What? Are you implying that our Chinese friends and partners in trade don't have to abide by something similar to our FTC's truth in advertising laws? </sarcasm> https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising
I wonder, was the current consumption test done with an antenna or a dummy load? I would think, if done with an antenna, the current consumption is going to be impacted by the mismatch. I think the bigger the mismatch, the more the amplifier section has to work. That means more current. So, I'd be interested in knowing what was connected to the rig.
The apparent lack of 60m would generally be a killer for me. Thanks for another useful video, Julian.
Bob Allison in the ARRL Lab would get a good laugh out of this. Real-world measurements may differ somewhat from those of the manufacturer. "Your mileage may vary."
I would not be using this as my "everyday"rig, which means I would never become competent at recalling and using all the needed menu features. Any thot given to the average age of hams these days?
Well, although I sure didn't need any more HF transceivers, I bought a Xiegu G90 just to play with it and maybe take it hilltopping with battery power for SOTA activations. Had a chance to use it for a few hours this past weekend, and have another thread entitled "Xiegu" in another section of this website. It draws far less DC current than the specification (which is "8A max") -- mine draws just over 4A at full TX power, key-down. That's an important difference when using a battery you'll be carrying in your backpack. It does cover 60 meters just fine, SSB or CW. Scrolling through the "bands" using the pushbutton bandswitch on top, 60m is a band it stops on, just like every other HF band. It's actually a pretty amazing little rig. Far smaller than an Argonaut-V with a very bright panel display (small, but bright and crisp and I can read it 2-3 feet away okay) that includes a bandscope and waterfall and other typical SDR features. The comment about PA current changing with antenna load doesn't really apply, since the rig has a very capable (also quiet and very fast!) automatic antenna tuner built in: Press the button and unless your antenna is horribly mismatched (e.g., >10:1 or so), it will find a match in a second or two. Output power and SWR (both) are both displayed every time you transmit on any mode. On RX, typical of SDRs, you get not only the spectrum display but RX signal amplitude of whatever is "tuned in" displayed in -dBm. The many-segment bargraph S-meter seems to track that -dBm indication quite well, at least for signals about 20dB/S9 down to noise level. Built-in keyer works fine, but using dual lever iambic paddles, I find the internal keyer only works when "MODE B" is selected. Selecting "MODE A" produces nonsense. I don't really care, as the B selection works fine and the keyer is capable. Due to the SDR architecture, the rig can never be full QSK (full break-in) because there's a delay between TX and RX that seems to be about 100mS. That's way too long for full QSK, so it's "semi-QSK" all the time and you can select the drop-out timing. The supplied microphone is very busy with a lot of buttons, LEDs, etc. but ignoring all that and just using it as a microphone I found it's way too "hot" (very sensitive) with the rig mike gain selected at anything above "1". In the "1" position, I've received excellent audio fidelity reports. I didn't bother trying "2" or above that, because I could tell it would pick up too much background noise (because it would fully modulate the rig if I talked a foot away from the microphone!) -- the "1" position seems to solve that. The rig is actually not so much "menu intensive" as it is "multiple control function" intensive. About every knob and button has multiple functions, but as soon as you touch any of them, whatever it's doing is displayed on the bright panel display. To change VFO tuning speed, just press the VFO knob itself; each "touch" changes the frequency display resolution and also tuning speed from 100 kHz to 10 kHz to 1 kHz to 100 Hz to 10 Hz. It rotates through all that, so if you make a mistake, just touch it more times to make it whatever you want. The mode and band switch controls are buttons "on top" of the radio, above the front panel. The mike plugs into the right side (RJ-45) and the headphones plug into the left side (1/8" plug) and the key plugs into the rear panel. But the rig is so small it actually would fit in a pocket of my hiking coat. The front panel detaches and they provide the cable to interconnect to the radio (looks like an RS-232 serial cable) but I can't imagine bothering to do that because the whole rig is so small. I used it a few hours Saturday and Sunday, on both CW and SSB and made about 40 contacts quite easily. Had a long ragchew with Jim KL7IEH up in Fairbanks, AK last night (2500 miles) with me using the G90 and he reported "59 solid" signal the entire time for a QSO that lasted 30 minutes. Actually, everyone I called over the course of a few hours heard me and replied, except for two stations. Thats about two out of 40 or so, so not that bad for 20W PEP. Impressive, and after a few hours using it I found it pretty easy to use and didn't have to refer to the manual or any notes. Actually, every button is clearly labeled! -- you just need pretty good eyes, since the print is small and between the display and all the buttons and knobs, there's very little panel space left.
Hi Julian, I've had some contacts with you on FT8 using the G90 It's a great radio I like it a lot. The tuner works great too and the receiver is excellent. It sounds good especially for a rig with no noise reduction, ( yet ) possibly with future firmware update. The IC-705 will no doubt be a good radio but it's far too expensive and it has no tuner and a pathetic battery that can only output 5 watts in 2020 that's the best they can do for the price ? it has other features others might be into, USB, bluetooth, VHF/UHF, D-Star, I am only interested in HF so it would be nice to see a HF only cheaper radio, oh and better battery. I use the G90 with an 8.4 ah 4S Turnigy LiPo battery, I use this with my FT-891 too the 20 watts is nice to have when needed. The G90 Tuner has allowed me to operate on 160 M with a 20 meter long EFHW , the hyendfed.nl 5 band MK III and I got good reports from Ireland to the U.K on 160M and I get to North America with no issue with 20 watts SSB and the G90 and this EFHW. The IC-7300 tuner will not make this antenna work on 160M. I also encourage more people to get on JS8, it's a fun mode and the G90 works great with the CE19 interface and JS8. I also have the Xiegu X5105, it's a great radio too, excellent internal battery and tuner.
Thanks for the kindness. I'm just working on another g90 video. Hope to publish it this Friday. 73 Julian oh8stn
I bit the bullet and got one from HRO about 10 days ago. So far I like the built CW decoder. Now I don't have to bring along the K1EL decoder in Truck, field; and its cables and supply it power. Like any one, you need to use narrow cw mode and tune the CW to its detector filter. They put a LED that flashes when you get it tuned in. It's sort of starts flashing, move up one click and it Gets lit longer, move up one click flashing again. So the middle point is the sweet spot. It does not flash dots and dashes so don't expect that. Yes I learned CW using the Sound A-likes method, but its nice in Emergency COMMs to have a backup to your pen and paper for message copy. I still have a few numbers to learn well. When you hear the Letter "R", think of the Frozen Bunny on an IceBurg, "burr RAB it" ,"say AH" for A , "DOG did it" ... etc.
So I knw this is long from the origional post but it would seem to me that if there is a solar charge controller being used that has a 5amp load connection this radio could feed directly off of that while the battery is charging?
