X6100 Accessibility Firmware

An experimental firmware image for the Xiegu X6100 radio that adds spoken feedback (screen-reader style) throughout the menus, using the radio's own built-in text-to-speech. Built and tested by a blind ham, for blind hams.

Download

Download the latest image (sdcard.img.zip)

Latest release: 15 October 2026, a test release built on upstream X6100 GUI version 1.0.2. It adds spoken feedback for the new Bluetooth window. See the full list of changes. If it gives you trouble, the previous release (3 August 2026) is still available to flash instead.

How to install

1. Unzip the download to get sdcard.img.
2. Write it to a microSD card with a tool like balenaEtcher or Rufus.
3. Insert the card into the radio and power it on.
4. In Settings, turn Voice on.

What's talking

• The full menu system, dialogs, and on-screen keyboard - settings pages, mode changes, band changes, keyboard entry, and more.
• Frequency and mode, read back on direct entry, VFO knob tuning, and Band Up/Down.
• FT8: opening the FT8 screen announces the mode ("FT8"/"FT4") and frequency together; Band Up/Down inside FT8 reads the new frequency back immediately. Distance is read in kilometers or miles, set in Settings, Interface tab, FT8 table info.
• The Bluetooth window (APP key, Application page 3, F3): it opens with a spoken summary, and the Status button (page 3) repeats it. Turning the knob reads each device with its position, like "2 of 5". Scan results, connections, pairing codes (digit by digit) and failures are spoken as they happen. Speech can play through Bluetooth headphones.
• Unassigned function keys say "Not used". The low-battery shutdown warning is spoken. Plugging in a keyboard says "Keyboard connected".
• The physical buttons on top of the radio - memory recall/store, ATU toggle, VFO A/B, frequency lock, band/frequency step, and more.
• Six selectable voices in Settings: Lyubov, SLT, Alan, Evgeniy, BDL, and CLB.
• An "Interrupt speech" setting, so a new announcement can cut off one still speaking instead of waiting for it to finish, with its own tunable delay.

Audio walk around

Xiegu X6100 Walk Around - an audio description of the radio's physical layout and controls.

One thing worth knowing

A few actions - starting a recording, sending or beaconing a saved message, playing one back, and Bluetooth headset PTT - take two presses instead of one: the first press announces what it's about to do and waits, the second press actually does it, silently. This is intentional. If a press seems to do nothing, press it again. Nothing is spoken while transmitting from a Bluetooth headset; you hear "PTT off, receiving" when you're back on receive.

Known limitations

• SWR Scan and the ATU auto-tuner can stop all speech. The radio itself keeps working normally the whole time. This is in the radio's BASE firmware, not in this software: after the tuner or the scan runs, the radio stops mixing in the speech audio. It isn't fixed yet.
• To recover without a full power cycle: hold down the LOCK key (the same key that toggles frequency lock on a short press) to soft-reboot the radio. After SWR Scan, a full power cycle has sometimes been needed.
• The GPS window has no speech yet.

This release has had a first round of testing on real hardware and is now out for wider testing. Questions or problems: see the project page on GitHub.