Auckland ATV Notes #19 December, 1999
Wayne ZL1UJK hosted the meeting at his Glen Innes home on the 28th of November. Rain put paid to any aerial works that might otherwise been done. A good time was had looking at (& listening to) a new DVD player with five channel Dolby sound AC3 decoder built in. Waynes' valve amplifiers with EL36s in the output do a great job when driven by the DVD system. Sony 3/4 inch U-Matic tape machines provided the standard to contrast against the digital technology. Some tapes from bygone events of ten years ago were played for nostalgia.
The latest mods to the popular homegrown 23cm FMTV synthasized ATV TX with stereo sound devised by the "committee" of Wayne ZL1UJK, Ian ZL1VFO, Grant ZL1WTT & Quentin ZL1QF got a looking over. It is felt to be on a par with the best designs available from the USA & UK, with the bonus that all the parts can be obtained from DSE, AK VHF Group, WN VHF Group or Wayne ZL1UJK. Also the cost doesn't break the piggy bank (unlike overseas kits now at a huge exchange rate disadvantage) & a magnifying glass isn't needed to it build too.
Ian ZL1VFO took delivery of a weighty 19 inch wide rack power supply constructed for the Whitford 23cm FMTV extender by Dennis ZL1ULR.
Jerry ZL1RN accepted some equipment boxes for the Hamilton ATV repeater to match the existing modular rack system, that turned up at local junk sales & were spotted by Auckland ATVers.
Wayne ZL1UJK had the breadboard of the MKII MC1377 RGB Coder PCB on hand. The completion of the PCB artwork is one of his holiday projects. Plenty of other PCBs for ATV projects such as Stereo sound modulator, 23cm FMTV TX, Teletext video gen, ZL2ARW/ZL1QF video gen are available right now. A list is available upon request via Michael ZL1ABS (email) or letter to Wayne ZL1UJK. A couple of members brought their 23cm FMTV TX boards to compare progress with construction and sort out the fine details of component layout around the VCO.
Michael ZL1ABS had the usual overseas ATV magazines (CQ-TV & ATVQ) & VHS amateur video tapes from DR John Fox WB2LLB/4 available to lend.
News from Otaki & the Kapiti Coast.
Wayne ZL1UJK has had a letter requesting five 70cm ATV transmitters AM or VSB to get some amateurs on air on ATV. He has only one to spare at the moment. Does anyone else have a spare 70cm ATV transmitter or unbuilt kit or boards available? If so please email Michael [email protected] ,so I can put you in contact with the buyers.
The Auckland ATV Interest Group (of the Auckland VHF Group inc.) is having a holiday break for December & no end of Month meeting is planned. Instead we are going to be active on air in the holidays, work on the Whitford ATV Extender, work on the ZL1BQ ATV repeater (Niohutupu) & visit each other as needed to work on projects, help with aerial works, be sociable, debug our Y2K problems & have fun.
73
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The November ATV Interest Group (of the Auckland VHF Group) meeting was held on the last Sunday afternoon of the month. Wayne ZL1UJK was the host. There was a very good demonstration of the abilities of a recent model DVD player.
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Auckland ATV Notes #18 1 November, 1999
The October ATV Interest group (of the Auckland VHF Group) meeting was held, last Sunday afternoon-evening. Quentin ZL1QF hosted the meeting at his home in Milford. Those attending were: Michael ZL1ABS, Grant ZL1WTT, Ashly ZL1AG, Ken ZL1TVQ, Wally ZL1VWM, Tim ZL3VTV, Grant ZL1WTT and Ian ZL1VFO. Richard Thompson (the [email protected]) provided two items of new equipment to try out. A digital satellite receiver provided hours of fun experimenting with aiming of the two small dishes that Quentin had available. Best results were obtained with a spectrum analyser to show when the dish was peaked on the satellite. Quentins' analogue satellite receiver was tried to demonstrate the differences between the modes. The other item was a two channel audio video processor with a digital frame store in each channel. Several non-synchronised video sources (camcorder & video generators) were fed through it. The resulting mixed video effects were well timed when viewed on a monitor. Ian ZL1VFO demonstrated a new PC controlled video titler available as a DSE kit of a recent EA article. Quentin ZL1QF gave a tour of favourite Amateur Radio sites on the Internet, helping Grant ZL1WTT find some packet software he needed. Michael ZL1ABS had a session on an unfamiliar Mac to draw some new patterns for the ZL1QF/ZL2ARW video generator, he has built. Quentin was able to pass the data thru his Appletalk network to another of his several Macs, that has an EPROM programmer attached. The new patterns were tried out on the ZL1BQ ATV repeater using Quentins' 23cm FMTV Tx. 70cm access to the repeater continues to be difficult due to new signals in the 450MHz UHF spectrum closely situated to the repeater building. The moral seems to be to register a 443 MHz ATV transmitter at your site with the RFS, so that frequency planning may keep the input clear. Home station transmitters don't count and this puts the investment of crystals for fixed frequency 70cm ATV Txs at risk.
