ATV Handbook: - An Introduction To Amateur TV

AN-55a ATV Handbook.doc (kh6htv,2/13/2021) p.
1 of 44
Application Note
AN-55a
copyright
March, 2020
minor rev. Feb., 2021
ATV Handbook
- an Introduction to Amateur TV
Jim Andrews, KH6HTV
web site = www.kh6htv.com e-mail = [email protected]
Table of Contents
Chapter Title Page
1. Introduction p. 2
2. Basics of TV Video Signal p. 4
3. TV Video Sources p. 7
4. Amateur TV Bands & Frequencies p. 9
5. P5 - TV Signal Quality Reporting p. 11
6. TV Modulation Methods p. 13
Analog -- AM-TV, VUSB-TV, FM-TV p. 15
Digital -- ATSC, DVB-C, DVB-S, DVB-T, etc. p. 17
7. TV Receivers p. 21
8. TV Transmitters p. 24
9. TV Antennas p. 30
10. TV Propagation p. 31
11. TV Repeaters p. 35
12. TV in ARES p. 38
13. ATV Suppliers p 41
14. Other Resources p. 42
14. References p. 43
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Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION:
Television is an old rf communications technology dating back almost a hundred years to
the 1920s. See the TV Time Line. table I, p. 3. The FCC early on allowed radio
amateurs to experiment with TV for sending images. We amateurs break our ATV (i.e.
Amateur TV) into what we call "Slow-Scan TV" and "Fast-Scan TV". Slow-Scan is
used on the HF bands in narrow band voice channels and is only capable of sending still
frame images at a very slow rate. It is essentially like sending a FAX. Fast-Scan is the
same as the real, live images with motion which we watch over commercial broadcast
TV. Because of the much wider bandwidth required for live images, all our Fast-Scan
activity is restricted to the UHF and microwave bands, starting at the 70cm (420-
450MHz) band.
Slow-Scan ATV will not be dealt with in this handbook. Likewise the transmission of
images via IP technology will not be dealt with. This ATV handbook will deal with the
various methods used for rf broadcasting of live, Fast-Scan, TV using both older analog
and newer digital modulation schemes.
Fast Scan (live) TV is being used by amateurs for a variety of uses. One very popular
use is with radio controlled (R/C) aircraft and other vehicles. The huge growing
popularity of R/C drones is fueling this interest. Many drones today include an on-board
TV camera to provide the pilot with a view from the cockpit. The buzz word for this is
FPV, or First Person View. Hams for many years, as part of school STEM projects,
have been doing high altitude balloon flights and including ATV and APRS transmitters
as part of the balloon's payload. Another use, particularly relevant to our public service
commitment is the use of ATV by ARES and RACES groups to provide live video
coverage of large public events and disasters for our public safety, police and fire,
officials. Beyond these, there is also the normal ham's desire to simply communicate
with other hams. With ATV you can not only talk about ham radio, other interests, and
family activities, but you can also actually show off your latest home brew project, or
play a video tape of your most recent family vacation, etc. Most active ATV groups
have weekly ATV nets for all members to share videos from their ham shacks. Most
ATV groups also have a TV repeater to enhance their ATV coverage area.
This ATV handbook will cover the various aspects of how to get started in ATV dealing
with video sources, types of TV modulation, transmitters, receivers, antennas,
propagation, etc. It will conclude with a listing of ATV suppliers and references for
further reading.
Table I --- TELEVISION TIME LINE

• 1925 – QST reports on TV experiments using mechanical scanning
• 1926 – John Blair in Scotland, demos 1st working TV using mechanical scanning
• 1927 – Philo Farnsworth, 1st patent for all electronic scanned TV system
• 1929 – 1st TV broadcast, BBC, London
• 1939 – NBS 1st live USA TV broadcast, New York City
• 1940 – 1st ham TV 2 way QSO, W2USA & W2DKJ in New York City, 56 & 112MHz
• 1941 - FCC issues NTSC standard, VUSB
• 1941-45 WWII, TV development suspended
• 1946-50 Major deployment of broadcast TV stations in all major metro areas
• 1948 – San Francisco bay area hams are transmitting NTSC TV on 70cm band
• 1950 – Ed Tilton, QST June issue reports on major ham TV activity in USA and Europe
• 1953 – Color added to TV, compatible with B&W
• 1957 – Cop McDonald, VY2CM, develops slow-scan TV for use on HF
• 1968 – Japan starts HDTV development
• 1986 – USA & Europe turn down Japan’s proposal for their analog HDTV system
• 1987 - FCC creates ATSC to develop DTV
• 1991 - DVB development starts in Europe
• 1991-92 - FCC holds field trials for competing digital and analog HDTV systems
• 1993 - MPEG-2 video encoding standard adopted
• 1996 - FCC selects ATSC’s 8-VSB system for broadcast DTV in USA with 10 year
transition period from analog to digital
• 2009 - USA switches completely from analog TV to digital TV
• 2017 - FCC authorizes voluntary introduction of ATSC 3.0 (not compatible with 1.0)
Chapter 2 - BASICS OF TV VIDEO SIGNAL:

