While the new ATS-25 has a touch screen and gives the appearance (illusion) of a big upgrade from its ATS-20 predecessor, once the cover comes off there’s little to get excited about. The $55 ATS-20 may have been a fun kit (toy) but the $130 ATS-25 is not much better internally. Perhaps the encoder is more reliable but the Si4732 uses the same Sketch as it’s known in the Arduino world. PU2CLR has developed an open source library for the Si4732 project.
Kevin O’Reilly a YouTuber has done a series of videos on the ATS-20. Kevin recently posted an ATS-20, ATS-25 side by side comparison. Kevin states there’s little difference between listening to the units with the exception of FM. Kevin said the FM performance is actually better on the ATS-20 which he feels is due to past Sketch updates.
Get Your ATS-25 here.
Paul OM0ET, a YouTuber I follow purchased an ATS-25 and popped the cover. In the video below, Paul goes over the components of the ATS-25 and does a spot-on job of explaining which hardware is included but more importantly which hardware is missing.
The bottom line? IMHO, if you think a touchscreen receiver with minimal performance is something that interests you, perhaps finding the ATS-25 in kit form might be cool. However, if I were in the market for a receiver I’d opt for a pocket-sized Belka DX or something like a Tecsun PL-880. Why pay $130 for a toy when other alternatives with far better performance are readily available.
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Because its a novelty. Its reception with a good antenna is fine. ….and because we can.
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Ik vind het een prachtig ontvangertje met leuke prestatie,s voor dir prijs.
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Most reviews on youtube make it seem to be an okay performer. Gotta beat my little Tecsun PL330 for sure. This ke2yk dude expects it to be like a $1,000.00 radio. Not gonna happen. Seems good for the money after I watched all the reviews on it and heard it getting stations. I will get one since it’s almost given away most places.
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the x25 is not even in the same league!
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BTW, I also looked at reviews of the Belka on youtube and it seems no better at getting stations.
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With the right antennas-in my rural area I’m receiving more FM commercial stations than anything else I have for FM. With a loop and longwire-getting good international broadcasts, SSB with the BFO works very well. Picked up some Hamnets already a few states away-but then I have the newer version with the updated OS from the Russian developer, and it’s very good IMO. Antennas are everything with this, although with a simple FM telescoping antenna, I can use this as a very compact portable for FM stations at least. Compared to my old Kaito KS2100, the AM is pretty terrible but then the lower bands are always a challenge, even with a tuned longwire and proper grounding I have trouble out here in the woods. Still experimenting with it. And I like the lithium rechargeable-from what I see inside, this is the same lithium battery I have many of for use in RC drones and helicopters!
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You can add simple tuned L/C ckt maybe 2 or 3 coils and variable cap in external box and a cheap mmic $10 on ebay or amazon 2-30 and 20db gain. Then radio will play well. Did it amg huge improvement.
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Recently I purchased a an ATS25+(plus) and quite frankly I find the radio very good.With the touch screen it works very well even with my arthritic fingers although most of the time I use a screen pen with it.
On HF it works a lot better with my regular base station multiband vertical antenna I’m amazed at how long it takes to discharge the battery.I do find though that on 80 meters a local AM broadcasting station tends to swamp it which is a bit frustrating.The other disappointment was that the radio did not come with any sort of a manual.However a lot of the manuals included with equipment built in foreign countries leave a lot to be desired as far as translation goes….
Its hard to believe that a lot of the functions that you find on older radios is now built into one microchip!,and that these new radios are just a fraction of a size of the older ones.I’m 78 years young and have been an amateur radio operator for 42 years.By the way I don’t believe in linear amplifiers except for emergency use!
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Where can one find the complete manual?
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I have a version 5.3b software and its an ATS-25X2. WiFi connection feature worthless but receiver appears to exceed most reviews of the standard ATS-25 receivers. Looks I have a good one. No issues whatever (yet?).
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If you have one with the Russian firmware installed, most of the functions seem to me to work well. and Elwood, I have never been able to locate any kind of manual. I’ve had to learn my way around it by user reviews at hamnet and other review sites.
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