{"id":43786,"date":"2020-06-09T09:44:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T13:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=43786"},"modified":"2020-06-09T10:41:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T14:41:39","slug":"taking-the-xiegu-g90-on-an-impromptu-parks-on-the-air-pota-activation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/taking-the-xiegu-g90-on-an-impromptu-parks-on-the-air-pota-activation\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Xiegu G90 on an impromptu Parks On The Air (POTA) activation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was in my hometown helping my parents with a few projects. Around noon, I realized that I had a good four hour window of free time–a true rarity these days!<\/p>\n

I had two fully-packed go bags in the car: one with my trusty Elecraft KX2<\/a><\/strong>, and one with my recently acquired Xiegu G90<\/strong>.\u00a0 On the heels of a successful POTA activation this weekend<\/a>, I was itching to activate a new POTA site.<\/p>\n

I did a quick check of the POTA site map<\/a> and decided a trip to the South Mountains State Park<\/a> (K-2753) was in order. The park was a nice 30 minute drive on back roads, so why not?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I posted a quick announcement on the POTA website, and jumped in the car.<\/p>\n

When I arrived at the park, I noted an excellent, easily accessible picnic site with a nearby tree to hang my EFT Trail-Friendly antenna<\/a>. Since I hadn’t been to this park in many<\/em> years, I continued driving to check out other potential POTA sites.<\/p>\n

In the main parking lot, I spotted a ham radio operator’s car with a prominent callsign on the back window and a POTA bumper sticker. I couldn’t see their operating site from the parking lot and since we’re all trying to social distance these days, I didn’t bother searching for them to introduce myself.<\/p>\n

While it’s certainly allowed to have two activators running a park at the same time, I really didn’t want to impose and certainly didn’t want to cause any QRM by operating on the same meter band.<\/p>\n

Contingency plan<\/h2>\n

I had a “Plan B” in mind in case the park wasn’t accessible.\u00a0 On the west side of South Mountains State Park there was another POTA site: the South Mountains State Game Land (K-6952). I started driving in that direction, then used Google Maps to help me locate the entry road. Turns out, it was an additional 35 minutes of driving! Still, it was a beautiful day so no complaints from me.<\/p>\n

The road was typical of game land roads: gravel and washed out in places. I had to ford one creek. My Subaru had no problem doing this, of course. (I actually love off-roading, so secretly I hoped the road would be more challenging!)<\/p>\n

About four miles in, I found a pull-off that was big enough for my car and had an ideal tree to hang the antenna. I backed into the site, opened the hatch on the Subaru, and used the trunk\/boot as my radio table.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Within ten minutes I had the G90 on the air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started calling CQ on the 40 meter band and thanks to buddies Mike (K8RAT) and Vlado (N3CZ) I was spotted on the POTA website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although there was a fair amount of QRN on 40 meters, now that the G90 has an RF Gain control (with latest firmware v 1.74), I could easily mitigate it.<\/p>\n

I worked a number of stations on 40, then decided to move up to 20 meters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was very impressed with the response on 20 meters as well. Fading (QSB) was very<\/em> deep, however, so I kept contacts brief. At times, stations would call me, I’d give them a 59 report, and when they’d reply I could barely hear them (and vise-versa). It took a little patience and good timing, but I believe I worked everyone who called me.<\/p>\n

In the end, I had a total of 27 contact in the log with about one hour of operating. Here are my log sheets:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After transmitting steadily for an hour at a full 20 watts, the G90 body was pretty warm to the touch, but it had operated flawlessly.<\/p>\n

A great field radio<\/h2>\n

The G90 is a gem of a transceiver and has some features that make it ideal for field use.<\/p>\n

For one thing, I love being able to keep track of my battery voltage on the display:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Also, the G90 has excellent selectivity. On both 40 and 20 meters, at times I could see adjacent stations on the spectrum display that would have bled over and created QRM on less robust receivers.<\/p>\n

I also like the ability to control all of the major transceiver functions without\u00a0 having to dive into an embedded menu. Adjusting the filter, RF gain, attenuator, and pre-amp, for example, is super easy.<\/p>\n

I love the spectrum display, too. In the field, it’s nice to be able to find an open frequency by simply watching the display for a minute or so before calling QRL or CQ. It also allows me to see when folks are tuning up nearby to make contact with me.<\/p>\n

Although I’ve been using a resonant antenna in the field, the G90 has a very capable built-in ATU.\u00a0 Back home, I’ve used it and have been very impressed with its ability to find good matches. Yesterday, for fun, I was even able to get it to tune up the EFT Trail Friendly antenna on 80 meters! I doubt it would be efficient, but the ATU did find a 2:1 match.<\/p>\n

