is pretty good.

The radio runs off of Linux, which means it is hackable. There is a Discord group that has a lot of info on running variations of the firmware, which is very promising!

BUT there are several down sides:

The radio would never fully charge using the provided charger.

Battery life was only 2.5 hours even when only receiving.

Sometimes there is 1-2 seconds of mic audio at the beginning and end of the FT8 TX.

Other times Mic audio is transmitted throughout the TX, instead of what is being sent to the radio.

No CTCSS capability (Why FM if no tone capability?).

Receiver overload seems to be a recurring problem, according to what others have posted.

And there are a few other issues, but I can't recall them all right now.


This radio has amazing potential, but it's not quite there yet.

If you have the spare cash and want something to tinker with, this may be a good choice.

But if you are looking for something that is a finished product, I wouldn't recommend it.
KI2H Rating: 2022-01-27
Exactly what I expected and wanted Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased my X6100 from Radioddity. In the month that I've had it, it has met my expectations. There are issues with the X6100 that are published on different forums & YouTube. These issues have not been a problem for me.

I connected it to my Surface Go with a single USB-C cable and within a few minutes I had WSJT-X configured and making QSOs.

It has tuned every antenna I have attached.

As a software engineer, I am happy that it is a hackable Linux device. I intend to tinker with the OS and applications on the device.

The only slight disappointment for me is the battery life. I am averaging about 3 hours per full charge. That is less than what I am getting on my X5105, it's predecessor. But it's not enough of a disappointment to reduce my 5-star rating.
K2GK Rating: 2022-01-16
You have got to see it and work it. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
New to the market last few months of 2021. I ordered mine from Connect Systems Inc. It took almost two months to come to me but boy am I impressed.
Building on the success of the x5105 (Still my favorite) came the G90 (Power packed with 20 watts). But the screen is so small and cluttered the font on the screen has to be like a 3pt font. Yes I used a magnifying glass to see it all.
Finally we get to the X6100.... I LIKE IT.
Is it perfect?...NO but like the x5105 before it, Well worth the $600 or so for the experience.
5 watts on self contained battery that lasts for 2 or 3 hours of constant CQs. Bring along a secondary 12 volt power supply and the radio will do 10 watts. Nothing dramatic but fills our American need of "Bigger the better".
Is this the answer to the $1200 or more Icom ic-705? Heck no. But I am very cautious of where I take my very expensive 705. At $600 I don't think twice about bringing this little gem along.
My only complaints... Again the small characters on the screen of the option buttons. And OH Yeah... Color blind people beware: grey background and red highlights of the values is impossible for color challenged people to see.
The operating system is Linux, so maybe changes will be available quickly.
Enjoy de k2gk.