RS-918 HF , QRP - SDR Transceiver UNBOX & Test

I have the RS-978, bought it about 4 years ago. More expensive at $ 450, but has some enhancements - after looking at yours, mine has USB Type C for charging (much better). Mine also has a clip in battery, same style as the IC-705. The clip in battery has a USB C port on it, meaning you can either charge the battery off the radio or while it is in the radio (nice) and the battery lasts very long 3800 mAh. I haven't used mine in 3.5 years, it was really a novelty purchase for me, but is actually a very capable radio - when I first tested it, I worked all over the world on FT8 from here in Nairobi. As others have answered, the tune button transmits a steady carrier required by an external tuner

The silica packs are for soaking up water and humidity to keep the product dry during shipping.

The TUNE button just puts out an RF signal for an external tuner. I love it for my auto-sensing ATUs.

Just bought the same rig after watching your video

Silica gel absorbs moisture. If it becomes saturated, heating it will drive off the moisture and make it ready for re-use.

Really Good. Ty verymuch

Good idea on this rig to read the 86 page manual first. I ordered mine in early November and received it in about ten days. I long pressed a button and shut off Tx and was afraid I had broken it. You got a great deal at $250 pounds delivered. I paid $380 delivered in the States. Mine seems to have been calibrated, perhaps partially, prior to receiving it. Not sure but a lot indicates it has been calibrated to some degree. Any way have fun, I have basically only used it as a receiver due to being very busy but its a fabulous receiver. I just got around to really focusing on the rig. Perhaps we will meet on the air at some future time & until then 73 de kc2wvb.

I think tune just puts it in tuning mode, I got a small pocket tuner with mine and turn the tuning dials until my swr drops

Yup. I got the one with the orange controls! It has two buttons that don't work and the F1 button got stuck. Rather than go to all the hassle of returning it etc I decided to have a go at fixing it myself. The display/MCU board has some flux vapour residue on the connectors which will probably eat the PCB tracks over time. The button that was stuck wasn't being pulled up to 3.3V. I managed to get it working by giving it an additional 22K resistor pull up. I've still got to fix the other two buttons, they seem to go the MCU but on a different pin to the diagrams that I can find. Perhaps the firmware (which appears to be the latest) doesn't match the PCB. Are there different versions? Anyway, it is perfectly usable now and I am having lots of fun with it. I got it as a second tranceiver to use with QO-100 in full duplex. It has FreeDV built in which is a digital audio mode that is within the 2.7KHz rule for QO-100 narrow band.

Looks a bit like a xeigu 5500 ?