The basic concept of capturing a "live" video image consists of grabbing a sequence of
still images at a fast enough rate that the human eye perceives them to be "live". In the
motion picture industry, they found that a frame rate of 24 fps (frames per second) was
sufficient. For TV, a frame rate of 30 fps (25 fps in Europe) is used. The historical
reason for 30 fps rather than 24 was the presence of 60 Hz "hum" in the early day
vacuum tube circuits. Using 1/2 * 60 Hz minimized the hum interference in video
images. 50 Hz AC is used in Europe and most of the rest of the world, hence the 25 fps
for their TV systems.
Fig. 1 Scanning on a CRT to display a TV image.
Until fairly recently, all of our TV receivers used a cathode ray tube (CRT) as the display
device. A CRT presents a single spot (or pixel) on it's screen at any one time. The
persistence in the phosphor made that spot glow for some time after it was illuminated by
the electron beam. Thus, to present a complete image the electron beam needed to be
swept (or scanned) sequentially across the CRT phosphor screen, from left to right and
from top to bottom. To maintain synchronization between the initial image scanning
camera and the display CRT a set of horizontal and vertical synchronizing pulses were
required to maintain the proper timing.
During the early development of TV in the 1930s, many experiments were run, using the
available technology of the time, and a set of TV standards were developed for scan rate,
lines, etc. This was formulated by 1941, by the TV R&D people and the FCC into what
is called the NTSC (National Television System Committee) standard. It resulted in the
standard composite video signal with 525 horizontal scan lines at a 30 Hz frame rate. A
CRT display would first sweep from left to right, then rapidly reset back to the left side of
the screen and index down a line. See Fig. 1. When the scan finally reached the bottom
of the screen, it would then be reset vertically to the top of the screen and a new frame
would commence. These horizontal scan lines were interlaced with only 480 of them
actually being visible. Hence the term 480 i. The remainder were masked during the
vertical retrace time interval. The composite video signal is a 1 Vptp signal into 75
Ohms. See Fig. 2. The various levels were measured in IRE (Institute of Radio
Engineers) units. 140 IRE = 1 Volt. The active video information occupied 100 IRE
units and it could assume any value depending upon the gray level of the pixels. The
horizontal and vertical sync pulses occupied 40 IRE units. The highest level was white.
The lowest was the tip of the sync pulses. The vertical sync occurs at 29.97 Hz. The
horizontal sync at 15.748 Hz. There are 525 lines per frame with 262.5 lines per field.
Two interlaced fields make up a single frame. Thus for 480 i video we have 640 x 480
pixels.
Fig. 2 Composite Video Signal, 1 Volt p-t-p into 75 Ohms One horizontal line shown.
In 1953, NTSC added color to the basic TV signal. The color system adopted was
designed to be backwardly compatible with the original black & white TV. This was
done by adding a color sub-carrier (CSC) of 3.58 MHz with independent sidebands
carrying the color information. The color burst shown in Fig. 2 was used to synchronize
the 3.58 MHz color local oscillator in the receiver. Fig 3 shows a composite video signal
carrying color information for a color bar test pattern.
Fig. 3 Composite video signal with color bars & the resultant image on a video monitor.
Fig. 4 The rf spectrum of an analog NTSC - TV signal.
The NTSC composite video signal's spectrum extended from the low 60 Hz sync rate of
the vertical pulses up to an upper luminance (i.e. B&W) bandwidth of 4.2 MHz. The
color (or chroma) information requires less bandwidth. It is carried via a 3.58 MHz color
sub-carrier as independent upper and lower sidebands. When broadcast by the NTSC
system, the composite, 4.2 MHz bandwidth video signal is first AM modulated onto an rf
carrier. This would result in a double sideband rf signal occupying at least 8.4 MHz of
bandwidth. To conserve bandwidth, the original NTSC standards called for filtering off
all but 750 kHz of the lower sideband. The result is called a Vestigial Sideband (VSB)
signal - or VUSB for Vestigial Upper Side-Band. The rf video carrier was placed 1.25
MHz up from the lower channel edge. Audio was then added using a separate FM
transmitter, placed 4.5 MHz above the video carrier frequency. Fig. 4 shows the
resultant spectrum. It occupies a 6 MHz wide TV channel with a 250 kHz guard band.
Fig. 5 Typical TV Camcorder used for ATV
Chapter 3 - TV VIDEO SOURCES

The very first acquisition required if one is interested in getting on the air with ATV is a
source of video. This should be a TV camera. You can spend as little as $5 or many
thousands of dollars on a camera. There are a huge number of choices. Older, analog,
TV cameras can be picked up at ham radio swapfests for next to nothing in cost. My
personal recommendation is to go with a video camcorder. See Fig. 5. Very good, high
definition (1080P), digital camcorders are now available new in the $200-$300 price
range. They include: zoom lens, built in stereo microphones, built-in monitor screen,
SD card memory, and battery / ac operation. They all provide their audio/video (A/V)
output on an HDMI cable. They also have a USB port for transferring video to a
computer. Some, but not all of the current production camcorders include an analog,
composite (480i) video plus stereo line level audio output. Inexpensive ($10-$20),
HDMI to Composite Video plus stereo audio adapters are available on the internet, if you
also need composite analog video plus audio. With the built-in memory in a camcorder,
you can record events and then play them back later over your ATV transmitter.
Most modern SLR type digital cameras also include video recording ability. However,
"Buyer Beware". You need to shop very carefully if you also want the SLR camera, or
camcorder to function as your ATV camera. Features to look for that are relevant for
ATV use. 1. Will the camera put out both video and audio on the HDMI cable in the
stand-by mode? (some only put out video) 2. Will it put out both video and audio while
recording? (some cameras only put out A/V on playback). 3. Is the resolution coming
out of the A/V port the same as the camera records in ? (some record in hi-def, but only
output std. def.) 4. Can you lock out the time-out timer? 5. Does the camera have
auto-focus in the movie mode? (you want to be able to zoom the lens without manual
focusing as a TV camera). Ask lots of questions of the sales clerk and ask for actual
demos before purchasing.
Other sources of video include security cameras, VCRs, DVD players and your home PC
computer. Most computers provide an output for an external monitor, plus a line level
audio output. On older computers, the monitor output was in the VGA format. Newer
model computers provide the monitor output using the HDMI format. HDMI is the
common digital A/V cable found on all modern consumer video products. Again, if you
need a different video format, inexpensive converters can be found readily on the
internet. Your PC can also be your one and only video source. Today, they all come
equipped with a built-in TV camera and microphone. Thus you can mix your own live
image and voice with other material on your computer to present a multi-media
production for your fellow ATV hams to watch.
Chapter 4 - AMATEUR TV BANDS

