Hello,
It's been over 18 years since I was active on ATV here in SA (considering I started my amateur radio career in 1987 on ATV). Back then we had 3 analogue repeaters (426AM->576VSB VK5RTV, 444VSB->1286 VSB VK5RWH, and 1250FM->2415FM VK5RLZ at three sites in Adelaide plus a 426->444 AM/VSB repeater in the central north VK5RCN. There were at one time by my reckoning around 50 amateurs with the capability. I have some old VHS tape of some activity nights where we had perhaps 20 amateurs call in live one after the other too! There were also a lot of guys actively swapping pictures with stations across St Vincents Gulf on 1250 FM. One of the highlights for me was a JOTA where we linked two JOTA camps with full duplex ATV (426 up from Douglas Scrub and 1250 down from Mt Terrible).
Due to politics and other events in Amateur radio that lead me to go QRT for a while, I drifted away. That was back in the mid '90s and I haven't kept tabs with who's around playing with the mode today in Adelaide.
So now I am finally getting interested again, and of course am in particularly interested in Digital ATV with the demise of analogue broadcast TV. I have a long way to go before I could radiate or receive a signal (I need to put my tower back up for starters - first time in 10 years for that too!) but before I start making the efforts I am interested to hear who is still around and who is newly interested? Will there be anyone to watch if I got a receiver working again, and would there be anyone to watch a DVB-S or DVB-T signal from my QTH? (I'm now in the foothills in Highbury and have pretty good line of sight from 120+ m ASL across the inner metro area at least).
Just curious? I presume people are still experimenting - perhaps even with digital in Adelaide - I just havent seen much comment about it through the amateur contacts I do still have these days!
Regards,
Grant VK5GR (aka ex VK5ZWI)
ATV in SA - Who/What is active these days?
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VK5PO
Re: ATV in SA - Who/What is active these days?
HNY Grant. long time no hear old friend!
Chase up Graham, VK5UE... very much active on ATV.... he lives 5Km down the road from me at Two Wells.
I think he is on 1.2Ghz etc.... has a P5 link with a fellow in the eastern suburbs... Trying to remember his callsign/name.
VK5A?? ....
73 Grant.
John, VK5PO / VK5SIX
Chase up Graham, VK5UE... very much active on ATV.... he lives 5Km down the road from me at Two Wells.
I think he is on 1.2Ghz etc.... has a P5 link with a fellow in the eastern suburbs... Trying to remember his callsign/name.
VK5A?? ....
73 Grant.
John, VK5PO / VK5SIX
Re: ATV in SA - Who/What is active these days?
Hi Grant.
Don't know what's happening down Adelaide way but up north David VK5DMC at Port Pirie has almost finished putting together a digital (DVB-T) repeater on 446.500.
The plan is to locate it up on the Bluff at the site of the community FM radio station.
I have a DVB-S transmitter working on 1290MHz and have succeeded in getting a signal into the repeater running in test mode from David's home QTH in Port Pirie.
Mind you, I had to go portable up Mt Laura, a high point just outside of Whyalla, since there is no clear path between his location and my home in Whyalla.
When finished the repeater inputs will be 1290 MHz DVB-S plus an analogue FM input on 23cm (frequency tba)
In Port Pirie, VK5CI and VK5LE are getting set up on ATV also.
Will have to keep an eye out for possible 23cm openings between us and maybe give ATV a try if there is sufficient lift. There was a magnificent opening from here to Adelaide on 23cm on the Saturday of the recent VHF/UHF field day.
Cheers,
Alex, VK5ALX
Don't know what's happening down Adelaide way but up north David VK5DMC at Port Pirie has almost finished putting together a digital (DVB-T) repeater on 446.500.
The plan is to locate it up on the Bluff at the site of the community FM radio station.
I have a DVB-S transmitter working on 1290MHz and have succeeded in getting a signal into the repeater running in test mode from David's home QTH in Port Pirie.
Mind you, I had to go portable up Mt Laura, a high point just outside of Whyalla, since there is no clear path between his location and my home in Whyalla.
When finished the repeater inputs will be 1290 MHz DVB-S plus an analogue FM input on 23cm (frequency tba)
In Port Pirie, VK5CI and VK5LE are getting set up on ATV also.
Will have to keep an eye out for possible 23cm openings between us and maybe give ATV a try if there is sufficient lift. There was a magnificent opening from here to Adelaide on 23cm on the Saturday of the recent VHF/UHF field day.
Cheers,
Alex, VK5ALX