Chinese X108 QRP transceiver can now be ordered
G1KQH has told me that the 9-band multmode transceiver, the X108 from China, can now be ordered on-line.
http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?
Personally, I’d prefer the FT817 but, even with shipping to the UK, taxes and duty , the price is attractive, even if the product looks rather ugly (to me). It still looks “back shed” design to me. Personally I’d rather wait until the Chinese are really there with their designs. Others may disagree, but the industrial design of this product certainly lets it down.
Also, this is a kit, but with very little soldering.
To me the radio looks kind of nice. A bit like My IC-7000. Really like the color display and all info in one place. I have had a number of FT-817’s and always got rid of them in trades… That is how I got the IC-7000. I trade a FT-817+ Hardrock HR-50 last week. My main QRP is my KX3. This would be a radio I MIGHT put on my someday list. $$$ is tight so not now…or maybe never. But it is interesting anyway. Just my opinion. Radio likes and dislikes are pretty personal and subjective.
I like the look just fine but I wouldn’t buy one without trying it first. I have a ft817nd, Argonaut V, & SG2020. It will have to be a great rig to compete with any of those. I might have room for one more qrp rig.:-)
Seven hundred bucks – yeah right. It looks like no GC receive. I might be tempted if there was a schematic to look at first – just to make sure I’m not buying into an NE602 nightmare, or something similar (at least it hints that there is AGC though).
I really appreciate the lower cost rigs coming into the hobby. There is very little in terms of affordable rigs these days. Wouxun, Boafeng and others have broken the cost barrier for many new hams and I applaud them for that.
While I can appreciate brilliance in design, layout and execution of the more established brands, I will most certainly support and help develop, through constructive criticism, the radios from the lesser known eastern manufacturers. And why am I so comfortable with something that may be a little more cumbersome to use? Because this is my hobby – not my job 🙂 And it reminds me of the path most things in life take… the evolutionary path… use, think, improve.
73