As shown previously, the original, analog, NTSC, TV transmissions required a 6 MHz
wide channel. Modern day, commercial broadcast TV uses digital transmission, but still
uses the same 6 MHz channels for each transmitter. All of our HF bands put together
would not give us 6 MHz. We have to move up to the UHF region before we find
enough bandwidth available to support TV. This means the first amateur band available
for TV is our 70 cm band (420-450 MHz). It is 30 MHz wide and could support up to
five, 6 MHz , TV channels. See Fig. 6. Our 70cm band is actually just below the
commercial broadcast TV, UHF band which starts at 470 MHz. Note in Fig. 6 the
designation of channel numbers 57 through 61. USA cable TV uses all of the spectrum
from 54 MHz (Ch. 2) up to about 1 GHz, divided into adjacent 6 MHz channels. It turns
out that CATV channels 57 through 61 actually land directly in the amateur 70cm band.
This is fortunate, in that a 70 cm, analog, ATV transmitter's signal can be received
directly on a home TV receiver. The ARRL band plan for the 70cm band calls for Ch 58
to be used for simplex TV while Ch 60 and Ch 57 are to be used as the input and output
channels for a TV repeater. The use of the other channels for TV is not recommended
due to likely RFI to FM voice repeaters on Ch 61 and weak signal SSB/CW and satellites
on Ch 59. It should be noted that not all regions of the USA adhere to the ARRL band
plan for ATV. Some regions use non standard frequencies. The most common being
426.25 MHz and 434 MHz for analog ATV.
Fig. 6 ATV in the 70cm band
The 70 cm band is by far and away the most popular and most useful of all the amateur
bands for ATV. It has the combination of good propagation characteristics, most
available equipment, reasonable size antennas, etc. All of the higher frequency amateur
bands can also be used for ATV. As one goes higher in frequency, these microwave
bands become more useful for point-to-point TV links, rather than wide-area TV
broadcasting. The next most popular band after 70 cms is the 23 cm band (1240 - 1300
MHz). With 60 MHz available, it could support up to ten, 6 MHz TV channels. In most
areas, it is a fairly quiet band with much fewer users. The main issue for some large
metro areas is the presence of government radars within the 23 cm band. They are
primary there and amateur usage is secondary and we are not allowed to cause RFI to
these radars.
The next bands in terms of usage for ATV are on either side of 23 cm. They are the 33
cm (902-928 MHz) and the 13 cm (2.39 - 2.45 GHz) bands. These bands are
considerably less useful due to the shared usage with unlicensed, part 15 devices. The
2.4 GHz band is especially bad because of it's wide spread use for Wi-Fi. There is also
some ATV activity in the higher microwave bands of 9 cm (3.3 - 3.5 GHz), 5 cm (5.65 -
5.925 GHz) and 3 cm (10 - 10.5 GHz). ARRL band plans exist for all of these various
bands and specific channels have been set aside for ATV use.
Fig. 7 ATV system of reporting Picture Quality
Chapter 5 P5 - TV SIGNAL QUALITY REPORTING

In HF radio we report signal reception using the RST method. R = Readability, S =
Signal Strength and T = Tone (only used for CW). Thus a 5-9 report means perfectly
readable with an S-9 on the S meter. For ATV we use a similar method for reporting the
quality of the received image. We called it the P rating, i.e. Picture rating. Fig. 7
shows examples of various weak analog ATV signals and their respective P rating.
P0 Extremely weak signal. At the threshold of the receiver noise. Can only detect
the presence of possible sync. No useable image.
P1 Very weak signal. Can detect presence of video buried in the noise. Mostly
snow. Receiver often times has difficulty sync locking. Only very large block
letters are barely readable, such as in a camera view of only the call sign on a
stationary, automobile license plate. OK for DX reporting only.
P2 Weak signal. Lot of snow present in image. Black and White only. No audio.
Can detect presence of people in the image and movement. Not a useable picture
for routine, pleasurable viewing. Note: some excellent receivers might show
color with a P2 signal. Then instead of white "snow", you will experience a
shower of colorful confetti !
P3 Moderate signal. Still has snow present in image. Color lock. Audio is present,
but noisy. Acceptable picture for people living in very rural areas watching
broadcast TV.
P4 Strong signal. Very good color and audio. No snow or confetti. Some defects
noted in picture quality. Almost full quieting on the FM audio.
P4.5 Strong signal. Only a very few, minor picture defects. A border line P5.
P5 Very strong signal. Perfect, noise-free, picture and audio.
For VUSB ( or AM ) TV transmissions, to obtain a P5 picture requires an RF signal to

noise ratio of S/N > 40 dB. For each P unit from P0 to P4, there is an increase in signal
strength of 6 dB, i.e. the same definition as used for S units. For FM-TV, the FM quieting
effect kicks in earlier and results in a considerably lower required S/N for good to
excellent pictures.
Fig. 8 P Units vs. RF S/N for VUSB, FM TV & DTV Signals
It should be noted that most modern, flat-screen, TV receivers include a Video Squelch
circuit and never display a totally noisy screen, but instead switch to a blue screen. The
video squelch can not be disabled. Thus you may never see a P0, P1, or P2 image on
these receivers. Older CRT TV receivers and monitors didn't have a video squelch.
For digital, DTV, P units are meaningless. With the "Cliff Effect" in DTV, we either
have a perfect picture, i.e. P5, or no picture at all. At the edge of the digital cliff, we
might see some "Pixelization" (i.e. breaking up of some pixels) before we fall off the
cliff. This could be considered a P4 picture. The width of the digital cliff is about only 1
dB. Thus if you see pixelization occurring, you are right at the threshold and if you drop
one more dB, your picture is lost completely.
Chapter 6 - TV MODULATION MODES

