MaverickNH
NES Member
I picked one up from Amazon on their generous 30d return policy, but sent it back in less than 2 weeks. It worked pretty well for a $630 HF/50 QRP radio with ATU - half the price of my ICOM IC-705 which has UHF/VHF but no internal ATU. I bought it to boot from a microSD card on Armbian Linux to run WSJT-X FT8 & JS8CALL from the internal processor, displayed on the radio screen.
In short, it worked. With just a 31ft random wire and 10ft counterpoise attached to the BNC connector, it was an All-in-One radio for WSJT-X/JS8CALL digital - no PC required. Add the mic and paddles for voice/CW.
But it was very glitchy. Sometimes it wouldn’t boot in the native Xiegu x6100 Firmware 1.1.5 mode and I’d have to reinstall the FW. Sometimes the Armbian microSD card would get wonky and I’d have to re-image from a backup. Just too much trouble. Xiegu rapidly iterated FW versions in the first 6mo after launch but the next version keep getting pushed back 6mo, 7mo, … It might make the x6100 more stable but the Armbian developers will have to revise their work thereafter.
So, I sent it back. If the new FW finally issues and the Armbian folks get a new working version up and running, I might buy it again for a 30d trial. And keep it if it’s stable. For now, the IC-705 works well with a Surface Pro 6 tablet and KM4ACK 49:1 Halfwave Endfed on 10m/15m/20m/40m w/o an ATU and on Winlink VARA HF/FM/Chat - add the AH-705 ATU and it’s good 160m to 70cm.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz551tZGX4Y
In short, it worked. With just a 31ft random wire and 10ft counterpoise attached to the BNC connector, it was an All-in-One radio for WSJT-X/JS8CALL digital - no PC required. Add the mic and paddles for voice/CW.
But it was very glitchy. Sometimes it wouldn’t boot in the native Xiegu x6100 Firmware 1.1.5 mode and I’d have to reinstall the FW. Sometimes the Armbian microSD card would get wonky and I’d have to re-image from a backup. Just too much trouble. Xiegu rapidly iterated FW versions in the first 6mo after launch but the next version keep getting pushed back 6mo, 7mo, … It might make the x6100 more stable but the Armbian developers will have to revise their work thereafter.
So, I sent it back. If the new FW finally issues and the Armbian folks get a new working version up and running, I might buy it again for a 30d trial. And keep it if it’s stable. For now, the IC-705 works well with a Surface Pro 6 tablet and KM4ACK 49:1 Halfwave Endfed on 10m/15m/20m/40m w/o an ATU and on Winlink VARA HF/FM/Chat - add the AH-705 ATU and it’s good 160m to 70cm.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz551tZGX4Y