ATS-20+ with active antenna Problem

[NRW]

Hello community!

A few weeks ago, I bought the neat little ATS-20+ to explore what's beyond the usual FM channels.

Well, it's been quite fun, i got several channels, the doomsday radio UVB-76 and similar. I did some reading, installed Goschante's firmware, and finally bought an active loop antenna since I live in an apartment building and can't install an external antenna; the included rod antenna isn't all that great.

HFDY 50K-500MHz Breitband-Aktiv-Loop-Magnetantenne LZ1AQ Verstärker HF AM FM VHF UHF SDR Empfänger Radio Tescun Malahitea

Couple of days ago I finally got around to testing it, and all the AM bands were just producing static I reconnected the telescopic antenna and couldn't find anything there either. The FM band works fine, though.

I think I have damaged the AM part with the active antenna The ATS-20+ has an AM/FM switch on the back, and it was set to AM.

I opened the radio casing and couldn't see anything burnt. A few years ago, I repaired electronics professionally and took a look at the AM part: BNC - AM/FM switch - C45 - SI4732 chip. I tested C45 with a component tester; I've attached a picture.

Even though I haven't worked with electronics for a while, it looks like capacitor C45 is defective. A typical capacitor picture is a clean oval.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? I think the ATS-20+ should be able to handle the active antenna; I actually did my research before buying Is there a schematic for the latest ATS-20+ model with the integrated Atmel processor? I've googled it and found nothing, only older models.
I'm thinking of replacing the capacitor; hopefully, that will help. But I don't even know its capacitance or if the chip behind it damaged aswell.

 

[stephen7919]

I'm new here and I see your post is kind of dated. I haven't received my active antenna loop yet, but my ATS-20+ arrived today!!

My $12 pocket radio picks up more on short wave and the ATS couldn't get channels on FM that are pretty local.

Goes back to Ebay tomorrow and I will use that $38.90 towards an XHDATA D-808.

I'm very new to short wave, but even with the G2 storm today, no Radio outage was detected by NOAA and I couldn't receive stations that were playing on a pocket radio. Seems simple enough to me.

 

[alloydog]

I'm new here and I see your post is kind of dated. I haven't received my active antenna loop yet, but my ATS-20+ arrived today!!

My $12 pocket radio picks up more on short wave and the ATS couldn't get channels on FM that are pretty local.

Goes back to Ebay tomorrow and I will use that $38.90 towards an XHDATA D-808.

I'm very new to short wave, but even with the G2 storm today, no Radio outage was detected by NOAA and I couldn't receive stations that were playing on a pocket radio. Seems simple enough to me.

I bought mine from Banggood (it was about twenty Euros inc. postage) and it works just fine, though the first thing I did was to update the firmware (from GitHub - goshante/ats20_ats_ex: Advanced and re-imagined firmware for ATS-20 Receiver based on Si4735 (or Si4732). Прошивка с расширенным функционалом.).

The included telescopic aerial is OK for local Band II FM broadcasts and received pulled in a lot - here the band is very crowded.

MW is on the quiet side, but for HF, I have got Radio France International and China Radio International on several bands. I have heard radio amateurs on most of the amateur radio bands too.

At my home, in near the north west coast of Finland, I do get QRM in the form of a rough pulsing on many parts of the SW spectrum. I know it's QRM as opposed to being the actual radio, as I get it on every radio I have. I have yet to try it out at another location though, to see if it is local to my home, or covers a wider area.