Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

The following report by ZL2TGQ...

At their Group Meeting held on Thursday 25th March, Members were impressed with the inaugural transmission of digital ATV.

This project has now reached the stage where two sets of transmission equipment have been commissioned, one on 1284 MHz and the other on 430MHz. This result comes from the import of modules from a German supplier and a fair bit of work by, in particular, ZL2TAR, ZL2TVM, ZL2TGQ and with advice from ZL2TIQ.

The 1284 MHz transmitter was used for this test transmission, and had an output level of 5 mW, which was more than adequate for “across-the-room” communication. The signal was received on a commercial digital receiver, with a simple quarter-wave (55mm) whip antenna.

Left: Doug ZL2TAR with 1284 MHZ transmitter modules, Right: Members studying received picture quality.

The equipment was next displayed to over 200 Amateurs at the combined Branch EXPO 2010 held at Lower Hutt on Saturday 27th March. Here, in addition to a local digital receiver close by the transmission equipment, a remote digital receiver was located outside the main hall in the foyer to greet visitors arriving at the EXPO. On this occasion the frequency used was once again 1284 MHz, with the 5 mW power boosted to 300 mW by a linear amplifier constructed by ZL2TAR.

Transmission equipment, 1284 MHz transmitter (L), 430 MHz transmitter (R), with a local digital receiver and display to the right.

Many compliments were expressed, both on the progress of the DATV project, and the quality of the received video.