ImportCommunications X1M

[cockpitbob]

Anyone know anything about this radio?  There are no reviews for it on eHam.net yet and only a small Yahoo group that I haven't broused enough to get a sense of how they like it.

It's a 4W, CW & SSB all HF band radio with general coverage receive for $300.
  For the size and price the only down side I can find is the 0.5A standby current is a bit high for long term battery use.

[gil]

I started seeing it on Ebay... Sounds great, but indeed, 500mA is A LOT!
I'm used to 60mA (K1, MTR)  ;) (well, 150 to 200mA with the KX3).

Gil.

[w2db]

Just received two yesterday, posted my quick notes on the yahoo group, did more measurement tonight, which I need to gather my notes and write something that makes sense.

A few mechanical issues with mic connector and key jack.

LSB carrier point is way out of whack. Everyone on 40 sounds bassy. There's a setting to fix it, but that throws the LSB frequency off...need to investigate more.

RX sensitivity is so-so. 1 uV for good copy. It hears 0.13 uV barely.

Power out is different on the various bands. 40-10 seems to like being about 2.75W peak and CW. on 75 it is 2.1W, on 13.306 it is 3.23W, on 1.150 it is 3.5W, and on 150 khz it is 4 watts with lots of spurs. Yes, it will transmit anywhere it can receive.

Nice forum group. Right up my personal alley. I've been collecting HF radios that run on 12V for some time. Have about 8 Motorola Micom-2's and various other solid state rigs. Mizuho, QST kits, etc.

GeorgeC
W2DB
Allstarlink 2360

[KK0G]

Pretty neat looking rig but what's the SSB thingy about? Not sure what that is 8)

Definitely let us know how it works after you get a little operating time with it George, and welcome to the forum.

[s2man]

Very interesting, from the price point of view.  I too, look forward to more performance feedback from George.

[w2db]

Wish I had more time to do some more, not being helped by the fact that my
service monitor's printer cart has dried up ink, and the cartridges are getting
REAL rare. An old HP. So I cannot print and scan but have to use my shoe-phone
to take pix and that's cumbersome.

I have uploaded a file  called
X1M_SPEC_AN.pdf to my web site. http://dyb.com/X1M/X1M_SPEC_AN.pdf

The pictures are of one unit on 75-10, but a second rig was checked on 40. On
all bands with preamp on receive was"ok". Not the same as my FT-1000D. They
"hear" 0.1 uV barely at the noise level. I didn't do 20db S+N/N check, but by
ear that seems to be about 1 uV. Now if this were a FT1000 or one of my
Micom-2's I'd be bothered. But all things considered, not too bad. RX filter
seems good. I need to measure it. LSB filter position relative to carrier is
way, way off, so in LSB mode both units were not going to make good audio, and
reception is bad. As I have posted earlier, there is a setting for the carrier
frequency in all modes, and when the LSB carrier is placed at the "right place"
the indicated operating frequency is WAY off...but just in LSB. This looks like
a firmware problem, but what do I know? USB is perfect. CW is ok, yeah, sidetone
needs an adjustment of some sort. L/M/H in settings, or something like that.

Power out on both units was down about 3db for the most part. Don't go by the
spectrum analyzer dbm numbers in my pix, those were with voice and were varying
a db or so with voice.

I had one instance of RF feedback, may have been a bad ground from the power
supply.

But looking at the pictures...40 was clean except for a spur down 50db at about
3.6 mhz (Hmmmm Fo/2 ??). Both rigs. 75 had spurs at about 1.25 mhz intervals up
and down that seem down about 35 db. (Fo/3 ??)This is sub milliwatt, and does
not bother me. 20 had some sizeable spurs. Though the worst one was down about
40db. so still not too worried about it. Worst case on 15 was down 46db, and on
10 also not the cleanest it was 35db down worst case.

So as the rig stands, it can use some help with these spurs. Operating barefoot,
even though RF output is not as specified it is what it is. I would NOT put this
into an amplifier, which can make the spurious situation worse.

Then there is the mic and key jack mechanical issue. push the connector in so
the metal flange on the plug is up against the jack. If not it looks like
something can short something and it takes my current limited supply down for a
moment.

I still think it is pretty slick. Especially the go-anywhere part. Now my
personal opinion is that at $299 it is a bit high, considering these
deficiencies. $199 would have been better. If it were clean and not had the LSB
issue the $299 is ok. And THAT is no fault of the importer, so I know of people
that want to "Give Ed a piece of their mind" at Dayton. Hold off, guys. Ed
didn't build it.

And as usual I see the customary flame wars brewing over type acceptance/type
approval, part 90 (which really has no HF stuff except very, very limited
circumstances. HF is mainly marine and Aviation. part 22 and 87. But it ain't an
issue, and I know people like to display their knowledge or lack of for the FCC
rules, but guys, it's a 2 watt HF radio. Not worth the heartburn to argue over.

So I hope the manufacturer has some fixes for some of these issues. The DB-9 on
the back suggests that maybe, just maybe they can insert new firmware by serial
connection. That could fix lots of it.

And speaking of the DB-9, anybody have the pin out for making a cable to talk to
HRD, since it is supposed to "look like" a IC-718? I wanted to fiddle with that.
Just looking at these pins with a scope didn't give any real hints.

I use mine really for monitoring things like 6604, 10051, 13270, 11175, etc.
That all works fine, wish it had Motorola SSB squelch.

I hope I can find the printer cart so I can easily make more measurements and post.

The frequencies I think I want to test are 160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 and also 174 khz band. It looks like it will do that one. But I can be wrong.

GeorgeC

W2DB
Cedar Park, TX
Allstar 2360 (back on)