Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Robert Richmond, who shares the following series of videos about the new ATS-25 receiver (mentioned in this previous post) from Kevin O’Reilly’s YouTube channel.
The SWLing Post
Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
I have the ATS-25X2 and for the life of me I can’t find a way to make it receive amateur 2M FM transmissions – it just skips over that band.
Do any of the “ATS-20/25” series receivers actually receive Amateur 2M band?
No they don’t. They only receive up to 30mhz
Hello there, Is there a way of putting your own frequencies into the presets on the ATS-20 and ATS-25 as i have got both and would like to enter the station i want not wat has been preset ?? i don’t like the American channels they have set??
if you like here find my first impression of the ATS-25
https://swli-05940-mi.blogspot.com/2021/09/ats-25-receiver-si4732.html
have a nice week end
Oscar
I got from China the ATS-25 from amazon, I have chosen to buy the one with soft touch VFO with the pink colored metal case. This is because the experience I had with the ATS-20 VFO was just horrible after few days and I was scared of having same mechanical issues on the ATS-25 (priced almost 3 time more than the ATS-20!).
The Soft Touch VFO – let’s call it this way – of the “pink ATS-25” is good enough to scroll up and down the bands at high speed, but fine tuning within 1 khz accuracy is difficult: the tuned frequency changes of +/- 1-2 khz just moving away the finger, luckily the device offers the option of direct input of the tuning frequency.
Other performances are as Kevin explained on his YouTube videos.
Just the noise from the screen in my device does not seem so much relevant as in his one, when tuned in LW.
One comment I would make is that with its whip antenna, it basically does not pick up anything in short waves but few strong broadcasters, seems to me that the ATS-20 was slightly better in this. I tried inside the house with internal active Loops (the AOR LA-400 and the GS5-SE Grahn Spezialantennen) with these two loops, the ATS-25 turned into a nice receiver.
73 Oscar
IT2024SWL
Another video review, including internals:
The proc appears to be an EP32-WROOM-32.
No ESD protection on the SI4732, just like with the ATS-20. Add an ESD chip, reversed diodes, bleeder resistor, or whatever combination you prefer. For those not wanting to mod the radio, you can pickup a basic antenna input protection circuit from eBay for around $15.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?&_nkw=sdr+protector
Yeah, I know that is like a sub-$1 circuit, but it does come assembled in a metal case with connectors.
Kevin,
The bar closest to the bottom is the volume because it changed as you adjusted the volume.
Thanks, it took me a while to work that one out. I think that part of the display would be better used for something else.
Hi, Yes it took me a ehile to work that out! I think the display could benefit from a few changes. This may be possible with an update of the sketch as in the ATS-20. I don’t think however the ATS-20 uses an Arduino board as the ATS-20 did. It is quite different internally.
Thanks Thomas for the support. I have a few more videos to come on this radio and it is an interesting receiver for sure. It is very different to the ATS-20 but not without its issues. The main problem I think at the moment is the cost. Here in the UK I have seen the ATS with a price of up to £145 and at that sort of cost the radio is certainly not good value. Even at half that price something like an XHdata 808 is cheaper.
Thanks for the vids! 🙂
I agree about cost. I picked up an early ATS-20 for under $60 shipped, which I felt was fine for what amounts to a project radio. Above $100 puts the ATS-25 in the range of a PL-660/680, which is a far more performant, reliable, and usable radio.
The ATS-25 seems to be floating around $115 to $130 via eBay for US shoppers. Some ads also mix up the two different VFO options, thus potentially confusing unsuspecting buyers.