ATV Equipment & Software Sources
Equipment for receiving or transmitting ATV transmissions in and around Melbourne can come from all sorts of places. If you are not "the build it yourself type" then there is a lot of second hand stuff around you just have to find it. To really get the feel of your ATV station you can build your own equipment ( not as hard as it sounds ).
Equipment needed can include Camera's, Transmitters, Receivers, and Antenna's.
It can be near impossible to buy a new complete ATV system to plug in and use.
DVB-T (Set Top Boxes) Known to receive VK3RTV
Not all set top boxes will tune 446.500, and so far none will find / tune it automatically so you have to dive into the menus and do it manually. Below is a list of set top boxes that have been found to work and not work. If you have a set top box or digital TV that works and is not on the list let us know at vk3rtv@hotmail.com. No guarantees are made about the list as models change their specs, design, and firmware all the time.
Set top boxes that have been tried and found TO receive the VK3RTV digital signal are:
- Aiko STB225 (SD)
- Celestial DVB8800HD
- Compro Videomate PCI TV Tuner Card DVB-T300
- DGTEC DG-FV7200 (HD)
- Digital View (SD) JAYCAR Part no XC-4914
- DSE GH5912
- DVX55U Cheap PVR (Set Freq manually as a Channel No 446500 fairly deaf, - Eastern Suburbs only)
- Healing HHT893
- Healing HHT894
- Humax DV-1000T
- RCA TRC 501AU
- Sanyo TUHD1000 (HD) Manual tune only
- Strong SRT5006
- Strong SRT5023x
- Strong SRT5405E (HD)
- Strong SRT5435 (HD dual tuner with 500MB PVR)
- Teac HDR1600T
- Teac SDB451
- Tevion TV-1202
- Tevion TEV602 (SD)
- Twinhan DTV Alpha
- Yess DVBT288U USB (Unconfirmed but specs look OK)
- Wintal PVR-X10A
- Wintal STB-X5
Set top boxes that have been tried and found NOT to receive the VK3RTV digital signal are:
- DVX55U Cheap PVR (Set Freq manually as a Channel No 446500 fairly deaf, - Eastern Suburbs only)
- Olin HVBT2000, HVBT2000B, and HVBT2200B (Very very deaf on VK3RTV - not recommended)
- SKU HVBT2000B
Equipment Sources Can Include
- Adverts in Radio and Communications magazines.
- VKHAM Classifieds website VKHAM Classifieds.
- Adverts in The Melbourne Trading Post.
- Buying equipment at Hamfest's.
- Camera's can be miniature surveillance types through to your home handy cam video recorder.
- Cashconverters or similar store are a good cheap source for used camcorder type cameras
- ATV and UHF kits can be obtained from Mini Kits in South Australia.
- Antenna's may be purchased but can be expensive. Most operators in Melbourne have made their own ( which can be done with a hacksaw, a drill and a screwdriver ) A lot of ATVers use loop yagi's as they are easy to make, very easy to tune ( most require NO tuning ), work well and are broad band enough for TV work.
For more detailed information try our Links Page.
Software Related To ATV
|
PROGRAM |
COMMENTS |
| Loop Yagi | LOOP YAGI design program. Old DOS based program but will run on Windows machines in a DOS window, approx 35K in size. |
| PC-ATV | Shareware program to generate test cards on your PC. DTMF program included. You will need a video output socket on you PC to get video out. |