Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
This review of the ATS-120 is quite good and should be of interest to SWLing readers. This is a feature packed portable, with some quirks such as lack of FM mode on shortwave. It has a LNA amp feature that appears to duplicate the Hi-Z function on Malachite portables. It has a very good feature that enables vertical or horizontal screen display. And it has both BT and WIFI.
On the downside the reviewer notes cross modulation from AM/FM signals which appears even with the LNA pre-amp off. I would say that for anyone interested in this receiver, perhaps waiting until design changes address this and other downsides.
Thank you for this review recommendation, Dan. Looking at eBay, I see that the ATS-120 is pretty affordable at about $115 US shipped.
Readers: If you’ve ordered the ATS-120, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
I just received this radio .A true sdr radio would have a band scope and wow this radio has it its the its the scan in the next button its a true bandscope if you change vertical its even better check it out
There is also the possibility to install a decoder for digi mods in the ATS120.
https://youtu.be/ZRuIzBnb-Pc?si=-x6OCNCTsfneeaF7
Same Youtuber has posted this teardown:
https://youtu.be/D7QsgGyRAv8
It was an untfortunate accident that I mentioned DRM in my earlier comment.
However, I started to speculate that there must be an audio path from the si4732 DSP chip to esp32 in ATS-120 receiver – otherwise bluetooth audio output from esp32 would’t be possible. (The esp32 chip contains both wifi and bluetooth.)
This led me thinking that spectral processing and decoding radio signals should be possible even without modifying ATS-120 hardware and that some decoders for ATS-120 could already exist.
And yes, here is what I found, ATS25/ATS120 software:
http://harduino.ru/index.php/en/
Among other things, the web site mentions that the wifi can be used for remote control – I wished to find a mention about web radio, but probably it isn’t there.
Very happy with my Belka, sorry to hear there’s been some headphone issues… first I’ve heard of these,
Just got mine in today. Love it so far. The ATS100 was returned after working with the seller to try to get rid of the clicking sound when the meter moved during low signal reception. I will get it outside for some SSB reception tomorrow. Note: “RDS Only FM Button” needs to be disabled and RDS will work. The screen saver time is in minutes not seconds. It is similar to the ATS25 in many aspects. Still trying to get the memos to enter properly. It keeps reverting back to the pre-set stations in the middle of setting it. I’ll try to get more input tomorrow.
I’ve watched several of the available videos. It’s a very interesting small radio. I may have to replace my Tecson PL-368 with it.
I noticed two features that got my heart beating fast: None or very soft muting when tuning.
And Finally, Finally, Finally – a radio with Bluetooth transmitter so that an it can be used with an external speaker, ear buds, or headset. EVERY radio should have this feature.
It was also mentioned in the video that the radio had wi-fi, but, so far, no one is sure what this is for. Maybe to update the radio firmware or maybe to save/load memories. Wouldn’t that be a great feature.
I wish someone would post the user manual which might answer some of these questions.
If the reviews keep being mostly positive, I’ll probably be ordering one.
73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ
The Wifi is so you can use the radio speaker to hear streaming and podcasts.
This is a DSP radio, which means that if they added the digital radio mondiale firmware for good sound regardless of the band of transmission
You know this function exist in current production? Or you are just speculating?
I went searching for the manufacturer but was unsuccessful. The WiFi response was to a question above and it was mentioned in the review as being present.
> “This is a DSP radio, which means that if they added the digital radio mondiale firmware …”
I think what you meant to say there was “completely re-designed it to use a totally different chipset that is DRM-capable”, and not just the long-familiar and nowhere-near-capable-of-DRM Si47xx it uses.
Doesn’t this radio have the programmable ESP32 chip as well?
Look, this is interesting:
https://www.instructables.com/Internet-Radio-Using-an-ESP32/
The ESP32 internet radio in the above link used hardware decoding in a separate separate chip.
The following link shows that it is possible to do software decoding the ESP32 itself:
https://github.com/pewit-tech/esp32-mp3-decoder
It just requires some work to write decoders for various digital signals including DRM. Small changes probably will be needed to the ATS-120 hardware, but perhaps we’ll see this in a future ATS version.
To put it simply:
– The tuner chip used (Si473x) is not capable of decoding DRM. A firmware update won’t change that; it simply doesn’t have the processing power to do it.