Amateur radio operators are presently using a multitude of various modulation modes for
ATV, both analog and digital, Fig. 9. This is much like what has been occurring on the
HF bands with the various methods used for SSTV and the various text digital modes.
However, to obtain any base of interest in ATV in a particular geographic area, the
selection of one single modulation method is to be encouraged. So if you are interested
in getting started in ATV, it is best to inquire as to what modulation mode(s) are currently
in use in your local area. There is nothing worse than setting up your ATV station and
then having no viewers to exchange pictures with.
Fig. 9 Broadcast TV spectrums -- the future digital TV and the past analog TV.
The biggest base of ATV hams are still using the old analog, NTSC, method, on the
70cm band with AM-TV and to a lesser extent on the 23cm band with FM-TV.
However, like is happening in other parts of amateur radio, there is a movement to
transition over to digital modulations. For digital TV we use the acronym DTV. For
DTV there are several modes to chose from. This section will discuss the pros and cons
of analog modes of AM-TV, VUSB-TV and FM-TV, plus the digital modes of ATSC,
CATV-DTV, DVB-S and DVB-T.
Table II -- Typical TV Receiver Sensitivities

Modulation Minimum Notes Additional
Received Notes
Signal
VUSB-TV -88 dBm P2
VUSB-TV -60 dBm P5
FM-TV -95 dBm P2
FM-TV -84 dBm P5
ATSC -93 dBm
CATV-DTV -80 dBm 64QAM
CATV-DTV -72 dBm 256QAM
DVB-S -95 dBm 6 MHz BW,
DVB-T -95 dBm QPSK 6 MHz, BW, 1080P, 7/8 FEC
DVB-T -90 dBm 16QAM 6 MHz, BW, 1080P, 7/8 FEC
DVB-T -82 dBm 64QAM 6 MHz, BW, 1080P, 7/8 FEC
DVB-T -100 dBm QPSK 6 MHZ BW, 720P, 1/2 FEC
DVB-T -104 dBm QPSK 2 MHz BW, 480i, 1/2 FEC
Unlike commercial broadcast TV, amateurs do not have the luxury of running many tens
of kilowatts of transmitter power from very tall antennas. Most ATV transmitters are
very low power, typically 10 watts or less. A few ATV hams are running 100 watt
transmitters. Thus selecting a modulation mode which can be received with the lowest
power level is important. Table II above lists typical measured receiver sensitivities.
Adding a good, low noise preamplifier to the TV receiver typically enhances these values
by 3 to 5 dB.
FIELD TESTS COMPARING ANALOG vs. DIGITAL TV: Amateurs have run
field tests comparing analog vs. digital TV. The tests were run under identical
conditions using the same rf power levels, antennas, locations, etc. Tests comparing
either analog VUSB-TV or FM-TV vs. digital DVB-T (QPSK) gave these major
conclusions:
1. If you can receive a P2 analog, VUSB-TV picture, then in all likelihood, you will get a
perfect, P5 digital picture. If it is a P3 analog picture, a P5 digital picture is guaranteed.
2. Multi-path ghosting was almost always present in the analog picture. No ghosting in
the digital picture.
3. Mobile operation always resulted in "mobile flutter" on the analog picture, even in
strong signal areas. Mobile reception, even at speeds up to max. legal speed of 75mph,
gave perfect digital pictures.
4. For the same rf bandwidth, with digital TV, higher resolution, 1080P vs. 480i pictures
were possible.
DTV LATENCY: Aside from the fact of All or Nothing with DTV, i.e. perfect
picture or no picture, the other major effect immediately noted is Latency, i.e. Delay.
Due the very large amount of computer number crunching required for DTV, both in the
transmitter and the receiver, all DTV transmissions are not really "live". There is always
a measurable time delay from the original image "snap-shot" until it finally appears on
the TV screen. Delays range from perhaps 1/2 second to several seconds. For relayed
DTV signals, such as through a TV repeater, the delays build up sequentially. For this
reason, the use of DTV is discouraged for safety reasons for applications such as piloting
a remote R/C aircraft or drone.
ANALOG TV MODULATIONS: For analog TV, there are basically

