Picked up a new G106 from the Radioddity table at Huntsville Hamfest last weekend and have been testing it a little.? It came out of the box with the latest firmware at 1.3 already.
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Anyway, impressions so far have been way more favorable than the reviews I saw online.??
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In the box were the radio, the data cable, power cable, and mic.? I paid cash and forgot to ask for a receipt, so I guess I missed out on warranty coverage, but everything seems to work right currently.? Radioddity only had 1 that they wanted to display I guess and I bought it as they were still setting up so no display that day for them.? They should bring a few more of everything to a big hamfest like Huntsville.
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The radio was purchased by me as a backup to my 23 year old FT-817 for outings like POTA, SOTA, camping, throwing in a bag for a weekend trip, etc.
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First impressions:
- It is robustly built and a little heavier than I imagined.? From the FCC testing pictures, it appears that it has a large aluminum slab inside for heatsinking.
- The screen is really readable and nice
- The audio is good, but a little low from the internal speaker.? Sometimes the sharp sounding audio from the speaker/mic is just right to sharpen and filter, sometimes the internal is way better.
- The CW filters are great to me.? Even the 50 isn't ringy and is usable.
- The UI is easy to understand and navigate and I probably won't need a cheat sheet like I do with many other radios if I haven't turned them on in a few weeks.
- Seems to receive OK, but I haven't compared it to other rigs yet and am having some antenna trouble in the shack so haven't had an optimal antenna to test with yet.
- Shortwave broadcast stations come through with good clarity, listening to SSB conversations between hams is good as well through the internal speaker.
- Using stereo earbuds with a really thin jack plugged into the speaker mic I do get audio through both earbuds at the same time (perhaps bigger connectors are tilted by the dust plug that is in the way and are not making good contact or maybe Xiegu changed the mic?) - The earbuds I tried are JVC Gumy earbuds from the grocery store.
- I love seeing the band scope, seems very useful.
- FM Broadcast band reception is a step above the FT-817 and all my Baofeng radios.? I can listen to stations where the selectivity is too terrible to receive on the 817, so this really works on this radio.
- initial testing of power out suggests that my radio is flat across the bands and tops at 5w on high, 3 on med, and .5 on low.? I wasn't testing this with a super accurate meter, just a MFJ Versa Tuner set to dummy load and watching the forward power out.
- current draw max was just over an amp on CW transmit, up to 335 or so on receive.
- radio runs cool receiving with 9v supplied and warms a little with higher voltage, so is probably throwing away some watts as heat with higher voltages.
- keyer is easy to set up and I think I will be able to vary the speed fairly easily with the radio controls
- backlight seems to use about 5ma at 9v supply
- preamp on seems to use about 21ma at 9v supply
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Things I wish I had or knew:
- schematic
- basic theory of operation
- What is the final in here - from the FCC pic maybe a Mitsubishi RD15HVF1?? I can't quite read the values in the pictures in that FCC doc.
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Todo:
- measure power out a little more accurately at different voltages from the power supply and across the bands.? See if it really is consistent and record everything for posting here
- measure current draw with various bands/functions on/off
- check out the transmit audio with the hand mic and see if the drilling mod is needed (I am thinking of building an adapter cable for running my Yaesu hand mic on this rig which has a nice Heil HC-4 element in it.? Being dynamic, that element will need maybe more gain set, but then again, that element is somewhat high output as well)
- build up a little kit with appropriate accessories for outings - battery, swr/tuner/antenna, etc.
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Of course I need to put it on the air and make some contacts!
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I would rate this radio much more highly than the initial reviews suggested after playing with it for a few days.
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Jamie - KM4WYO
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