– The ESP32 is not connected in such a way that it could be used to demodulate and/or decode DRM. It’s basically used to control the receiver/UI/IO, not be part of the signal processing chain. Changing that is not a case of “small changes … needed to the ATS-120 hardware”, but a complete redesign along completely different lines.
– Even if it was part of the signal processing chain, the (current) ESP32 series *still* doesn’t have enough “grunt” to demodulate &/or decode DRM. So that means a completely different and much more powerful CPU/DSP as part of that complete redesign.
– The ESP32 *does* have more than enough “grunt” to decode MP3 audio – but MP3 is a pretty simple codec, and there’s a lot more required to demodulate/decode DRM than the audio codecs it uses (which are more complicated again than MP3).
Just because a receiver is “software defined” doesn’t mean it’s physically constructed in a way that means it can demodulate/decode DRM, or that the processing hardware is even capable of demodulating/decoding DRM. That’s the same mistaken understanding Alan Hughes there has been labouring under for over a decade – assuming that “software defined” means “it can be upgraded to DRM with just a simple firmware update”.
https://www.skyworksinc.com/-/media/SkyWorks/SL/documents/public/data-shorts/Si47901-02-short.pdf
Done!
So yeah, just as I said – not the simple firmware update you like to say, but a complete re-design to use a quite different tuner/demodulator chip.
Thanks for the confirmation.
Why would FM be necessary for Shortwave? When I think of Shortwave I think AM/HF. I know that the Belka has a NFM on it, not the best radio for built in speaker or headset jack btw! I still like mine but it’s another tiny radio that’s not all that! The ATS-120 does seem cool! I’d try it!
The UK and continental EU have been using FM on their CB for a very long time on 26/27 MHz. The US only started this recently. So you are wrong.
Also it is not “much more noisy” and you cannot compared to a different frequency, different power level etc (i.e. broadcast). FM is at least less noisy than AM / SSB when signal is decent.
In Australia you are only allowed SSB and AM. I did not examine every country.
Australia has an 80 channel FM in the UHF band (476.4250- 477.4125 MHz) with a channel width of 12.5 kHz. The maximum deviation is +/-2.5 kHz. Broadcast is wideband FM with a channel width of 200 kHz and a maximum deviation of 75 kHz. The higher the volume the greater the deviation. Thus the sound signal in a broadcast receiver is much higher than the noise. The power of the FM signal only has to be powerful enough to drive the receiver into limiting more received power has no effect on the noise. This is the advantage of FM over AM, and SSB.
FM is not necessary for “Shortwave” (as in SWL), but FM is used in CB, ham radio on the 11m, and 10m band. Even if you don’t care about listening to ham radio comm, many enthusiasts here are also hams, and it’s only natural that we would like to have as many modes as possible in order to listen to more signals.
As a matter of fact, it’s not just AM (and HF really is just synonomous w/ Shortwave / SW), there are many modulation methods being used on this band, e.g. SSB, and there are many other modes, some are less common, used in utility, military, etc.
The Belka (I own the DX 2nd gen version) is a great radio. I don’t understand why you said it’s not the best radio for … headset jack. I can understand about the speaker but you have to give it as it is so small (and you do have the option for NOT buying it with the built in speaker). I and many other owners found the headset jack to be fine. May be you can elaborate what your problem w/ it here? What do you mean by “another tiny radio that’s not all that!”? Not what exactly? To your taste? Can you explain a little better perhaps?
Pretty sure that’s him: https://www.reddit.com/user/Seventies-Chile6683/comments/14r0ar2/disappointed_in_the_belka/ …something happened to his headset jack and he prefers retaliation by warning people over at r/shortwave that “Belka is garbage!” over sending it back for repairs.
My headset jack and built-in speaker is crap on my Belka. They acknowledge that this is a problem that’s fairly common with these! It’s a great little radio otherwise! But in my mind, if it doesn’t all work fine, it’s still got a ways to go to being a good product! I personally don’t like to have to send stuff off to be repaired that should’ve worked right in the first place! Tecsuns aren’t perfect but I use my PL330 everyday alongside my other beasts, as a signal scanner because ETM is a great tool! Something wonderful about a $70 radio that does everything right! You pay over $200 for a Belka, just to have headset connection issues and speaker issues! I don’t agree that that makes a good radio! If yours works great, congrats!
This would be great with a Hi-Q loop antenna.