three modes in use. They are AM-TV, VUSB-TV and FM-TV. As discussed earlier in
the Introduction, the NTSC standards were developed in the 1930s and early 40s. At that
point in time, the method used for voice modulation of radio transmitters was AM or
amplitude modulation. Thus, it was natural that AM also be used for their video TV
experiments. The early engineers did however recognize the redundancy in having two
identical sidebands in AM and found they could conserve bandwidth by filtering off a
portion of the lower sideband, hence VUSB-TV. This became etched in stone with the
FCC adoption of the NTSC standard in 1941. It remained in place for the next 68 years
until 2009 when the USA switched over to DTV. Commercial broadcast TV stations
typically used two transmitters. The Visual transmitter was AM modulated and used a
sharp cut-off, band-pass filter to give VUSB-TV. A second, Aural transmitter was used
for audio and it was an FM transmitter with it's frequency set 4.5 MHz above the visual
transmitter. For ATV, AM-TV and VUSB-TV on 70cms can be received directly on any
home TV receiver by tuning to cable channels 57 through 61. Table 32.2 showed that
AM or VUSB-TV was the worst mode in terms of the required signal level at the receiver
for a perfect picture. -60dBm was required. Thus the commercial broadcast TV stations
had to run extremely high powered transmitters from very tall towers to get good pictures
to their viewers.
Fig. 10 Typical amateur AM-TV transmitter's spectrum
AM-TV: Most ATV hams in the past have used a much simpler approach for their TV
transmitters. They first created a 4.5 MHz sound sub-carrier (SSC) with a varactor tuned
oscillator FM modulated by their audio signal. They then mixed this 4.5 MHz SSC with
their composite video signal in a summing operational amplifier circuit. This combined
A/V signal was then used to AM modulate the finals in their transmitter. In the early
days of ATV, grid modulation of the vacuum tube final amplifier was used. With
transistor transmitters, the AM modulation was applied to the collector of the final rf
power transistor. Early ATV transmitters were all crystal controlled. AM-TV
transmitters are very wasteful of spectrum. See Fig. 10. The spectrum from a single
amateur, AM-TV transmitter would cover the entire 30 MHz of the 70cm band. I
recommend that the use of AM-TV transmitters be discontinued, especially on the 70cm
band. We really should be trying to adhere to broadcast TV standards where a maximum
of 6 MHz of spectrum is occupied by their TV signals, especially on our valuable 70cm
band.
Fig. 11 Spectrum from an amateur VUSB-TV transmitter using a CATV modulator

VUSB-TV: It is possible for amateurs to have analog TV transmitters which adhere to
the FCC, 6 MHz bandwidth limits, using VUSB. Simply adding to the output of an AM-
TV transmitter, a 6 MHz wide, band-pass filter with steep skirts will accomplish this.
Unfortunately, there are not many suppliers of such filters and they are expensive, thus
most ATV hams have ignored this solution. Another more recent approach is to use the
analog TV modulators used in the cable TV industry to create a spectrally clean VUSB-
TV signal at the low 1 mW (0dBm) level and then amplify it with an rf linear power
amplifier. Fig. 11 is the spectrum from such a TV transmitter. It's spectrum is much
cleaner compared to the AM-TV transmitter in Fig. 10. These CATV modulators are
available new at relatively low prices in the $100 - $225 price range. They can also be
found on the surplus market at much lower prices.
Fig. 12 Typical amateur FM-TV spectrum 10dB/div & 10MHz/div
FM-TV: Hams are well aware of the advantages of FM over AM modulation. We use
FM almost exclusively on the 2 m and 70 cm bands for our voice radios. The same holds
true for analog TV. FM-TV performs far better than AM-TV (or VUSB-TV). A full
quieting, perfect picture can be received at much lower rf power levels with FM. To
receive a perfect VUSB-TV signal requires a S/N of 40dB and a signal level about
-60dBm. For a perfect FM-TV signal with the FM quieting effect, a S/N of 20dB results
in a perfect picture at a signal level of about -84 dBm. In the broadcast TV industry, in
the analog days, FM-TV was used exclusively for their electronic news gathering and for
their point-to-point microwave links from studio to transmitter, etc. A typical amateur
FM-TV transmitter uses 4 MHz deviation and a SSC in the range of 4.5 to 6.5 MHz.
Fig. 12 shows the typical spectrum of such an FM-TV transmitter. It occupies about 15-
20 MHz of spectrum. As such, the FM-TV spectrum is far too wide for the 70cm band
and we do not use FM-TV on this band. There is room on the 33cm band for only one
FM-TV channel and it is typically at 915 MHz. FM-TV is the dominant mode used for
ATV on the much wider 23cm band and the higher microwave bands. The most
commonly used frequency on the 23 cm band is 1255 MHz.
Fig. 13 Typical spectrum from an amateur DTV transmitter. 10dB/div & 10MHz/div
DIGITAL TV MODULATIONS: For ATV, there are essentially

