As sunspot cycle 25 continues its upward trajectory, I'm more and more intrigued with QRP and operating portable. Xiegu released the x6100 transceiver recently, and I asked, "Why not try it?".
Many have produced in depth information about this transceiver; noteworthy are the YouTube series by KM9G and M0FXB, and of course the field experiences of K4SWL. Such resources were significant factors in my decision to purchase the radio. When it arrived, the first thing I did was update the firmware to the latest available from the Radioddity site (version v1.1.4). Following the example shown by M0FXB, the process was easy and fast.
What follows is a preliminary look, as I've had it for a little over one week. My experience thus far is mostly with the receive portion of the radio -- I listen far more than I transmit -- in the shack using a 113 ft EFLW antenna.
Spoiler alert: So far, I like the x6100. A lot. Xiegu has packed many features into a small, lightweight package, making for both a fun operating experience and, in my time with it so far, an effective radio.
The x6100 is a "shack in a box": it includes both a battery and an ATU, the latter of which is impressive in terms of speed and matching range. The display is easy to see, at least indoors where I've spent many hours exercising the receiver.
The DSP filtering and noise reduction are effective and helpful. I've found no issues with the keyer, though I hope to have a follow-up report focusing on QSO experiences in the future. I haven't tried the CW or RTTY decoding capabilities, as those aren't of interest to me.
Audio is clear and strong using earphones or an external speaker but, as others have noted, audio quality from the internal speaker is lacking. Many have identified birdies throughout the HF and 6m spectrum. They are there, but I detect far fewer than others and they have not proven to be problematic, at least while listening to the CW portions of HF. Maybe I got lucky with this particular unit, or maybe the recent firmware improved the issue.
More serious for me has been the front end overload from nearby AM broadcast band stations. During daytime hours, when some of these stations operate at elevated power levels, 80m and 160m reception is difficult or impossible. Nighttime reception, when these stations reduce their power, is much less problematic. More to follow on this issue after a highpass filter is delivered and tested.
Is the receiver sensitivity as good as a $1500+ transceiver? No. Is it adequate? Yes, entirely so! When I find a very weak, down-in-the-noise signal on my FTDX10, many times I cannot hear a trace of it on the x6100. However, I can pick out slightly stronger signals, and strong signals are of course no problem. As with any radio, you have to experiment with the right combination of RF gain, filter width, and NR settings to dig weaker signals out.
Overall, I find the sensitivity and selectivity to be fine for a field radio. However, the x6100 is not miserly in terms of power consumption. The radio draws roughly 1/3 of an amp on receive, depending on screen brightness and volume. I haven't done careful measurements, but with the internal battery alone, I get a few (~4) hours of continuous reception. With an external 12 Ah LiFePO4 battery, that extends to roughly 16 hours.
All in all, I like the radio an awful lot so far. It performs well and I find it reasonably intuitive to operate. Moreover, I find the radio fun: it's got serious features but is still a little scrappy, too, which makes it enjoyable. I'm looking forward to test driving it with CW QSOs, my main interest with this radio, in the coming weeks.
