开云体育

The important thing to realize about the R1CBU firmware is that you're NOT CHANGING anything on the radio itself. There's no commitment and nothing you can screw up on the radio. It's harmless and risk-free. You're not "hacking" into anything. You're just putting in a little SD card that the radio will use while it's inserted, Eject the card and you're back to normal.

• You copy the R1CBU firmware to an SD card. (You only have to do this once)
• You "click" the SD card into the little slot on the side of the X6100.
• When you turn the X6100 power on, the radio will detect there's an SD card inserted, and temporarily use the firmware on the card instead of the firmware built into the radio.
• Once the radio is fully started, the screen will look different, but mostly things are pretty similar. R1CBU just implements some of the features a little differently.
• When I am searching around on the bands for SSB contacts, I love that R1CBU?shows me the ham radio bands as brackets right on the screen. With the normal display, I often overshoot with my VFO wheel. Then I realize I'm wasting my time on a frequency I can't use.
• When I'm not twiddling around on SSB, however, I eject the little SD card and turn on the radio with that slot empty again.
• The radio comes up with the regular Xiegu screen that it always had. Nothing has changed. It's like it never happened.
• It's quick and easy to only insert the card when you want some feature(s) you like from the R1CBU firmware.

It's fun to try it out and see what features you like, and to have the SD card handy if you find one feature you like on it, but otherwise want to use the normal firmware.

The only downside of the whole thing is that creating that "bootable" SD is a hassle. That's not the fault of R1CBU, it's just the was SD cards work if you want to make them bootable. You only have to create the SD card once. Thereafter, you just plug it into the side only when you want to. (Of course, if a new version of R1CBU comes out, and only if you really want the new version, then you'll have to go through the hassle of writing the new version to your SD card again)

If making a bootable SD card is too technical for you, ask the 14-year old nerd in your family to do it for you. It's a one-time activity. They'll probably find what you're doing on ham radio pretty cool and you'll score some 'cred with them.

:)
W1NTL