Xiegu G1M Longer range coms on a budget

[Lightspeed]

A few weeks ago a little Software Defined Radio found its way to me from some ingenious people in China.

The manufacturer is Xiegu and the model is the G1M. I think this could well become long-range equivalent to the ubiquitous preppers go to handheld, the Baofeng UV5r.

I purchased this radio with the intention of giving it to my daughter to upgrade her go-pack. Why? because of its cost, simplicity and great performance. I'm enjoying playing with it so much, it looks like she'll have to wait a while yet!

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Performance first. This radio is tiny but has an amazingly good receiver. It will handle AM, Single Side Band, Morse code and digital modes. Output is just 5watts on four of the main Ham radio bands (but not CB band... although it receives CB SSB signals fine) which is plenty for national and transatlantic communications, especially in Morse code / digital mode. On the tests I've made, its receiving better than mainstream ham radios that cost thousands of pounds just a few years ago.

Transmitter coverage: 15 meter band ( sometimes very good for daylight worldwide communications, but not reliably so.) 20m Band ( the most reliable long range communications band good for reaching stations 500miles away to worldwide, mainly daylight.), 40m band( Daylight and evening Pan-European coverage and UK nationwide NVIS in daylight hours), 80m band (night time Pan European and Night time nationwide NVIS coverage).

Receiver: Does a great job of receiving AM stations from top end of Medium wave right up to 30Mhhz. This means worldwide broadcast Shortwave stations and CB SSB and AM transmissions can all be tuned with ease.

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Simplicity: One knob to turn it on and off / adjust volume. Second knob to adjust frequency. Five push buttons to operate a three layer menu which includes pre-amplifier, control of tuning steps, 60 memory channels, and operating mode ( AM SSB CW). Controls are easy to use, and the screen (OLED) is easily readable even outdoors. The screen even has room to display a little histogram of adjacent frequencies, which is great for spotting and tuning in to signals of all kinds.

Size-wise its half that of an old car mount CB radio, and weighs even less.

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Weak points.

Supplied microphone is a bit rubbish, but functional. Newer modes appear improved.
Loudspeaker... not very loud and poor quality. Cheap headphones or earbuds are a must
Sockets for mike, headphones, morse key etc are reported fragile by some owners. This may just be an indication of ham-fisted handling (pun intended) as my unit is fine...so far.

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Cost: £ 174 inc delivery.

To make a fully functioning station there needs to be added:
12v switched mode power supply ( £15)
Antenna tuner ( simple Kit £ 10.00) or an EFHW antenna matcher (Sota kit £12.00)
66ft of loudspeaker cable (£10.00)... for the antenna.
Headphones.. just use old 3.5 mm plugged ear buds ( FREE)
Morse code key optional. Easy to make almost for free in an emergency.

Total approx £210. That's a tidy sum, but actually extremely good value for a fully functional radio station that provides independent worldwide communications.

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Want more?

The same company also make a more deluxe machine the G90. This is a fantastic radio and even more competent than the G1M in that it has more sophisticated receiver controls and filters, 4x the output power, built in antenna tuner, and can decode received morse code to text on its little screen. Robust as a brick, and about the same weight, it costs a little over£400

But output power is deceptive; In this instance the G90's output power of 20w is 4 times the 5w output of the G1M, but that doesn't mean 4x the range or 4x as loud. Actually a receiving station's signal meter would register the more powerful radio's signal as just one extra increment of signal strength (out of 11 increments on their meter). A human ear may just be able to determine that increase in volume, but probably not. And, while the extra s-point may just be the determining factor in making the contact, but most often it would make no difference at all.