BrainOut!
The mumblings of a Christian autistic husband, dad, IT guy and amateur radio operator - Will Brokenbourgh / AF7EC
Xiegu G106 QRP HF Transceiver - First Impressions
The Xiegu G106 HF transceiver
Amateur radio is one of those things that often demands spending a lot of money on equipment, especially when you want reliable and dependable equipment. Often people aren't able or willing to spend tons of money on amateur gear. I'm in the 'not able' camp as the bit of money we have is often better spent elsewhere. The only time I'm able to buy amateur gear is if it's deeply discounted and I don't have equipment that already works properly. Since I'm not one of those 'super star' ham radio YouTubers or bloggers, companies don't throw equipment at me.
Recently Radioddity had a great deal on the Xiegu G106 HF SSB/AM/CW QRP transceiver. I don't have any other radios that can properly do SSB or AM so I asked God to confirm the purchase and felt that he did -- with a deeply discounted price that I had not seen before on Radioddity's website. We were blessed with a little extra income so I went ahead and ordered the G106...and waited.
Due to how our local postal service works, they won't deliver to individual
houses in our neighborhood so parcels sent to us sit at the post office until we can go
pick them up. Unfortunately my radio sat for a couple of days in the post office until
the car was available to pick it up. I finally brought the radio home and opened the
box along with my wife. This was a rare situation because we just don't have it in
the budget to get things like this on a regular basis. I am totally not like
those folks who seem to buy a new radio every couple of weeks!
Before I decided to order the G106, I watched all of the YouTube videos and read all of the reviews I could find on it. One guy (a well-known ham-radio YouTuber) showed a toilet and feces emoji to describe what he thought of it. I didn't watch his videos about it because I don't support his channel due to language and so-on. Others also reviewed the G106 and the general feel for the radio was 'meh'. Definitely not a glowing recommendation for a product, but I also kept in mind that most of these reviews were from a year ago and before the latest firmware updates. There were only a few more recent videos and reviews and while they weren't singing the G106's praises, it looked like the radio was okay enough for my needs. Sure, an IC-705 would be nice but the G106 is the radio within my budget.
The G106 and a nine volt battery
(The tape is there to dim the status LED)
It's small!
I guess one thing that's hard to gauge when watching videos and reading reviews
about this radio is how small it is. When I first unboxed it, I was surprised at its
diminutive dimensions. I was equally surprised at the relative heft of the unit. It
feels very solid and well-built. I can imagine that it has a whole bunch of heat-sink
inside and won't easily overheat. The volume and tuning knobs felt 'okay' and didn't
seem like easy-to-break plastic. What's nice is there are guards for the volume control
and tuning knob, so accidental damage is limited or eliminated.
Whenever I receive anything new, I like to test everything gently before I go all-out. I left all of the cords and mic in the box in case the radio caught fire when I first turned it on, etc. I only attached the power cord to the radio with the other end to my heavy-duty switching power supply providing 12 volts DC. I attached my emergency 40 meter dipole antenna to the radio. I turned the radio on and thankfully it didn't emit the SpecialSmoke™.
Tuning around I was pleasantly surprised by the receive audio. Sure, this radio isn't going to make it into the top-10 on the Sherwood list but it often sounded better than my HF Signals uBitX v6. The uBitX v6 doesn't have AM mode so having that on the G106 was a nice touch. I also noticed that on the bands that matter, there weren't tons of birdies -- something the uBitX was plagued with. I kept pressing the G106's mode button to get a feel for how each sounded, but sometimes the mode wouldn't change. I'd press the Mode button almost ten times and it wouldn't react to the button pushes. I began to feel a sinking feeling -- another Xiegu let-down.
Stinging memories of the Xiegu X1M
Many years ago, my parents got me a Xiegu X1M HF transceiver as a gift. At that time,
when I unboxed it, I was thrilled and couldn't wait to get it home to try it out.
Unfortunately when I got it home and spent some time with it, I was disappointed. There
were birdies all over the place, the receive audio was not very good and it appeared that
the unit I got was either damaged somewhere along the line or was a return. There were
deep scratches on the case and someone had used a permanent marker to cover them up. It
might seem like I was being ungrateful, but when I had learned how much my parents had
paid for the X1M, I had to return it. This particular radio was just not very good and
there were other radios for cheaper that would be better. After that experience, I've
been a little 'gun-shy' regarding Xiegu products.
