The Fast-Scan TV Chronicles: The Waiting (2022-11-25)
The handheld
My dad bought a handheld TV scanner, the Icom IC-R3.
Turns out that it's a damn good scanner (even if it eats up batteries).
It can receive both AM and FM TV stations on any frequency, practically making it a godsend for FSTV.
Unlike the downconverters, this one is much more abundant and can be found for ~$300 on eBay.
My dad scored a great deal on it though, so we're happy.
The VCR
We hooked up my fancy VCR (Emerson EWR20V4, great VCR btw) to the scanner via RF and was able to get a picture from a VHS camcorder hooked up to it.
The VCR outputs on channel 3 as if it was an RF modulator, so we just had to tune to channel 3 on the scanner and we were good to go.
Knowing that the scanner works now, my dad bought an active (powered) HDMI to composite/RCA converter.
We're going to try to use OBS Studio and the converter box to output our own signal to the transmitter.
The transmitter
I don't recall which transmitter we bought, but it's shipping from China and should be here in in about two weeks.
Hopefully it'll be powerful enough to reach our local repeater, if not then perhaps an amplifier is needed.
The next steps
Next on the list is transmitting, getting a picture, and then experimenting with it.
I think my dad will try streaming to Twitch as the same time, like a simulcast of some sort.
I'll be sure to update more information as we go along.