ATS 25 PRO+ AIR

 The 6th ATS has arrived one week ago from Hamgeek, paid 104 euros. Few words about this: Hamgeek sells ATS receivers at a lower price than other web market places and delivers the parcel with an acceptable delivery time, just 15 days. On top of this Hamgeek is a web shop that sells products dedicated to radio hobby. Visit at www.hgeek.com.

A this point I have a basic ATS-25 first model that I bought some years ago, an ATS-25 Max, an ATS-25 X1, these all without any WIFI connection; an ATS-25 AMP, and ATS-25 Max Decoder both with WiFi connection, and the last one the ATS-25 Pro+ Air with wifi, Bluetooth, VHF reception (airband and 2 meters Ham Band).

As general evaluation: the 25Max, 25X1 and the 25Max Decoder are much better in reception and audio quality than the first version (ATS-25), they are much better also from the screen graphics. The ATS 25 AMP features manual selection between Hi-Z and 50 Ohm aerial and a LNA circuit, wifi  connection is very good and easy. The 25 Pro+ Air is in all details as good as the 25 Amp, but connectivity with WiFi is slightly more complicated to get working properly not during setting but during connection itself, Bluetooth works good in my model. The option of selecting Hi-Z or 50Ohm antenna is available in the menu of the setup and on the touchscreen but cannot be activated, I guess the receiver makes this selecion automathically, I remember I read this somewhere, not sure though.

After the 25 Max Decoder all versions have decoders for various modes: CW, FT8, PSK, RTTY Hell being the 25 PRO+ Air the one with more decoder options, for example PSK is not available in the ATS-25 AMP either in the MAX Decoder.

Reception in AM has Sync LSB and Sync USB which quality is acceptable even not being the best ever heard.

NFM is written in the modes as possible selection only in the ATS25 PRO+ because of the 2 m Ham band availability which is not there in any previous models. However NFM is shaded and cannot be activated.

The ATS 25 Pro+ Air has also the possibility to change colours and buttons aspect within the setup menu with many colours and shades.

here in the above picture the ATS25 PRO+ connected via buetooth to the Muzen external speaker that I bought in Kuala Lumpur in March 2024.

the scanning function works well as in previous models but the scale of the frequency has only 1 MHz, 100 kHz and something like 50 kHz and 10 kHz, the jump between 1 MHz and 100 kHz width is to wide, would have been better having an intermediate 500 kHz as an example.

To activate Air band reception and 2m Ham Band reception you need to change the chip from SI  4732 to SI 5351,this operation can be done within the setup menu as in the picture below. The receiver will reboot shutting down and starting again immediately after.

On the 2m band I was not able to receive anything even with the two meter GP antenna except the CW beacon IQ2MI on 144,415 kHz (in CW or SSB). In 2 m the selectable receiving modes are AM, CW, Digital modes and SSB, NFM - as written above - is shaded and cannot be selected, why is this happeing is unknown to me.

Airband available in AM and Sync L / U. I could not receive anything as well.

UPDATE January the 24th: the receiver does receive also on 2 m HAM band, to tune an NFM transmission the user has to keep the AM on same frequency of NFM but tune the BFO to - 3 kHz with a badwidth filter of 3000 Hz. AM transmissions on Airband can be easily received knowing strong signal frequencies from airport in the surrounding area.Various digital signals can be received as well on the 161 MHz Marine Band.

Shortly about the tuning knob: this ATS 25 Pro+ Air has a metal tuning knob which should be an aesthetic upgrade compared with previous models where the knob is in plastic. This new metal knob does not bring any advantage: it has a very smooth surface and the grip between the knob and fingers is difficult; operating with 1 finger for small adjustments is almost impossible it simply does not turn unless you firmly take it with two fingers.

Reception of HZH Navtex from Jeddah

 Earlier this moring, I found a new entry in the log of YAND:

HZH received on 518 kHz at 1:20 UTC January the 2nd 2025.

