Melbourne Digital ATV Tests This Sunday 7 June 2009

As reported in our news release dated 20th of May (to read click this Link) Melbourne's Amateur Television repeater VK3RTV is being digitised using the DVB-T standard.

As part of the upgrade Peter Cossins VK3BFG is planning on conducting some digital ATV tests on 446.5 Mhz from Mt Dandenong commencing at 11.00 A.M. this Sunday 7 June 2009.

Melbourne's VK3RTV ATV repeater was established in 1977 and is just one of the many Victorian repeaters licenced and maintained by Amateur Radio Victoria. In 2008 ARV submitted an application to the WIA for the WIA's club grant scheme for funds to assist with the digitisation the ATV repepater, the application was reviewed by the WIA's panel and rated to be a very worthwhile project. As a result the WIA awarded ARV a grant of $1000 towards the overall costs of the upgrade.

DVB-T is the 'terrestrial' version of the digital broadcasting standard and can be received on commonly available household set top boxes and digital television sets. A set of German manufactured DVB-T transmitter boards has been purchased by ARV and have been run up on the test bench with excellent reports being received regarding performance. The transmitter is a low power unit and so a linear amplifier has been constructed to provide the necessary output power for coverage across the Melbourne metropolitan area.

Much discussion has taken place across Melbourne club nets, email lists and VHF and UHF repeaters this week in anticipation of the on air tests. To receive the test transmissions you will need a digital set top box or digital-ready tv capable of manually tuning to 446.5 Mhz (note that manual tuning is required). Some discussion has also suggested that not all digital set top boxes or televisions have the capability to manually tune this frequency, so a check of your equipment first may be worthwhile.

Reception reports of the test transmission are encouraged, please email to pcossins@bigpond.com
Peter Cossins VK3BFG will also be listening for reception reports on the ATV liaison frequency of 147.4 MHz

Click Here To Return To Previous Page