Yes, that’s right, Pom.
Ben, are you interested in a Lora tracker? I could program it for you with the call GW4BML-4 or whatever you like.
73 Chris
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Who is Lora, and why are you all so obsessed with tracking her?
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It’s her specs! 
Hi Chris @DL1CR,
I’ll bring my X6100 to use on summit, and you can then take it with you for a year of testing 
lets say it’ll be on holiday, hi!
It’ll also help with my weight on my journey home. Looking forward to catching up again and also meeting Uwe!
73, GW4BML. Ben
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The majority of POTA activators run QRO. I even know some that take an FTDX10 or IC7300 to the parks for activations. The FT891 seems to be the king of POTA due it it’s small form factor and 100w output. Have you seen some of the POTA activation rigs and setups? Looks like field day. I can be done with my QRP activation before a lot of them would even be on the air.
Now if someone could come up with a 100w rig in a KX-2 or X6100 form factor, activators would most like trip over themselves making their way to Giga and HRO.
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Some of us take an IC9700 out for SOTA when we fancy a laugh.
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Doesn’t beat a 19 set and Dynamotor.
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The mind boggles at whatever would beat that!
How about an AN/ARC-8 combo ? (BC-348 and ART13-A)
Powering it would be another matter though
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It is very hard to find anything that can replace ft817/818. IC705? Price to high for me
Everybody says
1- display is small. Yes, it is. There is no room for 26" tv screen on small radio. Nobody says uSDX is not good because of small screen
2- no cw filter. Trust me, you can have thousands of cw qso s without cw filter. Try, it goes
3- high current consuption. There is nothing anybody can do about it. I am using 3s2p 4000mAh LiIon and two 3s1p 2000mAh LiIon. Enough juice for whole day
4- it is heavy. Honestly, I am 20kg overweight. I can lose weight and go to gym. My strenght will increase and 2kg of ft817 is no problem
What about positive side?
All bands tx from 1,8 to 432 MHz, all modes. Receiving complete hf up to 56MHz. You can listen to 40MHz band if you wish. Air band am band rx. FM broadcast band rx. 2m all mode. 70cm all mode. Even pmr, here in Europe.
Used ft817 is about 400 to 450 euros, sometimes even 320. Is there any other rig giving you all this for that price?
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I did little research
IC705
rx 260-320 mA
1,1 kg
1337cm³
FT818
rx 250-450 mA
1,17 kg
846 cm³
FT818 is not that heavy, big and with high current comsuption. It is not trendy any more. Now, hams want big displeys with waterfall. And Yaesu had problem with components.
I have two ft818 and hope they will last my lifetime. No plan for buying something else for portable. Expecialy not Xiegu
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I sell muy 817ND to buy a K2, error…
Past year I bought again a 818 (and a second hand cw filter) and Happy.
Perhaps there is a lightweigh, cheap, reliable, HF/6M/VHF/UHF all mode…but I don’t know it.
In EU actually is impossible buy a KX2/KX3 un a reasonable price, IC-705 too big, too high current draw.
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I recently picked up a 817ND with an VFO encoder issue for $300 Cdn. $75 for a new encoder and I have a nice 817 to play with. Plan to use it as a backup and digi radio in the future.
And yes, display is smaller for my old eyes.
Malen
VE6VID
Finally forgot about cheap China rigs, they disappointed and let me down a few times.
If you don’t use UHF/VHF SSB/CW, especially for me the real successor is Laboratory599 TX-500.
- Low current consumption on RX about 0.13А (I can work with 4-5Ah battery for full day).
- Variety of accessory: battery BP-500, CW500 key, DIY500 ATU and PA
- Robust as tank, don’t worry when put it to backpack
- Splash protection: #Lab599 #TX500 in rain - YouTube
- SDR with a lot of features
For people who says that you can get thousands of QSO without narrow filter of FT-817/FT-818 I can only say, radio not only about count of QSO but also about pleasant time spending. Probably you can drive thousand of miles using manual transmission but it more convenient to use automatic transmission and drive assistant for pleasant driving. I agree for some cases manual transmission is also fun but most commonly does not.
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I think too much emphasis is placed on the concept of “the best radio” as if a ham would buy only this radio and use it until he ceases to need a radio. That’s just not the way it works. But there are so many questions like “what’s the best … “.
When really they mean “given the many compromises necessary, what radio do readers think represents a good compromise if I want to use (selection of bands and modes follows, which changes the answer considerably!)”.
I’m curious about the x6100 but as I do need to keep my 817 as an IF for microwave bands, I would not be discarding the 817 or considering the 6100 as a replacement, but that’s just because of my operational requirements.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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Latest pre-production information on the Xiegu X-6200 (was originally to be called X-6100A) from Radioddity here:
xiegu-x6200@groups.io | Home
and
Xiegu X6200 HF Transceiver
It’s still a 5w with internal battery, 8-10w with external battery radio (some had hoped it might be more).
It is still only 160m - 6m but with FM Braodcast and Airband AM reception.
No information on the price as yet.
73 Ed.
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The first reseller has put up a projected price for the X-6200 here:
Xiegu X6200 | Difona Onlineshop
€900 seems a bit expensive but with all new radios where there is a demand the retailer sells at the highest price he thinks he can get until being undercut by competitors.
Comparing €900 for the X6200 to the current (after several years of production) X-6100 at around €550 (plus package pricing options) (from Radioddity, not Difona who are €100 more expensive) - I don’t think I’ll be buying the X-6200 as soon as it’s available even though Xiegu say they are putting it through extended user testing to try to avoid problems as they had when they released the X-6100 originally.
Then again until the radio is released for sale - the reseller can post whatever price he wishes.
73 Ed.
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A nice little device for people with limited space… especially with the XPA125B power amplifier. (Which seems to have a better ATU than the TRX itself)
Unfortunately there is no statement about the weight… and the battery capacity… and a power consumption of 650mA in standby is a NoGo for SOTA!
73 Armin
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Precisely the reason why I sold my 857 and went back to using my 817 adding an external linear. Less convenience (cabling, extra battery, etc), but considerabky less current draw on receive.
I am using the x6100 currently, and i believe that the current draw is <330mA. I should measure it at some point. Allot of this is probably to power a colour screen with waterfall - so i believe you are paying a ‘power tax’ for this feature, but I love this the most when the bands are busy.
A 2.2 aH battery will last 4-5 ‘short’ activations on 10w. There is also the internal battery to follow which I have never really used to capacity.
Compared to the x6100, that does look expensive. I cant see what features it brings over the x6100 to justify that extra cost.
The main problem with the launch of the x6100 was dodgy software, probably releasing it quick to market, which they have now managed to sort out. I would hope/imagine that the Software will be very similar between the x6200 and x6100 ?
I won’t be rushing to upgrade, but i do love my Xeigu x6100 now. My main problem is its weight (880g) compared to KX2. But at some point, I may open it and remove the internal battery to use it with external batteries only and see what weight i can achieve.
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