I have a new radio to add to my shortwave collection. All small portables. Eton Elite Executive, C Crane Skywave SSB, Radiwow R-108, RadioShack 2000629(Sangean ATS 505 clone), and now ATS 20+ which is good little radio. Here is my reception of some hams on 75m LSB with 9 foot of wire connected to it's included rod antenna.
ATS 20+ Acquired
- Thread starter sunwave
- Start date
My short observations and personal opinion.
Quirks:
Once the battery is drained it power cycles. That is hard on it's Arduino Nano. Must turn the radio off and recharge at 10% battery.
SSB BFO offset is not linear. 450 hz low end of the HF spectrum progressively to 1.9khz upper end of the HF spectrum.
FM-RDS is single line limited characters and very slow. Might be too much for the Arduino Nano to perform or the firmware is wrong for NA RDBS
Easily overloaded. Use AGC or shorter length of wire.
Otherwise, for the good,
Loud clear sound.
Plenty of features for basic listening
Sensitivity is good.
I was able to pull in 740khz KRMG Tulsa, Oklahoma on a 16 foot wire. Tulsa is 90 miles from me. No internal ferrite loopstick antenna for MW/LW
LW also worked with the same 16ft wire antenna. It pulled in OKC VOR on 350khz but not very strong. 16ft of wire is too short for LW anyhow.
SW reception is easy to listen too. SSB quality is nice.
Battery lasts roughly 12 hours every charge. It can withstand long hours of operation never drifting.
Confirmable updates in this plus version:
Tuning feels right. Good consistency in the encoder while tuning. No skipping.
Power on it remembers operational state from when the last power off. It continues where you left off on power on unlike the ATS-20.
It is hard for me to recommend it at the same time it is hard for me not to recommend it. It is a radio for the tinkerer. Niche. I really do enjoy the little ATS 20+.
Quirks:
Once the battery is drained it power cycles. That is hard on it's Arduino Nano. Must turn the radio off and recharge at 10% battery.
SSB BFO offset is not linear. 450 hz low end of the HF spectrum progressively to 1.9khz upper end of the HF spectrum.
FM-RDS is single line limited characters and very slow. Might be too much for the Arduino Nano to perform or the firmware is wrong for NA RDBS
Easily overloaded. Use AGC or shorter length of wire.
Otherwise, for the good,
Loud clear sound.
Plenty of features for basic listening
Sensitivity is good.
I was able to pull in 740khz KRMG Tulsa, Oklahoma on a 16 foot wire. Tulsa is 90 miles from me. No internal ferrite loopstick antenna for MW/LW
LW also worked with the same 16ft wire antenna. It pulled in OKC VOR on 350khz but not very strong. 16ft of wire is too short for LW anyhow.
SW reception is easy to listen too. SSB quality is nice.
Battery lasts roughly 12 hours every charge. It can withstand long hours of operation never drifting.
Confirmable updates in this plus version:
Tuning feels right. Good consistency in the encoder while tuning. No skipping.
Power on it remembers operational state from when the last power off. It continues where you left off on power on unlike the ATS-20.
It is hard for me to recommend it at the same time it is hard for me not to recommend it. It is a radio for the tinkerer. Niche. I really do enjoy the little ATS 20+.
Last edited:
Another Chinese pile of junk. Just get a PL-880 instead of wasting money on this garbage can trash.
I have C Crane Skywave SSB and Eton Elite Exectutive.
The ATS 20+ works okay. Not trash. You're statement implies you think I was asking what radio to get. Nope not even close to why I posted ATS 20+ Acquired. Not a waste of money because it is open source for tinkering.
You do know where the PL-880 is made, right? (Or did I miss the sarcasm?)
Does the SSB work well? My RS 20-629 has poor audio levels in those modes.
It has independent LSB/USB. Variable BFO. Has decent audio on sideband. In my OP post #1 there is a video of it receiving in lower sideband. I find this little radio addicting. I have better radios, but I am drawn to the ATS 20+ because it is unique and fun to use. Certainly, better than the RS 20-0629 in which I own one as well. That RS model SSB audio isn't loud enough. The ATS 20+ SSB and AM mode audio is right. That little radio can get loud! I It fills up the room in SSB at a moderate listening level.
I bought it from Amazon. Amazon.com: GOOZEEZOO Si4732 ATS-20+ Plus Portable Shortwave Radio FM AM (MW SW) SSB (LSB USB) All Band Radio Receiver with Antenna, Big Speaker & Best Reception : Electronics
I could have saved 25-30 usd but I do not have the patience to wait 3 or 4 weeks from AliExpress.
There are firmware sketches that can close the gaps in HF coverage. Some of them have the rotary encoder in the wrong direction. I have found a fix for that. For the ATS 20+ battery meter display sketch I had to set it for pin A1 because that is the pin the factory connected the battery to on the Nano inside the ATS 20+. The older model the ATS 20 people had to add a battery mod circuit on pin 2 on the Nano. Not the case for the ATS 20+.
If you so desire to spend the money, Once in your hands test all the bands.
I may be able to share a sketch you can flash the ATS 20+ with in ArduinoIDE. It is from PU2CLR github with the small corrections mentioned above. Tested with version 3.0.7. The radio comes with v1.1.5
Last edited:
Hi-- coming along pretty late to the party but I am now playing with a recently purchased (from Amazon) ATS-20+ and have loaded the 3.0.7 "SI473X_ALL_IN_ONE_OLED_RDS_CHINESE_V7_BAT_MOD" sketch and find that the encoder is now reversed. Can you share your fix for that? Thank you, Chris
