Anyone have experience with the ATS25?

[WPXS472]

I was looking at the Aliexpress website a while back and saw this. It looked intriguing, so I ordered one. Thinking I might have made a mistake, I looked for reviews. Found one on Youtube by a European gentleman who thought it was a pretty decent receiver, especially for the money. In his review, he tuned in numerous ham and shortwave broadcasts. Great, I thought. This will be fun. It has been many years since I did any shortwave listening. It arrived a few days before Christmas. I opened it with great excitement. It got a few weak FM stations, but that was all. Nothing on AM broadcast, nothing on any ham band, nothing on any shortwave broadcast band. Nothing. I went to my account on Aliexpress and opened a dispute. The seller demanded that a send them a video of it not receiving. I am not really equipped for making videos, but decided that a comparison should prove the point. So, I ordered a cheap, and I do mean cheap AM, FM, shortwave radio from Amazon. It is nothing great by any means, but it performs circles around the ATS25. Still haven't made that video. I looked on Youtube for more reviews, and found several. All indicated that it performed very well considering what it was. I did notice that the display on the ones in the reviews was somewhat different to the one I received. I suspect that I got one with old firmware. So, since Amazon has a good return policy, I ordered another one from them. It cost more than the one from Aliexpress, but I knew I could return it promptly. No hassles. It arrived this morning, and it is exactly like the one from Aliexpress. In every way. I can receive nothing, and the display is exactly the same. I requested a return, and have already packed it up for return. Good for Amazon. One thing. I only used it with the supplied telescoping whip. The European reviewer said it probably wasn't a good idea to use it with a larger antenna due to its lack of front end filtering. His testing during the review used only the whip.
So, does anyone have any experience with an ATS25? What can you tell me about it? Were all those reviews bogus? I have doubts I can return the one from Aliexpress. At best, I might get a partial refund. I don't know if there is any way to have something usable with this thing. I do have a couple of regular SDRs I could use, but really wanted something stand alone. I am not really serious about shortwave listening, but would like to get back into it to some extent on a casual basis, so don't tell me to spend several hundred on a decent receiver. I don't have it to spend.

 

[bkantor]

First question - what are you using for an antenna? I have an ATS-100 that has similar traits, but frankly I knew that would be the case with the stock antenna. I've seen in more that a few videos that you need an external antenna to really get a decent performance from those lines of radios. BTW, I also bought a Chinese Malahit clone and it runs circles around the ATS-100 (but I still use an external antenna to get an acceptable signal from that).

 

[WPXS472]

As stated, I only tried the whip. One of the reviews said it was best to only use that because a larger antenna might result in overload, and the video showed it working pretty well with the whip. The reason I went with this model is so I could use it most anywhere and not be tied down by having to use a larger antenna. The really cheap model I got from Amazon works much better with only a whip. I don't intend to use it because the tuning is pretty dificult, and it only displays the frequency in 10 Khz steps, which don't seem all that accurate. Although it displays frequencies digitally, the tuning is analog.
I also bought a MLA30+ antenna to try, but after seeing so many bad reviews, I think that was a mistake. At least I can return it easily. If I have to be tied to a large outside antenna, I think I will just take another route entirely.
I have looked at the Malahit, but there seem to be so many different kinds, at so many different prices, I didn't really investigate further.

 

[ka3jjz]

SWLing.com has numerous reviews of the Malahit; search there and you will get a good idea of what that is about.

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

We have many reviews of the Malahit linked here;

SDRs that are Wide Banded - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Mike

 

[WPXS472]

Looks like lots of good stuff there. I need to do a lot of looking. Thanks for posting that.

 

[WPXS472]

Looks like lots of good stuff there. I need to do a lot of looking. Thanks for posting that.

After doing some reading, I am very interested in the Malahit. There seems to be several different versions and firmware releases as well. The price is more than the ATS25, but with the added features, it might be worth it. I did see one Youtube video where the poor performance of the whip can be considerably improved by adding a 49:1 un/un. I might give this a try to see if I can get some use out of the ATS25.

 

[trido]

By from Amazon easy returns.
I sent mine back to amazon because it has this issue does your?

I am getting the smalller ats 20 to play with.
Now on the ats 25 on a discone(i know not best for HF)but radio worked good on it.
Howwever I want a radio that cccan hear SOME on tele ant.

I was looking at the Aliexpress website a while back and saw this. It looked intriguing, so I ordered one. Thinking I might have made a mistake, I looked for reviews. Found one on Youtube by a European gentleman who thought it was a pretty decent receiver, especially for the money. In his review, he tuned in numerous ham and shortwave broadcasts. Great, I thought. This will be fun. It has been many years since I did any shortwave listening. It arrived a few days before Christmas. I opened it with great excitement. It got a few weak FM stations, but that was all. Nothing on AM broadcast, nothing on any ham band, nothing on any shortwave broadcast band. Nothing. I went to my account on Aliexpress and opened a dispute. The seller demanded that a send them a video of it not receiving. I am not really equipped for making videos, but decided that a comparison should prove the point. So, I ordered a cheap, and I do mean cheap AM, FM, shortwave radio from Amazon. It is nothing great by any means, but it performs circles around the ATS25. Still haven't made that video. I looked on Youtube for more reviews, and found several. All indicated that it performed very well considering what it was. I did notice that the display on the ones in the reviews was somewhat different to the one I received. I suspect that I got one with old firmware. So, since Amazon has a good return policy, I ordered another one from them. It cost more than the one from Aliexpress, but I knew I could return it promptly. No hassles. It arrived this morning, and it is exactly like the one from Aliexpress. In every way. I can receive nothing, and the display is exactly the same. I requested a return, and have already packed it up for return. Good for Amazon. One thing. I only used it with the supplied telescoping whip. The European reviewer said it probably wasn't a good idea to use it with a larger antenna due to its lack of front end filtering. His testing during the review used only the whip.
So, does anyone have any experience with an ATS25? What can you tell me about it? Were all those reviews bogus? I have doubts I can return the one from Aliexpress. At best, I might get a partial refund. I don't know if there is any way to have something usable with this thing. I do have a couple of regular SDRs I could use, but really wanted something stand alone. I am not really serious about shortwave listening, but would like to get back into it to some extent on a casual basis, so don't tell me to spend several hundred on a decent receiver. I don't have it to spend.

 

[wa2aae]

I have had this receiver for a few months now and have had the following experience. With the whip provided I have found it useless except for local AM or FM reception. The noise from the display is prevalent on the shortwave bands using the whip. I built a simple loop antenna, similar to the YouLoop, and have decent shortwave reception with the loop in the house. When using my longwire or Windom antennas, reception is good. With a loop or outdoor antenna, reception is similar to my Tecsun PL660.

 

[K5TUE]

I have one...be sure to read the manual. In very poor 'chinglish' the manual advises the provided whip is for FM only (they mean 88-108 FM)

I hooked mine up to a rather large external wire antenna and it works great on shortwave.

Mine was $105 so I dont expect much, but it works ok. It is receiving well, a bit off frequency it seems (BFO adjustment fixed that) and the touch screen works much better when using the included stylus or the metal end of a ball point pen.

But is DOES receive. Just hook up a 20-50 foot random wire antenna draped out a window and hanging on a tree branch or something, and see what happens.