Tag: qrp

  • QRP Contesting: Making the Most of Low Power

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Running QRP in a contest sounds like a self-imposed handicap, and in a sense it is, but most major contests reward that handicap with scoring multipliers that make QRP a genuinely competitive, satisfying category rather than just a novelty. Why the Multiplier Matters Most contests that offer…

  • Xiegu X6100 Review: A Touchscreen Portable Alternative to the G90

    Part of our Where to Spend Your Money guide. The X6100 is Xiegu’s more premium portable offering, built around a full touchscreen SDR interface and an internal battery, positioning it as a more self-contained alternative to the G90 for POTA and SOTA style operating. Touchscreen SDR Interface Unlike the G90’s small waterfall display, the X6100…

  • Icom IC-705 Review: A Compact SDR QRP Radio for the Field

    Part of our Handheld Radios (HTs) guide. The IC-705 was one of the first radios to bring genuine SDR performance into a battery-powered, backpack-friendly package, and it remains one of the most capable portable radios on the market years after launch. What Makes It Different Unlike the Xiegu G90 or Yaesu FT-891, the IC-705 covers…

  • FT-891 vs FTX-1 Field vs G90: Which Portable HF Radio Wins for POTA

    Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. I get some version of this question constantly: which of my three portable-friendly HF radios should someone actually buy for POTA. I own all three, I use all three in the field, and the honest answer is that they’re not really competing…

  • Running the FTX-1 QRP vs Full Power in the Field: When to Choose Which

    How I actually decide between QRP and full power on the FTX-1 in the field, based on band conditions, kit weight, and what I’m trying to accomplish.

  • Building Your First QRP Kit: What to Expect

    There is a specific kind of satisfaction in making a contact with a radio you soldered together yourself. Building a QRP kit is one of the most approachable ways into homebrewing, even with zero electronics background.

  • The Xiegu G90: The Complete Guide

    The Xiegu G90 is the radio I hand to people who ask me where to start with portable HF and don’t want to spend FT-891 or FTX-1 money to find out if they like it. It’s a 20 watt QRP transceiver with a genuinely useful built-in antenna tuner, and it’s small enough that it changes…

  • G90 POTA Field Kit Walkthrough

    Part of our The Xiegu G90: The Complete Guide. People ask me why I still reach for the G90 for POTA when I own an FTX-1 and an FT-891. The honest answer is size. The G90 is genuinely small, and once you’ve hiked a mile in with a radio on your back, you stop thinking…

  • Is 20 Watts Enough? The G90 in the Current Solar Cycle

    Part of our The Xiegu G90: The Complete Guide. The most common question I get about the G90 is some version of “isn’t 20 watts too low.” Right now, honestly, no. But the answer depends on timing more than people realize, and it’s worth being straight about that instead of just saying “QRP works great”…

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