I purchased the ATS-20+ Si4732 mainly for the shortwave band. While there was others, I was looking for something open source and completely hackable. Since this was only $37 on Amazon (many vendors sells these for different prices) , I decided to jump right in with the mindset this wont be the best and might not even work but would good along side my Uniden SDS 200.
As soon as it arrived, I notice no instruction manual was given. No worries! Plugged in the USB-C to USB-A and started charging up. Plugged in a Bingfu antenna connected to a BNC adapter and thats it! Since this was an outdoor antenna, mounted 20FT away, 10FT high, I did get signals on all bands. But here is where the entire thing gets super silly.
The firmware currently on the ATS-20+ is on v1.1.15 just like the 99% of these on the market with an update available. The internet mentioned there is different updated firmwares available but all my searches let to Goshante v1.18. The updated features looks nice and decided where I just unboxed this and this device is very new, I might as well learn the updated version. Luckily, as an IT, I have plenty of cables which this one needed an USB-B to USB-A because of the CH341 controller built on the chip. I mostly use Linux, and luckily, my linux recognizes the driver instantly.
However, I ran into some technical issues where I had to switch over to Windows 11 to where the drivers was not being recognized, I had to download the official drivers to install them. Not a big problem but these drivers are coming from China. Therefore Windows 11 usually flags them a false positive. Instructions mentioned to use an IDE to flash the firmware with is a hex file. IDE’s are usually large with lots of programming and steps in between. I stuck with downloading XLoader from a fellow ham op which works perfectly. XLoader will be flagged by Most anti-virus due to the actual virus named the same. Use at your discretion. I was able to flash the v1.18 but had issues where the ATS-20+ froze up and program not wanting to work. However, manually turning off the device showed the newer firmware installed.
For those on Linux, You can use AVRDUDE simple and easy by following these instructions.
After the update is when I started to play around and got used to the device however, I am not impressed. While listening for USAF eam on 11175kHz, I barely only heard one message and it really was horrible quantity. At the same time, I had my SDR blog v4 set using a Bingfu dipole and had no issues with listening to eam. I am currently troubleshooting whether its the antenna (single telescopic) or the actual receiver. Both my SDR’s are virtually unmatched at the moment but both are being used at full capacity. Another reason why I purchased the ATS-20+.
Final verdict is clear. The ATS-20+ is good for the price but they can not replace my SDR. Hopefully the issue is just with the antenna and maybe the quality will improve just by using a different type of antenna.