So much fun was had with all these activities that hamburgers, chips & chicken fried rice were bought in to feed everyone for dinner. The last to depart didn't leave until 11.45pm.
Wayne ZL1UJK has offered to host the next meeting at his Glen Innes home on the 28th of November.
73
28 September, 1999
The Silverdale Sale is on the weekend Saturday the 2nd October at the Dairy Flat school hall. Many Radio Amateurs will meet to buy, sell & swap items.
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Auckland ATV Notes #17
1 August, 1999
The July ATV Interest group (of the Auckland VHF Group meeting was held in Hamilton, last Sunday. Brett ZL1TFA, Jono ZL1UPJ, Jerry ZL1RN, Kiely ZL1WPK and Warren ZL3WPS were the local HN amateurs. Bill ZL1BRI put in an apology due to illness. The visitors were: Michael ZL1ABS, Grant ZL1WTT, Wayne ZL1UJK, Henry ZL1AAN and Ian ZL1VFO. Jerry ZL1RN hosted the meeting at his home in Frankton.
The two things that the local amateurs wanted for the ZL1UX ATV repeater, in the future, were: more power on the 615 MHz output and the Australian/German stereo sound system (5.5 MHz + 5.74 MHz) on the transmitter. More power on channel 39 could be obtained several ways: two more BLV93 stages combined in parallel with the existing two, a BLV57 amplifier as used in ZL1BQ or something that may be for sale in Australia. Wayne ZL1UJK thinks that there is some used 579 MHz ATV equipment over there, now that the 579 MHz amateur allocation is being withdrawn in some cities. The PA stages are of interest for re-use at 615 MHz. Enquires are being made. A demonstration of Australian/German stereo could be done sometime using the Auckland groups� Hills IF unit, already modified, but not used at present in ZL1BQ. A snag is that there isn't a pilot tone gen for it yet. Wayne ZL1UJK is working on building three pilot gen units, all identical, so it could be done as soon as one is ready. With a stereo sound source at the ZL1UX repeater, receivers would get stereo sound when the repeater was in beacon mode. A stereo sound receiver (or suitable VCR as a tuner) would be a later project as no-one in Hamilton has a 70cm ATV Tx equipped to transmit stereo at present, anyway. After a couple of months demo, the HN ATVers would decide whether to get their own Hills IF unit modified the same or not.
Over at the Hamilton clubhouse, Henry ZL1AAN took some pictures of the ZL1UX Clubrooms, shack, ATV rack and aerial systems with a digital camera. These pictures have been added to the un-official Hamilton ATV page located at: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Station/2849/hntvhmpa.html , (If you would like them by email or post contact Henry ZL1AAN, email [email protected] or packet ZL1AAN@ZL1AB) While Henry ZL1AAN was doing that, Jerry ZL1RN, Grant ZL1WTT and Ian ZL1VFO replaced the EPROM in the Teletext video generator with a new one. It gives 32 pages of text and graphical information about Amateur Radio in the Waikato. It is hoped all the local clubs & other modes groups mentioned appreciate the publicity they are getting. Many of the pages are completely new. Some are adaptations of those now used in ZL1BQ or are to appear when ZL1BQs� 32 pages are expanded to 64 pages. Those watching back at Jerrys' house received the new pages on his TV.
Also Jerry ZL1RN received his 70cm ATV transmitter back from Wayne ZL1UJK who�d been repairing the video modulator. So he is now back on the air.
Scott ZL1UWQ bought a 1983 vintage �Doug Ingham ZL2TAR� 70cm AM ATV transmitter, with separate wide band FM sound transmitter, at the Whangarei club sale. It needs the oozing capacitors replaced, but it may see him operating on ZL1BQ in the months to come.
Ian ZL1VFO has gathered some heavy wire for a lightening conductor for the Whitford ATV extender pole.
Michael ZL1ABS has offered to host the next meeting at Albany on the 29th of August.
