Amateur TV in Melbourne, Australia

The information here is a brief account and a quick guide for those wanting to know a bit about amateur TV in Melbourne.

Brief history:
Amateur Television has been around for decades in Melbourne at least since 1972 as point to point contacts and 1979 via the ATV repeater VK3RTV. The repeater was originaly put together by a small group of amateur radio operators and has been maintained by an even smaller number over the decades. 100's of amateur radio operators have enjoyed ATV activities over this period and we suspect 1000's of the general public have to, as viewers.

Interest varies as amateur radio operators come and go experimenting with different techniques and standards to convey pictures with sound as "fast scan" analogue or Standard Definition DiGiTaL TV signals. Material shown varies depending upon the transmitting station from a general chit chat to playing associated subject videos or investigation into some gadget under test.

Currently:
You'll see a boring test pattern or a still image of the shack or some view out the window, other times are exciting educational videos or amateur fan films... The general public and fellow Amateur radio operators can receive the service with most domestic TV receivers (DiGiTaL only after October 2009). From the feedback over the years most people have enjoyed what they have seen...

Brief Technical:
VK3RTV is currently the only ATV repeater in Melbourne, broadcasting in the 70cm UHF amateur radio band. Sending vision and audio to the repeater requires a TV sync carrier at any of the input frequencies and special features can be accessed with DTFM codes. For full technical details seek out the offical VK3RTV webpage or see my unoffical one...

Brief Legal:
ATV can put any not copyrighted audio visual material to air, must be of an unoffensive nature, think of the "G" classification standard for a guide and not broadcast anything for profit. (Part of the general amateur radio licence conditions / regulations anyway...)

For more information go to the official VK3RTV website.
73's VK3KHB