Melbourne Digital Amateur Television – update

A digital uplink test has been held at the Mt Dandenong site of the ATV repeater VK3RTV with four stations participating – VK3GMZ, VK3KHB, VK3TRX and VK3CH.

This test session on Saturday the 19th of September resulted in all stations being received at Mt Dandenong, reports Peter Cossins VK3BFG, with no errors or pixilation.

The digital uplink standard for the repeater is DVS-S Satellite.

Experiments with power levels demonstrated that low power operation is possible.

Mick VK3CH at Thornbury was successful with just 150 milliwatts, which must be some kind of ATV record covering a distance of 30 kilometres.

The VK3RTV Controller is almost finished and it is envisaged that full Digital operations will commence around the end of the month.

VK3RTV will take both analogue and digital input signals, but the output will be DVB-T, which is the standard used by commercial TV stations.

The upgrade to VK3RTV was funded by Amateur Radio Victoria with the WIA also providing $1,000 through its Club Grants Program.

Barry Robinson VK3PV

Amateur Radio Victoria
Wireless Institute of Australia