73
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ATV Notes #16 from Auckland June 1999
At last someone has done something using a PIC chip that I can see the point of, & can't be just as easily acheived with a few transistors and a couple of 555s. I refer to the Video Date & Time generator in "Everyday Practical Electronics" for March 1999. I've wanted one of these for years,
but the thought of doing it with 30 TTL chips & a 2513 character ROM always put me off. It has only 4 ICs including a: PIC16C84, 6116 RAM & LM1881 Sync separator. It synchronises to the input video and puts a letter box with the date & time numbers at the bottom of the screen. A single push button sets everything from the time to the size of the text. A 10MHz crystal is the reference oscillator. For those who can't get a copy of the article I can post you a photocopy for $2, postage inclusive. Also EPE sell whole back issues for UK Pounds 4.35 including airmail postage.
email:
[email protected]
The software is free to download on the Internet:
ftp://ftp.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/pub/PICS/timedate or
http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk
So I'm going to order some PCBs from EPE & some ready programmed PICs from Magenta Electronics ( http://www.magenta2000.co.uk ) & have a go. They sell blank PICs too & various PIC kits. EPE have just published (in the May 1999 issue) a new PIC MK2 toolkit programmer for 16x84s & 16F87s as well.
Notes for International readers: This generator is compatable with 525 lines 60Hz & NTSC/SECAM colour systems as it syncs to what ever standard video you feed it. American standard date format is selectable. Y2K ok. Input or camera number display supported.
All in all a great thing for a shack, repeater, balloon, Field Day station or whatever.
The first run of ZL1QF video generators from Wayne Griffin ZL1UJK is selling out fast. It has a SPG Chip on board, a pixel based full screen display in two colours for callsigns/text/patterns in EPROM, a full screen colour bar mode, automatic page cycler & RGB output to a MC1377 or equivalent encoder. The IC package count is 14, including the encoder. (Sorry USA readers - this one is 625 line 50Hz only.)
Quentin ZL1QF has produced software to design the EPROM data on the Mac.
Take a look at the Auckland ATV web page:
http://www.qsl.net/zl1qf/atvug/ATVusers.html
There are some new pictures of the Auckland ATV sites, aerials and equipment thanks to Henry ZL1AAN (& his digital still shot camera).
23cm FMTV is going well in Auckland with five stations on air. Grant ZL1WTT and Ralph ZL1TBG are regularly contacting each other over a 60km path at up to P4. They each are running 30 Watts (two M57762 hybrid RF power modules in parallel). Ralph is using a dish antenna ex Satellite TVRO service. Grant is using a long loop Yagi-Uda.
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ATV Notes #15 de Auckland
April 1999
The Auckland VHF Group trading table has decided to produce 85 preamplifier kits using the BFR91 device for single band use. The bands available are: FM broadcast, 2m, 70cm, 50cm (615 MHz). The kitsets are nearing readyness for sale. Enquiries to: Auckland VHF Group Inc. PO Box 10138, Mt. Roskill, Auckland.
Quentin ZL1QF & Wayne ZL1UJK have designed a PCB for a, logic controlled, 8-way video switch using small relays with matching stereo audio switching using CMOS analogue transmission gates. The PCB ($22 drilled, $18 undrilled), ICs & relays ($4) are available from Wayne Griffin ZL1UJK PO Box 28-300, Remuera, Auckland. The ZL1BQ ATV repeater is now equipped with one under control of a 68HC11 microcontroller.
The ZL1BQ ATV repeater in Auckland (operated by the Auckland VHF Group Inc. branch no66 of N.Z.A.R.T.) has had a upgrade during the 1998-1999 Summer season (Southern hemisphere). The main callsign, information & test card video generator has 32 pages. It is joined by a "Cropredy" video generator switched by the pcb mentioned above. Quentin ZL1QF has added a new feature to the ZL1BQ ATV repeater with new software. The three "Status" teletext pages that used to display only by DTMF command to show which receive aerial and/or which band receiver is active now are automatically displayed as a visual "tail" message. You get the following visual messages: "70cm Rx North aerial active" or "70cm Rx South aerial active" or "23cm FM TV Rx active". The 23cm FM TV receiver (1283 MHz) has been reinstalled with a new interdigital front end filter constructed by Quentin ZL1QF and Wally ZL1VWM. The overload & intermod problem with strong non-amateur transmissions from nearby sites, appears to be fixed. So far 23cm FM TV transmissions from Grant ZL1WTT, Wayne ZL1UJK and Quentin ZL1QF have been seen via ZL1BQ. Other stations are building 23cm transmitters to take advantage of the new receiver at ZL1BQ.
Wayne ZL1UJK now has the full 3 board set of PCBs for a 2 Watt PLL tuneable 23cm FM TV Tx. The circuits were published in Spectrum previously. You can add a high power output module to do 15 Watts as well. Contact Wayne Griffin ZL1UJK PO Box 28-300, Remuera, Auckland for prices.
