Also known as: G90
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The Xiegu G90 is the cheapest real ticket onto HF: around $450 buys a 20 W SSB/CW transceiver with a 24-bit SDR architecture, a small but working spectrum waterfall, and — the killer feature — a built-in antenna tuner with a matching range the community summarizes as “it’ll tune a wet noodle.”1 It gives up power, screen size, and refinement to the Japanese rigs, and it doesn’t care: nothing near its price does half as much.
Key takeaways Most affordable pick in best ham radio base stations. ~$450 buys 160–10 m at 20 W, a usable SDR receiver with waterfall, a detachable faceplate, and a wide-range internal tuner that matches the compromise antennas beginners and POTA operators actually have. The trades: 20 W ceiling, 1.8-inch screen, no USB soundcard (FT8 needs a dongle), strong-signal overload vs the big rigs, importer-level support. Part 97 license to transmit; none to listen — a $30 RTL-SDR + GopherTrunk is the zero-commitment way to scout first.
Overview
Xiegu introduced the G90 in 2019 and it has been the eHam budget favorite since: a Chinese-built HF rig, sold in the US through Radioddity, that undercuts everything from Japan by half while delivering the two things a new HF operator actually needs — a receiver good enough to hear real DX, and a tuner forgiving enough to work with whatever wire they managed to hang. The detachable faceplate and ~8 A draw make it equally at home as a desk base, a trail radio, or a truck rig.
Honesty about the ceiling: 20 W is a real constraint on SSB when conditions sag — CW and FT8 shrug it off, but phone operators will lose pileups to 100 W stations. The 1.8-inch screen shows a functional ~48 kHz waterfall, not an IC-7300 panorama. The receiver is genuinely usable but more prone to strong-signal overload and birdies than the Japanese rigs. Firmware and QC vary batch to batch in typical Xiegu fashion, and support means the importer, not a national service network. Every one of those trades is priced in — twice over.
License note: transmitting takes an FCC amateur license (Part 97 — Technician class minimum, General for most HF voice). Listening takes none.
Bands, modes & power
- TX: 160–10 m ham bands, 20 W. RX: 0.5–30 MHz.
- Modes: SSB, CW, AM. Some sellers list 10 m FM — treat that as firmware-dependent and verify on your unit. No digital voice.
- Architecture: 24-bit SDR (digital IF) with spectrum/waterfall display.
- Tuner: built-in, famously wide-range — end-feds, whips, and compromise portable antennas are its home turf.
- Power: 13.8 V DC at ~8 A max — small-battery friendly.
What owners praise and gripe about
Praise: astonishing capability per dollar, the tuner, a receiver that hears what it should, and a form factor that goes anywhere — it’s arguably the POTA radio. Gripes: the 20 W ceiling on SSB, the tiny screen, fan and tuner-relay noise, no native USB audio, and the batch-to-batch firmware/QC variability that comes with the price. None of the gripes are surprises; all of them are documented in a very large, very active owner community.
The detachable faceplate deserves its own mention: with the head remoted, the body tucks under a seat or into a pack frame, which is why G90s turn up as truck rigs and bicycle-mobile stations as often as desk radios. Between that, the ~8 A draw, and the tuner, it’s the rare radio where the “base station” label undersells it — it’s really a go-anywhere HF station that happens to be cheap. Watch Radioddity’s coupon churn before paying sticker; the street price moves.
Programming & software
CAT control uses an Icom-like protocol subset, so most logger/digimode software talks to it. CHIRP lists G90 support for memory programming. The missing piece is audio: there’s no built-in USB soundcard, so FT8 and friends need the CE-19 expansion port with an external interface or a third-party dongle. Firmware updates come through Xiegu/Radioddity tools and are worth applying — they’ve fixed real issues over the years.
GopherTrunk alternative
GopherTrunk receives; it can’t transmit — so it isn’t a G90 substitute even at a tenth the price. It is the cheaper first step. A ~$30 RTL-SDR running free GopherTrunk lets you monitor local repeaters and digital ham traffic, recording and logging everything, so you learn what’s active before licensing or buying. If your G90 budget is genuinely the limit, spend $30 first and put the rest toward antenna wire — the antenna matters more than the radio. Picks: best SDR for GopherTrunk and best HF SDR.
Who it’s for
- Buy the G90 as your first HF radio, your POTA/portable rig, or the cheapest way to find out whether HF grabs you — knowing you may upgrade the radio later and keep it as the field unit. View on Amazon →
- Spend up to the FT-891 (~$650) for 100 W in a similar footprint (minus the tuner), or the IC-7300 (~$1,040) for the full base-station experience.
- Skip the IC-718 at new-old-stock prices — the G90 outclasses it for half the money. Rankings: best ham radio base stations.
Sources
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Xiegu G90 — Radioddity product page — the US importer, on the 24-bit SDR architecture, 20 W output, 0.5–30 MHz receive, built-in wide-range ATU, detachable faceplate, and CE-19 digital-mode expansion. ↩
Frequently asked questions
Is the Xiegu G90 a good first HF radio?
Yes — it’s the cheapest radio we’d actually recommend for getting on HF. Around $450 buys 20 W SSB/CW, a genuinely usable SDR receiver with a small waterfall, and a built-in tuner that matches almost anything. Its limits are real (20 W, tiny screen, no USB audio), but nothing else does this much for this little.
Is 20 watts enough for SSB?
Usually, with honest caveats. CW and FT8 at 20 W work the world; SSB in poor conditions is work, and you’ll lose some pileups to 100 W stations. POTA activators run G90s daily because the wide-range tuner plus 20 W into a wire gets contacts made.
How good is the G90's built-in antenna tuner?
It’s the radio’s killer feature — famously wide-range, happily matching end-feds, whips, and compromised portable wires that would stop the narrow tuners in radios costing three times more. Expect some relay clatter while it tunes.
Does the Xiegu G90 do FT8?
Yes, but it needs help: there’s no built-in USB soundcard, so digital modes require an external audio interface (Xiegu’s CE-19 expansion or a third-party dongle) plus CAT. Budget another $30–60 and some cabling patience.
Do I need a license to use the G90?
To transmit, yes — an FCC amateur license (Part 97, Technician minimum; General for most HF phone). Listening requires no license, and a $30 RTL-SDR running free GopherTrunk is an even cheaper way to start listening.