four modes of digital modulation primarily used. They are CATV-DTV, ATSC (8-
VSB), DVB-S and DVB-T. The first modes usually considered by amateurs for DTV
use are ATSC and CATV-DTV because they can be received directly on a USA home
TV receiver. The most popular, with the best performance however are DVB-S and
DVB-T, using the European broadcast TV standards. Figs. 9 & 13 shows the typical
spectrum of a digital TV signal. The spectrum of all the various DTV modes are similar.
The DTV spectrum looks like white noise riding upon a rectangular pedestal. The white
noise is uniformly spread over the entire TV channel. The "grass" seen on the baseline of
the above Figs. 8-12 is the noise floor of the spectrum analyzer. Tuning in a DTV signal
on a SSB receiver sounds just like white noise, except that the S meter reveals the
presence of additional rf power above the noise floor of the receiver.
CATV-DTV: There are several variations, world-wide, on DTV for cable TV. In
Europe and most of the rest of the world, it is DVB-C. In the USA, it is ITU-T_J.83-
Annex B. The cable environment is extremely friendly for rf transmission. It is a
closed, RFI free environment in which no multi-path exists. The cable companies take
great pains to minimize reflections in their cable (i.e. low VSWR). The signal levels can
also be kept high and well above the noise level. Various modulations from QPSK up to
256-QAM are used with 64-QAM being the most typical. The sole advantage of using
CATV-DTV is the fact that a 70 cm ATV signal can be received directly on your home
TV receiver simply by tuning to cable channels 57-61. As shown in Table II, a stronger
rf signal is required compared to the other DTV modes. Early DTV amateurs did
experiments with CATV, 64-QAM and found it would sometimes work in an over the air
broadcast mode, but not reliably. It did not tolerate any multi-path, which is almost
always present for terrestrial broadcasting. It is NOT recommended for ATV use.
ATSC: In the USA, in 1996, the FCC selected the Advanced Television Systems
Committee’s (ATSC) 8-VSB system for broadcast DTV in USA with a 10 year
transition period from analog to digital. 8-VSB is an eight level digital amplitude
modulation using vestigial upper sideband filtering. There was great controversy over
this choice by the FCC. ATSC eventually was only adopted by the USA, Canada,
Mexico and S. Korea. The rest of the world went with DVB-T which used COFDM
modulation. In 1999 Sinclair Broadcasting challenged the selection of 8-VSB over DVB-
T. Field tests showed the superiority of DVB-T for indoor reception with simple
antennas. The FCC turned down the petition. An FCC report did however find that
COFDM had better performance in both dynamic and high level static multipath
situations and for mobile reception with doppler shift. It is not possible to receive ATSC
8-VSB in a moving vehicle. The future version of ATSC 3.0, which was recently
approved by the FCC, will in fact use COFDM and will not be backwardly compatible
with the original ATSC. The majority of US TV stations recognized the superiority of
COFDM and actually use it for their electronic news gathering and studio to transmitter
links. While USA TV receivers receive ATSC 1.0, they do not tune the amateur 70cm
band and to use them would require a down-converter. Another drawback to ATSC is
the relative high cost to obtain an ATSC modulator. A few USA amateurs have
experimented with ATSC, but most have dropped it in favor of either DVB-S or DVB-T.
DVB-S: DVB-S stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite. It is the DTV
standard for satellite TV broadcasting. It was designed to work in an environment with
very weak signals and line-of-sight paths from the satellite direct to small earth dish
antennas. DVB-S was NOT designed for a multi-path environment. DVB-S uses
MPEG-2 video compression, Forward Error Correction and QPSK modulation. See Fig.
14. QPSK stands for Quadrature Phase Shift Keying. It is related to BPSK-31 which is
commonly used by radio amateurs for digital text communications on the HF band.
BPSK is simple binary phase modulation in which the phase of the transmitted signal is
either 0o or 180o, which is the equivalent of simply turning a sine wave upside down.. For
QPSK, the phase is rotated in 90o increments from 45o to 135o to 225o to 315o. The signal
amplitude always remains the same, much like a CW or FM signal. QPSK is the most
robust form of DTV modulation as it does not require any amplitude changes, much like
FM in this regard.
The earliest amateur DTV work was done in the early 2000 time period and was done by
hams in Europe using DVB-S. Their 70 cm band allocation was smaller than in the US
and the best band for them was the 23 cm band. They started using DVB-S mainly due
to the availability of inexpensive, Free-To-Air (FTA) satellite TV receivers which used
an L-band (i.e. 1 - 2 GHz) IF which worked directly on the 23 cm band. As a result, most
of the DTV activity in Europe is still using DVB-S.
DVB-T: DVB-T stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial. DVB-T was
specifically designed to work in the normal situation of an earth based transmitter
broadcasting to home TV receivers in an environment where multi-path exists. The
terrestrial signal path attenuation can be frequency dependent and can result in a very
distorted received signal. The negative effects of multipath reflections are reduced, by
using a modulation with a low effective bitrate per carrier. To reduce the effective bitrate
per carrier, DVB-T spreads out the bitrate over a large number of carriers. This spreading
out results in either 2,000 or 8,000 closely spaced carriers using COFDM. COFDM
stands for Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. DVB-T also includes
pilot carriers scattered across the channel bandwidth. The receiver measures these
known pilots and uses them to correct for the channel distortion. A "Guard Interval" is
always included within each COFDM symbol. The Guard Interval is used to sychronize
the receiver, i.e. same as sync pulses in NTSC. The Guard Interval can be adjusted from
1/32, 1/16, 1/8 or 1/4. A larger guard inteval implies a lower bit-rate efficiency and is
thus a trade-off between bit-rate and network tolerance to echos and reflections.
Forward Error Correction (FEC) is also included in the data overhead. FEC choices are:
1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6 or 7/8. 1/2 means for every real data bit there is also a FEC bit, i.e.
100% overhead. 7/8 means for every 7 real data bits there will be one FEC bit. The
result is a highly robust system of transmission which corrects for, and eliminates, multi-
path in the image. The "Ghosting" of the old analog TV transmissions is completely
eliminated.
Fig. 14 DVB-T, I-Q Constellation Diagrams for QPSK, 16QAM AND 64QAM (left to
right)
The DVB-T system supports three modulation methods of QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-
QAM. See Fig. 14. 16QAM stands for sixteen state Quadrature Amplitude Modulation.
Each quadrant of the QPSK, I-Q diagram is now divided further into four more sectors,
for a total of 16 sectors. There now are three distinct amplitude levels. Because different
amplitudes represent different logic values, 16QAM is thus more susceptible to
degradation than QPSK, more like AM vs. FM.
A DVB-T receiver will automatically track and accept any of these methods. Table II
shows that the weakest signal performance is achieved using QPSK. For amateur DTV,
we do not have the luxury of having high power transmitters. We usually are running
QRP levels of 10 watts or less. Thus to maximize our chances of success, we should
restrict our DVB-T to QPSK. Higher data bit rates are possible with 16 or 64-QAM, but
very acceptable, live action, high-definition, 1080P pictures are still possible with QPSK.
DVB-T usage for amateur DTV is of much more recent origin than DVB-S. It really
started about 2012 when low cost, modulators became available from the Hi-Des
company in Taiwan ( www.hides.com.tw ) Some USA ATV amateurs were early
adopters and soon demonstrated it's superiority over the other DTV modulation modes.
The original DVB-T system was designed for the standard broadcast TV channels of
either 6, 7 or 8 MHz bandwidth.. Amateurs using the Hi-Des modulators more recently
have been experimenting with much narrower DVB-T bandwidths down to 1 MHz. 6-8
MHz bandwidths support 1080P, high definition video and even several 480i programs
within a single channel. Narrow bandwidths of 1 or 2 MHz and QPSK do not support
high definition, but do support a very high quality, standard definition, 480i DTV signal.
DVB-T with 2 MHz band-width & 16-QAM will support high definition.
If you, or your local club or ARES group, are thinking about getting into ATV, and in
particular DTV, and if there is no other pre-existing ATV activity in your area, then my
recommendation is for you to go with DVB-T as the best performing, most robust system
for terrestrial DTV. Likewise if your group is presently using analog TV and wants to
move up to digital, then go with DVB-T.
IP-TV: All of the previously discussed modes of TV have all been used for
"Broadcasting". There is also another category of TV via RF using IP techniques on
Wi-Fi. These will not be discussed here. There is a distinct difference in the two
approaches. The IP approach is intended for peer-to-peer communications and thus
requires that a two way link be established with "hand-shaking" before a TV signal can
be passed. There must be both a transmitter and receiver at both ends of the mesh path.
For video over a mesh network, a very reliable, almost error free, two way link must be
established. It is not suitable for "broadcasting" a TV signal to cover a wide area and
numerous, perhaps even unknown viewers. IP-TV is more suitable for dedicated point-
to-point links. For Broadcast TV, and ATV as discussed in this handbook, it is more like
HF radio where we throw our signal out into the air and hope someone, somewhere can
hear it. Successful transmission of broadcast TV is one way. Anyone can receive it. A
two way, hand-shake, rf path is not required.
Fig. 15 Set-Top box receivers for DATV & USB dongle TV tuner
Chapter 7 RECEIVERS for ATV

