I’ve wanted to get into HF since the day I got my license. I wanted to take my time, learn a few things, and not make a hasty decision. I’ve been looking more seriously at HF radios for a couple of months now. I was hoping to put my hands on a couple of radio’s and try some out at the Stone Mountain Hamfest last month, but if you read my previous blog, you know that didn’t work out. I’ve spent some time watching YouTube videos, and reading some articles and comparisons. I had it pretty much narrowed down to either the Yaesu FT-891 or the Xiegu G90, and I was really struggling with making a decision. Last week, Radioditty ran an early Black Friday sale, which finally helped me make up my mind to get the G90.
I need to give a quick shout out to Salty Walk, K4OGO and his YouTube channel, Coastal Waves and Wires. He doesn’t know me, and we’ve never spoken, but he seems to really like his G90, and he produced some good videos that helped to influence my decision. He has an antenna book that I’ll be ordering soon too. Below is a link to his Channel.
First off, I knew I wanted a portable radio. I’m not yet ready to drop a couple thousand dollars on a base station, and I want to try my hand at POTA, and some other mobile activities. I didn’t want to drop $1000+ so, that narrowed it down to the Yaesu and Xiegu pretty quickly. The Yaesu FT-891 was an early contender. I was willing to drop the $600+, but the G90 kept catching my attention. Not only was it $200 less, it had a few extra features that I liked.
The Yaesu definitely has the better reputation for having the better receiver. Not that I saw many complaints about the G90, but the Yaesu is… well… a Yaesu! They have a good reputation for a reason.
The next consideration was the power output. The G90 is only a 20 watt radio, vs the 891, which is a 100 watt radio. This will certainly translate to better power management with the G90 out in the field. I know the Yaesu power levels are adjustable, however, this will eliminate the temptation to crank it up to 100, and I saw at least 1 video that indicated that the G90 was better on power when standing by. I’ve seen videos and articles talking about how the 20 watt output is plenty, if you have a good antenna, and that the difference between 20 and 100 watts is negligible, but I’ve gotten some push back on Facebook, telling me I will miss that 100 watts.
The G90 has a couple of desirable features. The first is the waterfall. Its not big, but it is better than nothing, which is what the Yaesu has. The G90 also has a built in antenna tuner. This is a pretty big deal to me. I’m still figuring out antennas, and how I want to work. While I plan to use resonant antennas for the most part, having that ATU built in takes some of the pressure off of the worry of blowing up my radio. Sure, I could buy an antenna tuner, but that’s one more piece of equipment to carry, and one more expense.
I could see myself purchasing either radio, but in the end, there’s 2 things that helped to finally make my decision…
The first is that I’m having a problem with my Yaesu FT-150. I’ve been in touch with them, and I need to send the mic, and head in to be checked out. I’m not an unreasonable man, and I know things happen, but I was also told that there would be about a 4 week turnaround. One of the reasons for spending extra money for a name, is supposedly the customer service that comes with that name, and frankly, I’m a little irritated that it will take a month or longer to get my radio back, along with paying shipping to get it to them in the first place. There was also a 3 week gap in our communications where I didn’t hear from them, but I was waiting on an answer. When I finally contacted them back, they gave me a lame excuse about having a server failure. Someone on Facebook was complaining about the same thing, and they were given an equally lame excuse about a Window upgrade issue causing them to lose contact. I’m not quitting on Yaesu, but none of this is a good look, and does weigh in my own decision making when considering a premium radio.
The second thing that helped me make my decision is that Radioditty ran a pretty good black Friday deal. I’m not affiliated with Radioditty, I just want to pass along a good deal… however, if they wanted to send me some free stuff, I wouldn’t say no!!! At the time that I’m writing this, the deal is still going on. I’m getting the G90 ($469), a stand with a built in fan ($60), a data interface adapter ($70) plus a couple of e-books (an expanded G90 instruction manual, and Radioditty’s ‘Big Book of Ham Radio’) that they value at $10 each, all for $429. Taxes bring it up to $460. The shipping is free.
There’s a couple of different variations of the deal, but I’ll let you shop around for that if you’re actually interested.
Now, I’m just waiting on the radio to get here, as it’s coming out of China. I’ve already ordered some supplies for an antenna, and plan to put up a 10m dipole first to get started. I’ll probably be posting here a little more often than I have been as I figure things out.
Peace out and 73 y’all!