AGAF at HAMRADIO 2009
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Following a pre-test on Thursday evening the usul DATV (DVB-S) transmission from Pfaender
mountain (Austria) to the AGAF stand at the Friedrichshafen fair started on Friday 26.6. 
at 9. This time a new feature was shown, a remote control of three video sources at the 
Pfaender mountain hotel: a live camera, a DVD player and a GMSK receiver/DVB-S receiver 
chain prepared by Uwe DJ8DW and his Wuppertal University students. With a first live test 
receiving 70 cm GMSK-DATV from Rudolf DJ3DY and Willi DC5QC transmitting portable on the 
bank of Lake Constance near Kressbronn the graduate students had to tweak some digital 
parameters before that video was shown successfully via 23 cm QPSK transmission at the 
AGAF stand. Sometimes the signal was blanked by other local signals on 23 cm, as well as 
the 2 m talkback channel being disturbed by intermodulation effects of busy ham 
communication...

Also on Friday the AATIS club (german teachers actively recommending amateur radio to 
students) got awarded this year´s Horkheimer Prize from DARC. Then Oliver DG6BCE 
explained some amateur radio experiments at the International Space Station "Alpha". 
There are new VHF/UHF FM transceivers planned for the european "Columbus" module, and 
with the "ARCOL" experiment even Digital ATV transmissions on L- and S-band will be 
possible in the future. MPEG2 converters and QPSK TX modules developed by ADACOM will 
enable three modes: 1. S-band beacon (test pattern), 2. video camera live from space, 
3. L-band RX/S-band TX (QPSK transponder). There are two video cameras available in the 
Columbus module, but earth views are not planned yet...

On Saturday the envisioned GMSK DATV long range test from the Isle of Mainau to Pfaender 
mountain got washed away by heavy rainfall, even at the hotel Christian DJ1CHS had to 
rescue the video camera from the balcony there. In the Friedrichshafen fair less visitors 
showed up, but many AGAF friends signed the guest book at our stand. There were talks 
with DARC and other officials, and an informal RTA meeting brought up a need for more
discussion on a planned german entry level licence...

The AGAF general meeting 2009 took place in a small room near the foyer, 12 members 
elected the new board consisting of president Uwe Kraus (DJ8DW), 1. chairman Heinz 
Venhaus (DC6MR), 2. chairman Rainer Mueller (DM2CMB) and administrator Karl-Heinz Pruski. 
Propositions to distribute the AGAF magazine TV-AMATEUR preferably only electronically 
via e-mail to foreign members in order to reduce costs were accepted. Foreign members 
with a suitable internet access (5 GByte data storage) are asked to report their e-mail 
address to agaf-versand@agaf.de

At the end Uwe DJ8DW talked about the latest DATV development proceedings in Wuppertal: 
a home-made ready GMSK DATV receiver on a single board including a remodulator for DVB-S
settop-boxes and an hf level reading is able to use 4 frequencies on 70 cm with 2 
bandwidth settings; a new 4th generation DATV TX board with only 2 layers, simple surface
wave filters instead of coils and three DATV modes included.

Klaus, DL4KCK