The only two features I feel like the G90 is missing are a notch filter (both manual and auto) and a voice keyer. I’m sure a notch filter could be added in a future firmware update (others have been asking for this as well), but I doubt a voice keyer could be added as easily. In truth, the voice keyer is a bit of a luxury, but it’s a feature I use without fail on my KX2 since park and summit activations often require constant CQ calls. Being able to record a CQ and have the radio automatically send it allows the op to drink water, eat lunch, and relax between contacts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a lot of radio for $450 US shipped<\/a>. I’ve also learned that the G90 has a very active community of users via this Groups.io email list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had planned to sell the Xiegu G90 after my upcoming review in The Spectrum Monitor<\/a>. I must admit: this transceiver is growing on me. It might be hard to let go of it.<\/p>\n

\n

Do you enjoy the SWLing Post?<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Please consider supporting us via\u00a0Patreon<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or our\u00a0Coffee<\/span>\u00a0Fund<\/span><\/a>! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was in my hometown helping my parents with a few projects. Around noon, I realized that I had a good four hour window of free time–a true rarity these days! I had two fully-packed go bags in the car: one with my trusty Elecraft KX2, and one with my recently acquired Xiegu G90.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[545,3,43],"tags":[3906,8576,7787,7786,1303,8591,8590,4731,8575],"class_list":["post-43786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ham-radio","category-news","category-shortwave-radio","tag-field-radios","tag-g90","tag-parks-on-the-air","tag-pota","tag-qrp","tag-south-mountains-state-game-land","tag-south-mountains-state-park","tag-xiegu","tag-xiegu-g90"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-boe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43713,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/taking-the-xiegu-g90-qrp-transceiver-to-the-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":0},"title":"Taking the Xiegu G90 QRP transceiver to the field!","author":"Thomas","date":"June 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, I took delivery of a new Xiegu G90 general coverage QRP transceiver. I'm reviewing this portable rig for The Spectrum Monitor magazine.\u00a0Although this Chinese manufacturer has been around for a few years, this was my first purchase of a Xiegu product. I've had the G90 on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43869,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/snagging-two-state-game-lands-in-three-days-for-parks-on-the-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":1},"title":"Snagging two state game lands in three days for Parks On The Air","author":"Thomas","date":"June 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You might have noticed from recent posts, I've been on a bit of a POTA (Parks On The Air) kick lately. I've been enjoying taking the Xiegu G90 to the field and seeing just how well it performs under intensive use on battery power. So far, it has certainly proven\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44581,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/which-would-you-choose-as-a-first-radio-the-icom-ic-7300-or-xiegu-g90\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":2},"title":"Which would you choose as a first radio–the Icom IC-7300 or Xiegu G90?","author":"Thomas","date":"August 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul, who writes: This came to me from a friend; he is curious about choosing between the Xiegu G90 and the Icom IC-7300 for his first rig. He has money to buy the Icom which is $999 right now after rebates, but wants to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Yaesu-FT-891-e1596283864838.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Yaesu-FT-891-e1596283864838.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Yaesu-FT-891-e1596283864838.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Yaesu-FT-891-e1596283864838.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47462,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/xiegu-gsoc-after-latest-v1-3-firmware-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":3},"title":"Xiegu GSOC after latest v1.3 firmware update","author":"Thomas","date":"January 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I cleared my radio bench and performed a few firmware updates that were recently published for the Xiegu GSOC Controller and Xiegu G90. Upgrading the Xiegu GSOC to the latest firmware version requires also upgrading the Xiegu G90 to take full advantage of the GSOC fixes. I downloaded the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Xiegu-GSOC-3.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Xiegu-GSOC-3.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Xiegu-GSOC-3.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Xiegu-GSOC-3.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Xiegu-GSOC-3.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45108,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/a-review-of-the-xiegu-g90-general-coverage-transceiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":4},"title":"A review of the Xiegu G90 general coverage transceiver","author":"Thomas","date":"September 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The following review of the Xiegu G90 originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine: A comprehensive review of the Xiegu G90 general coverage transceiver My coming of age in the world of radio was during the era of big US and Japanese radio manufacturers.\u00a0 Icom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Field Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Field Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/field-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_2007-scaled-e1598976156685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_2007-scaled-e1598976156685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_2007-scaled-e1598976156685.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/IMG_2007-scaled-e1598976156685.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44131,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/upgrade-the-encoder-on-your-xiegu-g90-for-about-8-00-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":43786,"position":5},"title":"Upgrade the encoder on your Xiegu G90 for about $8.00 US","author":"Thomas","date":"July 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Shortly after posting some of my initial impressions of the Xiegu G90, SWLing Post contributor, Guy Atkins, encouraged me to upgrade the stock G90 tuning knob\/encoder with one that is highly recommended by the G90 community. While I didn't really have an issue with the stock plastic knob, I couldn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Accessories"","block_context":{"text":"Accessories","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/accessories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Xiegu-G90-Encoder-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Xiegu-G90-Encoder-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Xiegu-G90-Encoder-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Xiegu-G90-Encoder-2.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}