{"id":45108,"date":"2020-09-01T13:55:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T17:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=45108"},"modified":"2021-05-08T08:14:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T12:14:31","slug":"a-review-of-the-xiegu-g90-general-coverage-transceiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/a-review-of-the-xiegu-g90-general-coverage-transceiver\/","title":{"rendered":"A review of the Xiegu G90 general coverage transceiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The following review of the Xiegu G90 originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine<\/a>:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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A comprehensive review of the Xiegu G90 general coverage transceiver<\/h1>\n

My coming of age in the world of radio was during the era of big US and Japanese radio manufacturers.\u00a0 Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, JRC, and Ten-Tec\u2013\u2013these were the icons of my youth. And, I freely confess, I developed a partiality for their products.<\/p>\n

So when incredibly inexpensive transceivers from manufacturers in China started showing up on the market a little over a decade ago, I was…well, skeptical. Very. \u00a0<\/i>Many of these radios were a fraction of the cost we had been paying, and some models looked like direct copies of radios that were already on the market…but these copies were all-too-often second-rate either in features or performance.<\/p>\n

Thus, as it was my policy to invest in quality products, I continued to put my money toward US, Japanese, and European legacy manufacturers that I felt would be here for the long haul in the amateur radio and SWL communities.<\/p>\n

Had I become a bit of a radio snob? I admit it…maybe I had. But in truth, I was simply waiting for a quality Chinese-made radio to come along and change my viewpoint.<\/p>\n

Times have changed<\/h2>\n

Recently, I compiled a list of general coverage QRP transceivers for the SWLing Post<\/i><\/a>. My buddy Eric (WD8RIF) pointed out that I neglected to include any<\/i> of the Chinese-made Xiegu brand transceivers, all of which offer general-coverage receiving.<\/p>\n

I know a number of hams who use Xiegu (pronounced roughly \u201cSHEH-goo\u201d) brand portable transceivers for Parks On The Air (POTA)<\/a> and Summits On The Air (SOTA)<\/a> activations, and like them very well.\u00a0 So I decided to waive my doubts and check out Xiegu\u2019s transceivers. I found myself intrigued with one in particular: the G90<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Xiegu G90<\/h1>\n

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At time of publication, there are three Xiegu models widely available: the G1M<\/strong>, X5105<\/strong>, and the G90<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The GM1<\/b> ($260) is a compact, four-band 5-watt QRP transceiver, while the X5101<\/b> ($520) is a 160M-6M 5-watt Double Conversion Superheterodyne QRP transceiver. Both look promising, but the G90<\/b> is a 20-watt 160M-10M transceiver sporting a 24-bit 48 kb\/s sampling analog-to-digital\/digital-to-analog converter at just $450. That\u2019s the one I chose to investigate.<\/p>\n

I found both the G90 receiver specs and 20-watt-output power very appealing, especially considering the modest $450 price tag. But I found this receiver has other impressive features:<\/p>\n