RX: ATS 25 Amp

Antenna: miniwhip PA0RDT

Anello per Youloop

Mi è sempre sembrato complicato lavorare con la Youloop dal momento che è un antenna costruita con semplice cavo coassiale.

Ho pertanto deciso di inserirla in un tubo in polietilene rigido da irrigazione con diametro 1 pollice, Il tubo è fissato in una scatola per usi elettrici. Questo assemblaggio lo tenevo in garage ed era una vecchia loop per onde medie he avevo costruito anni fa e che non utilizzavo più.

Per darle un po' di "sprint" l'ho collegata ad un amplificatore alimentato da un powerbank da 3A; è un amplificatore low noise e ad ampio spettro da 0,1 a 60 MHz che avevo acquistato in rete un paio di anni fa.

il risultato finale, visibile nella foto qua sotto, permette ora di manovrare e direzionare la loop in interno con maggiore facilità. Attualmente è collegata con il Malahit SDR V3 in DSC su 8414.5 kHz in contemporanea con un ATS25 a 8414.5 kHz collegato alla end fed esterna da 25m. E' un confronto un po' impari, ma fra qualche ora vedremo su anche la Youloop amplificata si comporta con onore.

ATS 25 AMP Receiver

 I just got delivered - with 10days anticipation - my fifth ATS 25.

with this I have an old pink case ATS-25 with a soft touch tuning knob, which still performs good despite tuning with precision is quite tricky due to the soft touch knob. And I have ATS25X1 that suddensly stopped working some eeks ago after thousand hours of use, I guess is a battery trouble, and i got also an ATS25-Max with updated UI, an ATS25-Max Decoder, wch features native decoders for FT modes CW,RTTY and has also a WiFi connection for propagation foreacsts along the bands. And finally I have just got an ATS25-AMP, that has all above + a low noise amplifier which working status is detected by a blue led on the left side of the front panel. There  are as well other two leds for hi-Z and 50 ohm antennas.

 

As written many times these are just toys, but upgrading from one version to the next, the performances are also improving.

e.

today they are connected to YaddNet for DSC spot reporting, with quite interesting rate results as shown in the picture here on the left.

the ATS25 Amp (8414.5 kHz) is connected with an active loop on the house roof

the ATS25 max decoder (16804.5 kHz) is connected to a vertical antenna on the roof of the house

the ATS25 Max (12577 kHz) is connected with a random EF wire 25m long as well on the roof of the house.

The LNA - whch is not active in this moment - shows an amplification of the signal as measured on the s-meter of around 10-15 dB.

I have finally realised that the Bluetooth is not installed in any of the version I have, maybe in a next development and software updates (?), I have also seen around a video with trials of airband reception and Ham VHF.

ATS25 Max-Decoder (SI4732)

 I write this in English so that maybe someone can give me a usefull hint.

I got some months ago my 4th ATS25: I have the very first version with a soft touch knob for tuning, an ATS25X1 an ATS25-Max and theis last the ATS25 Max-Decoder.

Basically the X1 and the Max are the same: they just have some more functions and much improved graphics compared with the fisrt ATS-25. It seems  to me that one of the two (either the X1 either the Max version) has less muting during tuning. This muting while tuning is the only aspect I do not like about this receiver. Concerning other properties I would say it's a nice toy, for easy scanning and reception without pretending too much from it.

That said: in this later version of the Harduino software I see a bluetooth option, but it does not turn on, wifi connection works pretty well, all the rest is fine. Just this bluetooth which I am not able to get working.

The software is the 4.16 Air, however, compared with the pictures available in the dedicated web page of Harduino, the receiver' screen shows another submenu, the following in the blue circle:

Apparently this works on the choices for the aerial impedence, could be that "BT" stands for bluetooth, but opening the submenu it cannot be activated. I do not see any instruction related to this also on user handbook I got from the seller.

Is there someone who has a clue about this?

Thanks and 73