Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

Our Belmont site is home to our Amateur Television repeater.		The repeater transmits on an output frequency of 615.250 MHz, which is Channel 39. The polarisation is the same as other local UHF broadcasts, in this case it is Horizontal, so our repeater may be received by any standard television receiver within range. This enables the general public to view Amateur television transmissions.

VHF Group members send their television signals to the repeater on the input frequency of 431.250 MHz. When no signal is received by the repeater it broadcasts the test pattern and station ID

Amateur Television started in Wellington when Harry Burton ZL2APC, one of our members, pioneered transmission with 405 line ATV on 420MHz in 1958, prior to the establishment of commercial TV. Just a bit later, when the Electronics Institute put together a 405 line demonstration system at the Wellington Technical College, they included a 45 MHz Collier & Beale transmitter and much of Harry's equipment to set up the station. These transmissions successfully encouraged the establishment of commercial TV, then ceased once the NZBS commenced transmission with 625 line TV from Mt. Victoria in 1960.

Doug Ingham ZL2TAR, another member, started in ATV by building a receiver in 1961, and a transmitter in 1963. Several other members susequently constructed ATV equipment, and the growth in ATV activity led to the establishment of the Wellington VHF Group's ATV repeater in late 1978. The repeater was built by Doug Ingham ZL2TAR and Peter Williams ZL2ARW and operated in the 70cm band to PAL colour standards. At first it was operated from a temporary location at Pt. Howard, and was later moved to the Group's Belmont site.

In 1985 Peter Williams ZL2ARW launched a design for a high-performance 70cm ATV transmitter, and later a kitset transmitter was produced by the Group, utilising Peter's design. Several were built and in-service by the time the technical article for this transmitter was published first in Q-Bit, and then in Break-In magazine issue March 1985.

Following NZART representations to NZRFS, the 610-620 band was expanded to 610-622 in October 1987, and this new TV allocation aligned with television channel E39. The Group's repeater was subsequently converted to transmit on Channel 39.

In 1989 the Wellington VHF Group formed a special interest group, (later abbreviated to SPIG), which focussed on ATV, and which continues to today.