ATS 20 + Shortwave Radio. Has it improved over the original ?

Very good review Fred, shame about the fm mode missing on 11 meters, let's hope they add it in a later update.....all the best 73

Looks like they were listening to the people. Great little receiver . Cheers Fred and thanks for putting chirp up for me last week. Alan from Luton 💯🇬🇧👍

Keep going Fred. Love radio content.

Great video and love the new intro! 🤘😎🤘🍻

Great review, great channel ❤

Yer the first one was rubbish. They gave me my money back though so fair enough

Fred in the Shed both the ATS20+ and the Raddy RF750 which you made a video on your channel i have bought, but withg the ATS20+ i have so few radio station where with the rf750 i can find many radio stations. I could tell people to stay away from the arduino based ats20+ radios they are no good. Also i have seen the same thing on your radio fred the battery only charges to 80% while it has been charged untill the green light got lit! If you wanna buy a computer based radios you can better go with the ones that are more expensive like the SDR receivers like the MALACHIT or other brands! But still fred thanks for sharing this video!

Another great video Fred!
Thanks!!!

Fred…I don’t see a link for the antenna….

how to update the filmware?

i have the + version if you click on the tuning nob it scan the selected band,works only on AM atleast at work at mine i think i have a other filmware

Thanks for the video Fred. I've played around with SDRSharp and want to look into getting an inexpensive physical SDR, though regrettably cannot have a permanent antenna in my shared garden. I thought a loop antenna might be a perfect compromise (and one I could sometimes take outside) but a lot of posters on Reddit have told me that it would be no better than a whip antenna. Would you recommend the loop in such a situation?

'new' it isn't new at least a year old..

Interesting content 👌

Just curious... Did you try unplugging the red&black wire that was plugged into the new unit's PCB to see what happened? P.S. - I thought it picked up stations very well with the telescoping antenna....last edit. while listening to you I checked it Amazon and it's selling for $45 USD which is a good price. A Good gift for my Grandson. Active loop? Best, Passive loop? I never got the one I had to pick up much. .. . ok, 'Nuff Said.

It looks like that IC you pointed out on the 20+ might be mounted on the bottom of the 20. There's solder pads for it that appear to have solder on them. Although how they are able to invert it is beyond me. Would be interesting to see the bottom of both boards.

A lot of these radios were shipped with Arduinos that had bad USB ports and to update the firmware in mine I had to replace the Arduino.

Hi mate Les from Oldham
Still watching and learning from your channel
If CB home bases are still available could you please give me any advice as to where I can buy one
Thank you
Les

My comment to show support for your Works- Big Thumbs Up...

You say you don't understand why they use old USB mini ports and haven't integrated the programming and the charging port but when you opened it up it shows EXACTLY why. They haven't integrated them because they used pre-made modules. They bought a Nano and a TP4056 module off the shelf to stick onto their board and didn't bother to have to design anything related to USB. They saved themselved quite a lot of headache and money by doing that.
And the Nanos are clones. "Nano" isn't the branding, "Arduino" is. "Arduino Nano" is printed on the bottom of the official boards. Neither word appears on the top of the official boards.

Good on ya Fred, great review mate.
Sub'd.

No link for the mag loop antenna?

Looks like Europe is using those LF AM bands to good effect. They are quiet here in Missouri.

How about 10 meter FM reception? There is spot in 10 meter where FM is allowed.

❤❤❤❤

My ATS 25 MAX is on the way . When I get it , I hope to modify it physically as per your suggestions and my thoughts . Will send pictures when it's done 😊

I have one on order from Amazon. This will be a good test before I can order a transceiver. I have at least three iterations of the cables. I am hoping they did not use some farther off the wall design than the industry standard

Hey Fred , I got my radio today , could not believe how small it was ? Quick question for you ? Where does shortwave start and finish ? On the unit they just have AM it does not say if your SW or AM . Thanks buddy .

can somebody tell me if the sound quality is enough to plug the audio into a computer and decode FT8 JS8? digital modes?

