Xiegu

After my park outing, I returned to find an update to R1CBU 0.29.2. It includes fixes for:

• SWR Scan that leaves the radio in AM mode
• CAT control of modes

Xiegu released another updated firmware for the X6100: APP 1.1.9 & BASE 1.1.8, dated 2024-09-23.

1. I downloaded it from Radioddity, and wrote it to an SD card:

$ sudo dd if=sdcard.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress

2. I booted the new card for the app upgrade to 1.1.9,
3. I applied baseband 1.1.8 from the menu in the UI.
4. I tried the CW key in the stock firmware, and it transmitted (unlike last time).
5. I booted back to R1CBU, and it looked good there as well.

I did a little FT8, decoded some CW, and listened to some SSB on 40m. I found I could to turn the RF Gain closer to 100 instead of below 63. It may be reading slightly lower power on the display before ALC kicks in: up to but not over the 5W, where it used to often push a little past.

It’ll stay.

Radioddity had the new firmware for the X6100. I downloaded it, wrote it, installed it, and rebooted it to see the stock APP 1.1.8 and BASE 1.1.7. That mostly-useless audio spectrum is gone. The strange jump at 63 in RF GAIN is fixed.

BUT transmitting gave NO POWER. R1CBU also exhibited the problem. When I downgraded to BASE 1.1.6, it transmitted again. Others had seen this problem as well, while others had it work. It must have depended upon variations in the hardware.

When I first started with the X6100, I’d see some noise that buried real signals when plugged into AC power.

Running on battery was fine, and running on the external lead-acid 12V battery was OK too. For weeks, I used the battery to smooth the noise. I’d run an AC power supply in parallel with the battery and turn it up just high enough that I didn’t see noise in the waterfall. The battery smoothed the power.

I switched to a LiFePO4 battery, and I found the built-in charging circuit made it hard to balance input power and output power just right to keep it smooth.

I asked around on the X6100 mailing list and I got 2 suggestions I took:

• a filter I can use with any cheap power supply I already have
• a cleaner, and inexpensive, switching power supply from Ateck that puts out a fixed 12V/5A (Part#: PS120V5-D)

I purchased both to try, and both helped immensely, each on their own.

I wired up the filter with some 5525 connectors and printed a case for it. I use the filter in combination with my adjustable 24V/5A power supply on the go. That higher-voltage power supply is also useful to charge the LiFePO4 battery at 14.1V. The battery also lives in my box for portable operation.

I use the Ateck power supply on my desk by itself to power the radio at home.

I’ve loaded the R1CBU UI on the X6100. Reading the manual exposes all sorts of great features and conveniences:

Highlights

• Large waterfall
• Lots of options on MFK and VOL knobs, and it’s customizable
• SWR scan is very fast
• CW decoder is robust
• ALC starts at 0.0
• Serial console access: minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0, root, 123

Bugs

• Setting time down to the second is weird. I used serial console and CLI instead.

Here’s a good demo of what ALC is doing. It’s clipping off the top of the signal, so turn the power up to just before ALC reacts, whether it’s 0->100 like the radio in the video or 100->0 like Xiegu radios.

(After passing the test, I immediately ordered a Quansheng UV-K5 HT. I also ordered this weird $120 HF radio based off the open source usdx project. The HF radio was garbage: the screen was tiny, the audio/CAT control was confusing or non-existent, and it liked to lock up and stop updating its screen. I returned it to Amazon.)

I had been in a hurry, since I was heading to Florida for the week. While I was down there, I discovered the Ham Radio Outlet in Orlando, so I ran there to look around and purchased the Xiegu X6100 QRP rig.

I also picked up a couple accessories shortly afterward to go with it:

• connectors between bnc and sma
• 5W adjustable power supply that didn’t quite cut it all the time (24Vx5W)
• 10w adjustable power supply (12Vx10W)
• speaker wire
• banana clip connectors
• Ham Radio Today: X6100 book on kindle