Xiegu X6100 HF transceiver review

The X6100 is a HF and 50MHz transceiver. It is a budget alternative to IC-705 if you do not need VHF/UHF bands.

I tried FT8 on it for a few days.

Good

• Relatively low price
• Bright LCD screen
• The firmware is not locked down.
  
• Internal battery
• Built-in USB interface
• Built-in antenna tuner
• A large community, many hams have the transceiver.
• alternative R1CBU firmware.
  
• The manufacture is still adding new features like wfserver to the firmware.

Bad

• Changing receiver options is tedious due to the untouchable screen.
  
• hamlib's CAT control can be buggy at times.
• Built-in USB interface lacks isolation. Noise from computers would get into the receiver.
• Only 5W output on internal battery.
• It supports WiFi but I never succeeded in connecting to one.
• The CW decoder never worked for me.
• Some birdies exist.
  

Update in Nov 2023,

I sold the transceiver because I lost interest in QRP HF.