Part of our Building Your First Ham Radio Station guide.
This is my Xiegu G90 manpack build. The radio sits in an Armoloq cage fitted with Armoloq’s RF relocation adapters, plus a Digirig adapter permanently wired in for digital ops. It’s a compact, self-contained package that covers voice and digital without any last-minute cabling in the field.
The standout feature
This radio has probably the best integrated antenna tuner I’ve ever used. That matters more than it sounds like it should for a manpack setup, the whole point of a build like this is minimizing what you have to fuss with in the field, and a tuner that actually finds a match quickly and reliably means one less thing to think about when you’re setting up.
Between the built-in tuner, the Armoloq cage keeping everything protected and organized, and the Digirig already wired in for digital, this is about as grab-and-go as a 20W HF station gets. It’s not going to out-muscle a 100W rig, but for the size, weight, and how little setup it demands, it’s earned a permanent spot in the pack.