Melbourne digital ATV repeater
------------------------------
An ambitious project to digitise the VK3RTV amateur television repeater 
that was established in 1977 to service Melbourne and Geelong, will soon 
see it on air using the DVB-T standard. This is the 'terrestrial' version 
of the digital broadcasting standard and can be received on commonly used 
household Set Top Boxes and digital television sets. Peter Cossins VK3BFG 
reports that experiments are being undertaken with the basic system on the 
bench, but linear amplifiers have been built to provide a reasonable level 
of output power for the coming live testing. 

Funded by Amateur Radio Victoria which has spent $3,300 on the project so 
far, it received a welcome and timely funding boost this week from the WIA 
Club's Grants Scheme. WIA President, Michael Owen VK3KI presented a $1,000 
cheque to Peter VK3BFG during the Amateur Radio Victoria Annual General 
Meeting held on 19 May. Michael told the meeting that the WIA's independent 
grants committee had recommended the grant in recognition of the project's 
innovation and promising benefits to the amateur radio community.

At the heart of the project are German made boards with the system to be 
configured to have three inputs and two channel output, making it the first 
of its kind in Australia. 
www.wia.org.au


update:
On Sunday 7th June the Melbourne Amateur TV Repeater, VK3RTV conducted its 
first test on DVB-T. High quality pictures were received more than 40 
kilometers away, only limited by lack of stations further out. 

The new digital system is multiplexed with two independent video channels 
each with two channel audio. VK3RTV has three input frequencies and it is 
possible to have any two of the three running simultaneously. Funding for 
the project came from Amateur Radio Victoria and the Wireless Institute of 
Australia. During the test, VK3RTV1 carried live video, while VK3RTV2 a 
colour bar test signal. The test was introduced by Jim Linton, VK3PC, 
President of Amateur Radio Victoria. 

VK3RTV is one of the oldest continuously running ATV repeaters, first on 
air in 1977. It was built and has been maintained and upgraded by Peter 
VK3BFG over thirty+ years with the help of others in the Melbourne ATV 
Group. The digital project was proposed and engineered by Peter. 
Regards Peter VK3BFG

atv-newsletter@hotmail.com 
Bryon, N6IFU