Amateur Television in the UK. Noel Matthews G8GTZ

Transcription

1 Amateur Television in the UK Noel Matthews G8GTZ

2 UK overview About 100 active ATV operators Mainly centred around repeaters Migration to digital happening but still a lot of FM around DVB-S 2 and 4 Msymbols 32 active repeaters BATC is very active 900 members worldwide Supporting ATV

3 70cms: MHz Very busy spectrum Military is primary user And they DO use it 437 MHz is accepted as the UK 70cms DATV frequency In the RSGB band plan FM repeaters out in Satellite operation not affected 2 Msymbols ½ or ¾ FEC Many repeaters have a 437 MHz input French are very active 15 + stations active during recent contest

4 70cms vs 23cms DX (Sept 2013 on DXSpot.TV) 70cms DX 23cms DX

5 23cms: MHz Most popular band in UK Analogue and digital Activity on repeaters and simplex 1249 MHz Repeater inputs Mixed ATV & DATV Keep FM for as long as possible Mixed ATV & DATV outputs MHz CAA primary user Difficult to get NoVs 1 year plus delays No Galileo issues (yet?)

6 13cms: MHz Mainly used for analogue TV Via repeaters 100 watt erp outputs currently in WiFi section! Spectrum release program means we will lose 40 MHz in Has major impact on TV repeaters 1 unit Tx 10 units rx The lost ATV band??

7 3.4 GHz: MHz The UK 3.4 GHz band has been reduced from 75 MHz to 10 MHz MHz (PU = MoD) Only ham users are Narrow Band at MHz We have 3 new TV repeaters licensed for DVB-S 2 Symbols output GB3BH on 3404 (Sept 2013) GB3KM on 3406 (Sept 2013) GB3BA on 3406 (Mar 2013) Performance better than 2.3 GHz?? Higher antennae gains?

8 3cms: Band split in 2 segments 10,100 10,250 & 10,350-10,500 MHz TV repeaters in lower and upper segment All analogue No changes yet... Only time before bottom segment goes??? 1 new unit licensed in 2014 GB3FY Applied for bottom segment Licensed in top segment...

9 UK TV repeater status 32 operational with primary outputs on: 1.3 GHz = GHz = GHz = 1 10 GHz = 5 3 non operational 6 requested All in shared bands Tight regulatory environment No real experimentation with linking etc

10 Repeater input channels Big challenge is finding room for FM inputs 16 MHz wide (vs 4 MHz for DATV) 23cms - possible if we knew the rules of the game 13cms only between MoD prime real estate 3.4 GHz not room 10 GHz is possible...

11 UK DATV standards Early experiments in UK showed no benefit for DVB-T over DVB-S No narrow band OFDM available DVB-S variable bandwidth gave power/bandwidth benefit Problems experienced with PAs on OFDM Access to a lot of ex commercial DVB-S equipment meant DVB-S adopted All UK experimentation has been with DVB-S Some experiments now happening with HiDe kit

12 Digital migration UK ATV community is adopting DVB-S 2 or 4 MHz DVB-S depending on band Digital repeater output only policy on 23cms GB3IV, SQ, UD & GW are DATV only Still too early to adopt DATV only input policy GB3SQ only unit to date BATC is actively promoting DATV Digilite DIY project = 100+ units sold DTX1 complete system = 45 units sold

13 UK DATV Tx equipment Ex broadcast equipment Works well but big, noisy and hot! BATC Digilite project Use PC and TV card to digitise video DIY project for modulator and upconverter BATC DTX1 Complete encoder, modulator & upconverter Covers 150MHz to 2GHz -5dBm output Sold 50 units todate

14 The future of ATV spectrum All ATV bands are under pressure We must become more spectrally efficient Allows ATV to co-exist Presents a modern image to regulators and public The move to digital is inevitable And you must engage with national society and the regulator Or you can always pay 56m / MHz!!! Real potential for UHF and VHF NB TV

15 The BATC 900 members worldwide Publishes CQ-TV in e and paper format Represents ATV on UK committees Supports projects such as Digilite Runs BATC shop for hard to get parts Annual convention - CAT14 Active ATV community online forum Supports DXSpot.TV Runs ATV streamer

16 BATC.TV The internet portal for amateur television Most UK ATV repeaters are streamed live 16 international repeaters from Australia, USA, Ireland and Argentina.

17 BATC.TV not just repeaters Bringing amateur radio to a wider audience Live events GX3RCM National Hamfest GB70DAM HAB launches The archive Amateur radio s youtube EME 2012 AMSAT colloquim Microwave RT

18 DXSpot.TV Major new initiative to enable ATV DX Dxspot cluster just for ATV dedicated dx chat line Interactive Google maps showing ATV station and repeater locations Available to all ATV operators

19 ATV is alive and well in the UK! DATV is happening Our bands are under threat but BATC is driving and supporting ATV operators