The next meeting of the Amateur Television Interest Group (of the Auckland VHF Group Inc.) is to be hosted by Rod ZL1ULZ at his home in Medowbank. It is on Sunday 28th March at 1pm onwards. All welcome.
The last meeting was at the Auckland VHF Group clubrooms. The clubs' trading table was available for purchasing of electronic components from the clubs' stocks. Tapes, magazines, pcbs for 23cm FM TV Txs, pcbs for 8 way video switchers, junk circuit boards for demolition to recover useful parts & ATV project information were exchanged.
Quentin ZL1QF reports two ATV web pages.... members.xoom.com/ZL1QF/ATVUsers.html & www.qsl.net/zl1qf and the Ak VHF group ATV users site at: http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/branches/akl/branch66/atvhp.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Auckland VHF Group hosted the National New Zealand VHF Convention over Easter weekend at its' clubrooms. There were lectures on digital television, ATV repeaters, 23cm band ATV using FM modulation amoung the more convention topics.
73 de Michael ZL1ABS packet ZL1ABS@ZL1AB or email [email protected]
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Fresh News from Amateur Television operators in Christchurch
HI FROM PETE ZL3TJH.
I AM SENDING YOU THIS NOTE TO KEEP YOU INFORMED OF THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE TV REPEATER IN Christchurch, New Zealand.
I HAVE installed A MICRO-PROCESSOR TO THE REPEATER TO GIVE MORE CONTROL OF THE REPEATER. WITH A PROCESSOR ON BOARD THE REPEATER CAN NOW DO A LOT MORE WHEN IT IS NOT BEING USED. IF THE REPEATER IS UNUSED HAMS CAN TYPE IN A CODE AND ACCESS TWO CAMERAS THAT ARE ATTACHED TO THE REPEATER. ONE OF THESE WILL SOON HAVE A LARGE ZOOM LENS AND STEERING MOTORS FITTED TO IT. THERE IS ALSO A CODE THAT GIVES ACCESS TO TV1s TELETEXT SYSTEM. AFTER THIS CODE IS ENTERED HAMS CAN THEN ENTER A THREE DIGIT CODE TO SELECT THE TELETEXT PAGE BEING SENT. WE ALSO HAVE SIXTEEN CROPREADY TEST PATTERNS THAT CAN BE SELECTED VIA THE DTMF PAD ON YOUR HAND HELD.
I HAVE designed A TRANSMITTER THAT HAS A VIDEO DETECTOR BUILT IN THAT TURNS OFF THE TRANSMITTER WHEN THE VIDEO STOPS. THIS HAS BEEN DONE TO STOP PEOPLE LEAVING THEIR TRANSMITTERS ON AFTER THEIR PROGRAMS HAVE FINISHED and blocking the repeater.
The repeater receives on 443.25 MHz and transmitts on 615.25 MHz VSB the same as other ATV repeaters in New Zealand.
MY CONTACT DETAILS ARE, PETE ROBINSON
10 TAKAHE DRIVE
Christchurch 2
New Zealand
PH 3325 884
73s PETE ZL3TJH.
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30 April 1999
Hamilton ATV News from Jerry ZL1RN & Bill ZL1BRI
The 615 MHz ATV repeaters' transmitting aerial, a stacked pair of Alford slots, has been raised to a greater height. It is now on a guyed mast on the peak of the roof of the Hamilton Radio Clubrooms. The RG213u feedline has been replaced with a low loss hardline cable. More RF is getting to the aerial than ever before and combined with the greater height, reports of up to two "P" points improvement in received picture are being reported to Jerry ZL1RN. Ian ZL1VFO is renovating and expanding the teletext video generator. An 8 way A/V switch board is being added too.
Bill & Jerry hope to see you all at the Cambridge Market day on May 8th & have an after sale informal ATV get together.
73 from Hamilton
Links to other New Zealand sites on the Web
Amateur Radio in New Zealand
Auckland VHF Radio Group Inc.
Quentin ZL1QFs'Auckland VHF Group Spectrum magazine Pages
Whangarei Amateur Radio Club
Auckland Amateur Television info page
Christchurch ATV
Back to the current ATV News page
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Amateur Radio is a longtime hobby of mine. My New Zealand Amateur radio callsign is ZL1ABS. The Auckland VHF Group Inc. is my local Amateur Radio club. I am the current Vice-President. Easter 1999 the group hosted the New Zealand National VHF convention. More club information is available from : [email protected] ,the club secretary.
� 2001 [email protected]
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