Saturday, March 5, 2022
The Xiegu X6100 is my second Chinese-manufactured QRP transceiveer. Several years ago I bought on of the RS-918 clones transceivers, back about the time they were being frowned on because they were an assembled and reverse engineered version of the kit radio being sold worldwide. The asssembled version has continued to sell like gangbusters. I find my most enjoyable, and frankly, had I been required to build it, I would never have bought the thing.
Enter the Xiegu X6100.
The radio has a rather large LCD display that is NOT a touch screen. I’m fine with that. Unlike the RS 918, this radio has a series of buttons on top of the case. Like any new, complex radio, there’s going to be a learning curve.
FIRST PROBLEM, FIRST HACK. The radio comes extremely well packed in a shipping box complete with a mic, mic cord and accessory cables. The radio is a solid piece of hardware, for sure.
The first thing I found that I did not like was how stiffly the VFO knob turned. A VFO knob should turn freely, with little drag (or at least adjustable drag!). The Xiegu’s VFO knob was very stiff to turn. So much so that I thought perhaps there was a hardware issue that might require me to ship it back. Ugh!
Fortunately, while I awaited my X6100’s arrival, I had reviewed YouTube reviews on the radio. One of them mentioned the exact same problem I did, and offered the fix, which was incredibly simple.
The stiff VFO was cause simply by the fact that downward pressure was applied to the knob when the knob was installed on the VFO shaft. The backside of the VFO knob (the knob is metal, not plastic) is a fairly thick pad of felt-like material. The felt pad created friction each time you turned the VFO knob — excessively so.
The rubber trim ring on the VFO know pops off, exposing the 1.5 mm hex head set screw. Loosen the screw and reinstall the knob without pressing it so tightly against the front panel of the radio. Viola! The result was a beautifully smooth turning VFO, just as it should be! Success!!
OTHER THOUGHTS ON THE X6100. As you might expect from this little rig, its receiver performance is excellent. The DSP is also as good as any I’ve eve used. The filters can be set for three different profiles for each mode. The standard 500 Hz CW filter is pretty much my go-to filter, though I have seen times with a narrower one might help.
The on-screen nomenclature on functions and menus is a little unusual, and requires you to either refer to the manual or just some trial and error.
The performance of this little radio makes me consider re-establishing my library radio setup. I could easily set up a longwire antenna with a tuner next to my chair … I would be able to operate 40 and 80 CW pretty easily. Anyway, just a thought.
I’ll have more on the Xiegu later. Until then I’m still enjoying the use of my Drake TR-7 and the Noble 450Hz CW filter. A great combo!
73 es CUL … de KY4Z …. SK SK … (dit dit) …