It does have a fluxgate compass. When the position lights are turned on the compass does not change, but the ADF needle moves. I tried it at different distances from the NDB, the further away, the more the needle moves. There is no audible noise if I listen to the station identifier and turn the lights on/off. We did find improvements with a different ground plane when we attached a large aluminum plate between airplane antenna and airplane, but only for a ground test. Maybe the antenna location is not ideal. Fortunately I'm not the responsible engineer for this, I'm just testing it.