Back to the G106, I found that button presses weren't registering properly. I was not looking forward to trying to get the radio replaced because I've had a string of poor customer-service experience recently (Instant Omni Plus 18 toaster oven dim display digits) and thought this would be similar. I was relieved and pleasantly surprised that Radioddity treated my issue respectfully and graciously arranged for a replacement. I'm pleased to say that the whole process was as pain-free as possible and commend Radioddity on their customer-service! The replacement radio was just fine and no issues with button presses.
Improvements Xiegu could do
This is not a full review -- just a quick look at this radio. I want to spend more
time with it before giving any verdicts. There are some things right off the bat that
I think Xiegu could do to make this a much better radio...
Chunky screws
I often operate my G106 at night in dim or completely dark conditions. I've frequently
been frustrated when I try to press the correct button at the top of the radio. I've
often changed modes when I meant to turn off the backlight, or have changed bands when
I've meant to change the mode. Sure, it takes practice, but also the screws that are
near the top buttons of the radio mess with touch-only operation and makes it
frustrating. If Xiegu could use countersunk screws or something more low-profile it
would make touch-only operation more bearable. It's possible they are using these chunky
screws to help keep the radio weather-proof, but boy do they protrude.
No headphone jack on rear panel
This is something other reviewers have mentioned. You can plug in headphones
or a speaker to the bottom of the supplied microphone, but that's not the greatest user
experience and will subject the speaker / headphones jack and cord to unneeded stress
when the mic is frequently moved and handled. I imagine some enterprising individual
could make an RJ-11 feed-through adapter with a speaker jack on it...
Yes, there are birdies
On the bands that matter for me, I don't hear a lot of birdies compared to my uBitX v6,
but there are birdies on the MW band and some other places on HF. They aren't severe
enough to cause problems and you're gonna have to deal with some interference from the
microprocessor / microcontroller which most newer radios have now. Thankfully the
important HF bands aren't chock-full of them because that would really stink.
The tuning encoder misses some clicks
While not a huge deal, sometimes the tuning encoder misses some clicks when changing
directions or if it hasn't been turned in a few seconds. Not sure if it's a hardware
issue or just a firmware issue. It's not severe enough for me to return it or file a
support ticket.
I haven't transmitted yet because we've been dealing with some household issues, and I want to modify my paint-pole antenna so I can do 40 meters instead of just 20. I do have a random-wire antenna outside but I think it already needs to be re-done and isn't radiating as well as it should.
Another reason I haven't been on the air yet with the G106 is I recently received my very first set of CW paddles (from CW Morse -- GREAT company!) and have been trying to get some practice in. I still have my inexpensive MFJ straight-key but I want to get proficient with the paddles so I can start doing POTA stuff soon.
Shout out to Radioddity
Getting good or even 'decent' customer-service these days is increasingly difficult.
Companies are cost-cutting, letting a lot of their staff go and so-on. When I had
problems with the first G106 Radioddity shipped me, I really was dreading going through
the whole support rigmarole but they were very understanding, accommodating and went
beyond my expectations. To be honest, I had heard some concerning stories about
Radioddity in the past, but these concerns appear to be completely unfounded -- at
least in my case. Good job guys!
Well, those are my first impressions of the Xiegu G106 HF transceiver. After having it for a while, I will do my best to post a more thorough review.
God bless you, and thank you for reading!
About me
First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. After that, I'm a blessed husband,
father and grandfather. I do remote computer work for a living although it's mostly
part-time. I'm an amateur radio operator - AF7EC. When I'm not working on the endless
list of house and car projects, I like to tinker with electronics, like to listen to
shortwave radio and write software (mostly open-source) in C, C++, Python and Free
Pascal. I usually run Linux as my main operating system but sometimes I'm forced to
endure macOS and Windows 11 for gaming with my son or testing software. Overall, I am
a big nobody, but always willing to share about Jesus and all that God has done for me
and my family.
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