The Fast-Scan TV Chronicles: The Beginning (2022-11-21)
The spark
Sometime last week, my dad was asked about trying out fast scan TV instead of his usual slow scan TV (the latter of which is a much more popular form of amateur radio telegraphy).
He was interested, but didn't know where to start. So he asked me.
I've since made it an affinitive goal to get him set up with FSTV.
Here's what my journey has been like so far.
The research
This guy is the first person to show up when you google "ham tv" and it's been helpful although it's a bit outdated.
Digging through the site shows that you would require a downconverter for receiving FSTV, which is not exactly true.
You can receive FSTV with anything that can pick up an NTSC signal on any frequency, such as an SDR with at least 400k bandwidth (see "The attempts") or an old handheld radio/TV scanner.
The downconverter is only required if you want to pipe the signal into an NTSC TV or VCR in glorious analog form, but good luck finding one.
P.C. Electronics had stopped manufacturing downconverters and the only ones I could find were on eBay for $100+.
The repeater
Our local repeater has input frequencies for 2441.5 MHz FM and 434.0 MHz VSB/AM with optional(?) DVB-T, and output frequencies for 1253.25 MHz VSB and 912.0 MHz FM.
Though as for the repeater's website, atn-tv.com, it's a lot more interesting.
It's a website for a group of ameteur radio operators who are interested in television broadcasting, known as Amateur Television Network (ATN).
They have a YouTube channel with a live stream. Sometimes people come onto the stream, I'm not sure why or how, but it's quite interesting.
The attempts
My dad and I have been working on getting NTSC signals to get picked up from about anything we had laying around the house for a while.
We brought in a CRT-based TV that was coincidentally about to be thrown out by a neighbor, and we hooked it up to a VCR, VHS camcorder, Super Nintendo, and an Xbox 360.
The TV turned out to work just fine, plus it had the ability to display raw noise and not cut off to blue with weak input.
Alongside the CRT TV success, I was working on getting an Airspy Mini to recognize an NTSC signal from the Super Nintendo via RF.
Turns out that SDRAngel works great for black and white signals when configured correctly.
I was also able to pick up audio if I moved the SDR's frequency to somewhere between the video carrier and FM carrier.
Adding an FM demodulator, offsetting it, plus offsetting the video carrier, I was able to get a working NTSC signal and audio at the same time.
This could come in really handy for my dad and I to get a better understanding of how NTSC works.
Especially if it could be used to receive FSTV, which is what we're trying to do.
The future
I'm not sure what the future holds for us, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.
Having the ability to both transmit and receive FSTV would be a great way to learn more about amateur radio and television for me personally.
Many alike, I've always wanted to be on TV, and now I probably could be.
I'm not sure if my dad would be able to get the repeater to work, but we're determined to try.
I'll keep updating this subdirectory as I make progress.
I may write more details and in-depth instructions soon, especially for the SDR setup.