I have been playing around recently with SSTV on VHF. For base work, I use the MMSSTV software on a laptop connected to my Yaesu FT 847 via a Rascal soundcard to rig interface. There is a great 2m SSTV repeater (VE3OSQ) in FN15, just West of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 144.525 FM simplex. It is owned and operated by VA3KS. It takes incoming images and then retransmits them, as well is transmits a beacon every 20 minutes or so.
Here is what the beacon looks like:
Recently I was able to find a used Kenwood VC-H1 SSTV/camera rig on Ebay. These are discontinued items now, and hard to find ! It is a simple camera and monitor with built in SSTV software and is designed to mate with Kenwood HT and Mobile Rigs, including my TH-D7A(g).
I am only about 13 miles from the VE3OSQ SSTV repeater, so I can easily use the repeater with the VC-H1, TH-D7 and 5 watts. Here is a sample picture I took of my son, Matthew. This was taken in my basement and transmitted from there as well. This picture is what I received back from the repeater. Considering the location and power, this worked really well ! The call sign is superimposed by the VC-H1. For some reason I lost the first few line of image, but oh well !
Aside from sharing family snapshots, another potential use of SSTV is in emergency communications...as they say one picture is worth a thousand words! Just for fun, I set up my VC-H1 and TH-D7 in my mini van with a Mirage B34G 40 watts amp (QRP is for weenies ;-) and a Diamond high-gain mag-mount vertical antenna on the roof. I drove to a few spots around town, all within about 16 miles of the repeater, to see what type of range it had, and what the results would be. I setup my FT847 at home to receive the output of the repeater.
This first picture was taken while parked at the entrance to the "Diefenbunker", which is a cold-war era blast shelter that is now a cold-war museum. It is located in Carp, Ontario, and is about 8 miles from the repeater. This location in "low ground", but still the image turned out great !
The following image was taken while parked in a truck-stop north west of the repeater on Highway 17.
And finally, this picture was taken of a community center in Almonte, which is a few miles south west of the repeater.
Overall, I am pleased with the quality of images my simple SSTV setup produces. From searching the web, I see that many folks use an external digital camera and interface it to the VC-H1, instead of using the built in CCD. This should give better results, as the starting image quality would be better, would allow more control over exposure, and provide the ability to zoom in for a close-up. Sounds like a project for next weekend. Next, I hope to build an interface from the VC-H1 to my FT100.
Here are some more SSTV links:
Free Software: http://users.rcn.com/sstv/download.html
More Software: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/SSTV/
CQ SSTV de KB4YZ: http://www.kiva.net/~djones/
ON4VT SSTV: http://www.qsl.net/on4vt/
VE3RDN: http://www.kent.net/ve3rdn/
73,
VA3NFA