Your Home TV Receiver: For the reception of 70 cm, AM-TV, or VUSB-TV, or
CATV-DTV, we already own a suitable receiver. The TV receivers sold in the USA
include tuners for analog NTSC, digital ATSC 1.0 and CATV-DTV. In the cable TV
mode, (not antenna), the cable channels 57 - 61 cover the amateur directly the amateur 70
cm band. The ATSC tuners, used in the "Antenna" mode, however do not cover the 70
cm band. A separate down-converter to a standard broadcast channel would be required.
Set-Top Boxes: For any of the other TV modes, a separate receiver is required. Your
home TV is then used strictly as the monitor to display the resultant audio and video.
For analog TV, you would use the composite video (yellow RCA plug) and stereo, line
level audio (Red & White RCA plugs). For digital TV, you will use the HDMI cable
connection. The separate ATV receivers function in the same fashion as the set-top
boxes supplied by many cable companies and satellite dish companies. If you are using
DVB-S, then in all likely hood, you are actually using a Free To Air (FTA) satellite
receiver box.
DVB-T set-top boxes designed for the European consumer market are readily available at
low cost on the internet. See Fig. 15. They work with bandwidths of 6, 7 and 8 MHz.
However, most of them will not tune directly to the amateur 70 cm band. One found that
does work is the GT Media V7 Plus, available from Amazon.com. Hi-Des in Taiwan
does make set-top receivers which cover all frequencies from 50 MHz to 2.5 GHz,
including the 2 m, 70 cm, 33 cm, 23 cm and 13 cm bands. and work with bandwidths
from 1 to 8 MHz. A Hi-Des, DVB-T, set-top box receiver is shown as the top unit in
Fig. 15. The last chapter in this handbook includes a list of suppliers of ATV equipment,
including receivers.
COMPUTER TV: Another option for DVB-T as a TV receiver is to purchase a TV

Tuner, USB dongle for your personal computer. See Fig. 15. For DVB-T this is a
really low cost solution as they are available on the internet in the $10-$25 range. Most
of these seem to use the same basic design with an R820T DTV tuner IC and an
RTL2832U DVB-T COFDM demodulator IC with a USB interface. The tuner's
frequency range is specified to be 42 to 1002 MHz with a 3.5 dB noise figure. These
same dongles have been used by amateurs as generic software defined radio (SDR)
receivers for many other RF applications, such as a spectrum analyzer, with appropriate
software. While this is a very inexpensive approach, it is not a simple KISS, turn-key,
solution such as found with the purchase of a set-top box receiver. A PC computer, and
attendant computer skills are required to use this approach. The software typically
supplied with these dongles is a "teaser" which is disabled shortly after installing unless
you purchase it. The general purpose video processing software called VLC
( www.videolan.org ) works great with these USB TV Tuner dongles. VLC is a free and
open source cross-platform multimedia player. However, not all hams have been able to
get it to work on their computer. A lot depends upon your version of Windows and
getting the correct driver. The driver used for SDR-Sharp as a general purpose SDR
radio will not work for DVB-T. This issue was discussed in the BATVC newsletter, Jan.
2021, issue #66. Not all USB DVB-T, TV tuner dongles are equal. Receiver sensitivity
tests were performed on several different brands and the results varied widely with the
best at -93dBm and the worst at -72dBm (tested at 6 MHz BW, QPSK, DVB-T).
For receiving DVB-S, one computer option is the MiniTiouner-Express from Art,
WA8RMC. It is available at DATV-Express.com for $75. It works with a Windows PC
and uses the free software called Mini-Toune from Hean-Pierre, F6DZP. It covers from
144 to 2420 MHz.
Old vs. New Analog TV Receivers: Newer model TV receivers all include a blue
screen, video squelch circuit in their analog receiver. Thus you will never see a weak,
snowy picture, such as the P0, P1 or P2 shown in Fig. 7. If you want to do weak signal,
analog TV work, then it is a good idea to not throw away your old CRT, TV receiver.
Another solution would be to purchase an analog TV demodulator. These were used by
the cable companies at their head ends and by the hotel industry to provide their own in-
house video distribution system. They are identical in appearance to the CATV
modulator shown later in Fig. 18.
SCANNING REQUIRED: Unfortunately, the designers of our modern analog/digital