Hey Fred, what does the 80% in the bottom right corner mean? Also still have not figured the mode button and switch button do ? I had it on left side and still got lsb and usb ?

Great video, again! As I am in the market for a new scanner, my old and trusted Realistic Pro 2005 has finally bitten the dust. (Purchased from Tandy! Cannot remember when) This scanner allowed me to listen to the airband, marine band, amateur radio bands and also the vhf broadcast bands, that modern scanners do not. Does the ATS 20+ receive the airbands? I do not think it has a programmable memory, although I can still read the frequency displays. Thanks for another great video!

Thanks for your detailed review. I almost buy the old model.

great review I am new to this radio .they are for sale at Walmart US for $18 free shipping in the US a bargain !is there any firmware updates for this ?just curious

I had a 20 for maybe 2 months and my encoder had locked up.

Very informative excellent information as got me taking a chance its on its way Many Thanks 🙂

Late to the party as usual, but I've just ordered a Plus from AliExpress for £24 delivered to the UK after watching your video. Thanks for the heads-up on the improvements over the non-Plus version. Very helpful. 👍

Well... you convinced me to take up an AliEx discount and have a go with this apparent marvel!
I'd held off, when I read of multiple difficulties and dissatisfactions that users were experiencing with the ATS 20.

I am so NOTTT a fan of any Arduino/ RaspberryPi etc based stuff. Just a black box of nastiness to me... something I will never learn to use/ program/ fix!
Just the whole concept of ever having to tell a gizmo what to do... on what pin... in its own language... yeah/nah. As soon as I see or hear the word Arduino I usually scroll on as it just doesn't apply to me!

Anyhow... I've ordered one, and hopefully I will never have to update the firmware to get it going. That will be the very same day it becomes an expensive paperweight.

Just to confirm, the Plus has a 76 to 108MHz bandpass filter and RF amplifier going to the FM pin of the Si4732. The extra connector with the red and black wires is for the LiPo cell sitting under the PCB. Some ATS-20s seem to use the connector and others wire the LiPo cell directly to the bottom of the PCB. I don't know whether that's model specific or just down to which factory it's made in.

You can replace the original LiPo in the ATS-20+ with a 2.75Ah EEMB 605575 available from Amazon UK for up to 48 hours runtime per charge. Stick it down pushed tight into the front left corner of the lower case and it won't foul anything it shouldn't on the underside of the PCB. The connector type and polarity match the original, so it's a straight drop-in replacement. 👍

can it pick up AM VFH Airband?

Hello.
This is a good radio
Try using your amplified loop antenna with this indoors it works well. All the best.Geff radio ham

Thanks for a great review of the newer unit Fred, I'm thinking of getting one to play with so I appreciated this very much.

I revisited this review today and it answered exactly what I needed to know. ALiExpress has a sale on the 20 & 20+, both are well over 50% off, the 20 is only 2 USD cheaper. I was thinking should I save 2 bucks and get the 20 ? Nope! Spend the extra 2 bucks and get the 20+ 🤑

Great review.

Thanks Fred, I just purchased one on Amazon today. Looks really fun!

These 20+ are now £20 on a well known chinese shopping platform.
I'm waiting on mine arriving.
Nice review Fred, thanks.

You could make a very nice 16 W out 40 mtr CW transmitter Rx with one of these using the design of the Tx in the Bayou Hopper (US design) with all the mosfets Q1, q2 doubled up and the whole Tx run on 19 V from a Dell laptop supply , 4.5 a capacity . Calculations show 16W out, CW.

That's massively over power required for a Qso across the Atlantic by a factor of three. The gates of the PA mosfets would have to go through inductor 6T on a one Wx 100R resistor body before the Tie point to suppress parasit oscillations.

regards, TF

On the antenna, get a 90-deg BNC connector and plug in the antenna so it's straight up and it won't start flopping over.

I’m sold , I want one . lol thanks for the review excellent advice. All the best from Tucson Arizona formally Coventry England