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Getting started on 23cm ATV
Most people think that ATV is complicated or expensive to persue, but this is not the case. For example, to receive an ATV repeater such as GB3VL, you just need an old analogue satellite TV receiver and a simple antenna. Old satellite receivers can be picked up from car boot sales, junk sales or even places such as Ebay for just a few pounds. If you are unable to find an old receiver, don’t worry, you can buy a suitable ATV receiver such as the Comtech receiver module from our Ebay shop.                   Receiver Module    Transmitter Module An example system To transmit a picture, you will need a video source. This could be a video camera, a digital camera (if your supports TV out) or a CCTV camera. CCTV cameras can be purchased from Ebay for as little as £15 and many have a bult in microphone so you can transmit audio also. It is also often useful to transmit a testcard. For this, you can use as digital photo viewer such as the Sandisk photoviewer. Some testcards are available for download HERE. To recieve, you will need a TV or monitor with compostie video in. Any TV or monitor with a scart socket will do. Antennas There are many different types of antennas available for 23cm ATV with manufacturers such as F9FT, Masthead Antennas and Wimo SHF Design being popular choices. You can also build a simple antenna to get on 23cm ATV. One example is the Bi-Quad antenna. This antenna is constructed using a single solid copper wire (e.g. Line or Neutral cores of 2.5mm twin and earth cable) and a solid (copper clad board or metal sheet) or mesh reflector. Design information on the above can be found HERE (W6PQL) and HERE (DL5NEG) IMPORTANT! If you are using an old satellite receiver, you will need to be aware of the LNB voltage present on the F socket. This will need to be removed before connecting any antennas that would present a ‘short circuit’ to DC such as the Double quad antenna above. This can be achieved by using as small capacitor inline with the coax centre or by purchasing a commercial DC blocking adapter such as the item available HERE