I’ve decided to do a series of QRP presentations at my radio club – trying to spread the joy of low power communication around. I had obtained a Xiegu G106 QRP transceiver at a substantial discount, so I thought I’d give it a try, as this might be a decent starter radio for some of our new General license holders.
I spent most of the past few days checking the characteristics. Mine produces from 6 to 8 watts output depending on band, consistently pulls 0.35 amps on receive, and from 1.2 to 1.7 amps on transmit. My signal generator indicated S2 at 1uV (-107 dBm) – not the most sensitive receiver I’ve ever used, but perfectly usable (with the preamp on, of course).
I finally put it on the air today, using my venerable Elecraft T1 tuner. 20m was in rough shape today, but tuning around, I found Bob AK9A calling CQ POTA at park US-10650 in Wisconsin. On peaks he was S5. I gave him a call, and was surprised to hear him come back to me immediately.
Thanks, Bob, for being my first test subject for my G106.
