This thread is for the discussion of what you might call "citizens band" TV broadcasting. Amateur Television (ATV) is an extension of Amateur (HAM) Radio and is known variously as HAM TV or Fast Scan TV.

First of all, please read this Wikipedia entry so that we are all ready to discuss from a common info data point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_television

If you are interested in this topic or have experience with it, please let us know about it here. :)

I would be very interested to know what the Canadian requirements are, such as:
license?
part(s) of frequency spectrum?
equipment needed or recommended

You need a ham radio license which requires a minimum of 40 hours classroom time, plus a exam.

You can use most parts of the spectrum allocated to HAM, which is a lot, trust me. Some bands have certain modes you can only use on them.

The equipment depends if your going to go buy your own, or modify or build existing. If you want to do anything than buy new, you will need advanced certification.

Thanks trainwalker. Is it conceivable that there would be the bandwidth to modulate and broadcast the output of a 1080i DD5.1 HD camcorder over this?

40 hours of classroom?? I wrote the test cold and passed many years ago, or is this just for the TV part?

40 hours of classroom?? I wrote the test cold and passed many years ago, or is this just for the TV part?

You must have had some experience in electronics. I doubt the average person could walk in and pass the test with no study :) But having said that, the test isn't that difficult. Below is a PDF file from Industry Canada with the question bank they use for the exams.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/ric7.pdf/$FILE/ric7.pdf


Thanks trainwalker. Is it conceivable that there would be the bandwidth to modulate and broadcast the output of a 1080i DD5.1 HD camcorder over this?

Yes, there is plenty of bandwidth in the UHF ham bands. ATSC is very new for hams and is just being explored. FWIW there is a non proprietery (read free) GNU public ATSC encoding scheme.. Note that there is no plug and play ATSC for hams yet and basic license holders aren't allowed to build their own gear... You need a more advanced license for that.

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/gnuradio.html

Reading Post 3 it sounded like the classroom training was mandatory, which certainly wasn't the case when I did the exam. Electronics has always been a hobby of mine.
SSTV was around then. I'm amazed ATSC is even an option. I'm going to have to ask some of the hams at work if they know anyone who is actually doing it.

Well, when I went for the course. It was either a mandatory 40 or 80 hours of classroom training. I can't remember which, but it was right in the book.

If you failed, you didn't need to do the classroom hours again.

I don't know when you got your license, but I was in class maybe 6 or 7 years ago and these were the rules then.

Here is a youtube video of a ham who has been transmitting ATSC on the 70 cm ham band... (You can see it's not plug and play yet :) )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ky-tUrveI&feature=related

Here is his blog:
http://nsayer.blogspot.com/search/label/ham

First, a plug for this thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=54359 73.

And second, like when you just know you're going to sneeze, I'm feeling a whole new hobby coming on! :D

Not to pull this thread too much off topic I got my Basic amateur radio licence in 1999 through self-study (no in-class) and writing the exam at an Industry Canada office.

I got my CW endorsement in 2002 and I got my Advanced licence in 2003. Again, all self-study. :)

Anyway, a Basic licence is sufficient to allow you to play with ATV. There is equipment available; a lot of guys like to use old CATV gear because channel 60 happens to fall in the middle of the 70cm amateur radio band where a lot of ATV activity is found.

Slow-scan tv (SSTV) is another mode most often found on the high frequency (HF) bands (3-30 MHz). It's not tv in the sense of moving pictures and sound but you can transmit images around the world using SSTV gear.

You can transmit video signal using Amateur Radio as long as you are licensed. However, Amateur Radio specifically forbids Broadcasting. Broadcasting (as found in the word Broad) is defined as targeting the transmissions to everyone (i.e. the public, anybody, etc). Amateur Radio only permits targeted transmissions, with a few small exceptions.

With that said, it is still an interesting but challenging aspect of the hobby. Most ATV uses AM mode (which is the same as OTA broadcasting, you can pick up some using a cable box tuner), and some uses FM mode (which proprietary equipment is needed even for receiving). Some adventurous club in the U.S. has experimented with DVB-S terrestrial mode recently (which receiving can be done with an FTA DVB-S receiver).

You can start by receiving ATV transmissions legally without an Amateur Radio licence, if you want to only receive them. Contact your local amateur radio club for more information. [Only transmissions required the licence.]

the guy mentioned above is going for his first major test transmission this weekend:If you have an HD Homerun or some other frequency-agile tuner, or a 70 cm
downconverter and a not-so-agile tuner, please set aside some time on Saturday
afternoon to try receiving on 420-426 MHz. I'll be at the summit of Mt. with
about 50 watts of ERP (10 watts into an 8.4 dBi vertical). I'll be transmitting for about a
half an hour starting at 1:30 PM. I'll have a 2 meter HT with me and will be monitoring the
WB6OQS repeater (146.76(-)) on Loma Prieta for reports.

The big purpose for this test will be to try and compare the LOS digital lock range with the
P5 analog TV range we hams are more familiar with, which you can check out at http://www.hamtv.com/pdffiles/ATVDX.pdf . Yes, the broadcasters have worked this out,
but in general at much higher power levels and with much better equipment on different
frequencies. A Longley-Rice analysis predicts service area grade signals (>48 dBµV/m) all
the way to San Jose. It'll be interesting to see how that really holds up.

A secondary purpose is to test compatibility of the transport stream against more brands
and models of receiver. Of particular import is to note how many receivers/tuners out
there can or cannot decode the MPEG-2 audio stream. So far, my results are 50-50, but
that's with an absurdly small sample size.

Don't expect an exciting program. It'll be me holding up signs and panning around at the view. A real yawner, to be sure.