TV receivers and set-top boxes made the use of these receivers difficult for ATV viewers.
They figured they only needed to do a one time, initial set-up, for your cable or broadcast
viewing the first time you opened the shipping carton. Typically, you will need to
perform an auto scan for the TV receiver to search each and every TV channel to attempt
to locate your friend's ham TV signal. Not a simple process ! If the TV doesn't find it on
it's scan, it will then lock out that channel from it's memory. Most all modern TV
receivers do not allow us the ability of random access from our remote control to any
arbitrary TV channel the way we used to do it with analog NTSC TV.
This means it is a major headache to get a TV receiver initially trained to receive an ATV
signal. If you have your own ATV modulator, you can set it for each channel to be used
and then train your own receiver. If you are just an ATV viewer, it means you typically
will have to take your receiver to another local ATV ham who can train your receiver
from his modulator's signal..
Using a DVB-T, TV Tuner / USB dongle and the program VLC is much easier to tune to
any arbitrary frequency. It is the equivalent of "random access" on old analog TV
receivers. In the VLC program, one simply enters the desired center frequency and
bandwidth of the DVB-T signal.
Chapter 8 ATV TRANSMITTERS

Unlike HF radio, and 2 m / 70 cm FM radio, we do not have big name suppliers like
ICOM, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc. for ATV equipment. Most ATV suppliers are small
"Mom & Pop" operations of dedicated ATV amateurs working from their basements,
often on a part-time, or retirement basis. The last section in this chapter includes a list of
suppliers of ATV equipment, including transmitters.
Fig. 16 VideoLynx, 70cm, AM-TV Transmitters
AM-TV: For many years, most ATV hams purchased their AM-TV transmitters from
P.C. Electronics, Tom O'Hara, W6ORG ( www.hamtv.com ) Tom is now retired and
no longer building nor selling transmitters. However, his old transmitters are still
available on the used equipment market and at ham radio swap fests. Essentially the
only 70 cm, AM-TV transmitter commercially available new today is the VideoLynx
designed by Ravi, KA3NNJ. It formerly was sold by P.C. Electronics and is now sold
by MFJ. There are two models available, frequency synthesized with four channels, and
with rf output power ranging from 50 mW to 5 Watts. The 50mW unit is suitable for use
as a modulator driving a high power amplifier. It is also suitable for use in radio
controlled (R/C) aircraft. MFJ sells the 5 watt transmitter for $240. Caution, the 5 watt
unit absolutely requires that it be mounted upon a suitable heat sink. The standard units
come with the frequencies listed as shown in Fig. 16. Two of these are standard CATV
channels, i.e. 427.25 MHz = Ch 58 and 439.25MHz = Ch 60. The other two are non-
standard. If you also want it to work on channels 57 & 59, you will need to contact MFJ
and request a modification of the firmware.
In 2020, Burt, N7CS, discovered AM-TV

transmitters from China under the brand
HLLY. The model TVX-50 was advertised to
be a 1/2 watt transmitter, but was found with
subsequent testing to only put out 30mW. It
was found to work on the amateur 70cm band.
Fig. 16a -- Chinese AM-TV

MODULATOR + AMPLIFIER: The typical approach used for building most

ATV transmitters is to use a separate Modulator with an rf output power in the milliwatt
range followed by a high power rf amplifier to boost the rf level to many Watts of power.
There are several companies offering suitable RF amplifiers for ATV service. They are
listed in Chp. 13 at the end of this handbook. For AM-TV, the VideoLynx 50 mW unit,
Fig. 15, can be used as the low level modulator.
VUSB-TV Modulators: For VUSB-TV, the

modulators built for the cable TV industry use in their
head-ends are ideal. See Fig. 17. They are small
modulator units designed to be mounted side by side in a
19" rack enclosure. They are frequency synthesized and
cover all of the possible cable channels from 2-125 ( 54 -
806 MHz). They require +12Vdc & +5Vdc. The cost is
typically $225 or $125 for a single frequency unit. They
produce an ideal VUSB-TV spectrum with >50dB
rejection of the out of channel lower sideband. Fig. 17 CATV modulator
A commercially available 70cm, VUSB-TV

transmitter is the model 70-10AD from
KH6HTV Video. It uses a frequency
synthesized CATV modulator along with a
broad-band, linear rf amplifier. It puts out 10
Watts (pep). It requires +12Vdc power. The
price is $1,000.
Fig. 18 Model 70-10AD
Fig. 19 A 70 cm, 6 MHz bandwidth, inter-digital, band-pass filter. Shown with the top
cover removed. S21 frequency response 10dB/div & 5MHz/div
BAND-PASS CHANNEL FILTER: One approach to building a VUSB-TV

transmitter is to start with an AM-TV transmitter and use a 6 MHz, inter-digital, band-
pass filter on it's output. See Fig. 19. Such filters can be purchased commercially, or
built in your own workshop. The list of references includes one on how to design and
build your own BPF.
FM-TV Modulators: With the transition to

DTV, most commercial grade, FM-TV equipment has
disappeared from the market. KH6HTV Video does
still offer them for the 23cm band. The main
exception now are cheap imported transmitter /
receiver pairs intended for the use in the drone, FPV
market and for the wireless distribution of in-house
video, and available on the internet. Note: FPV stands
for "First Person View" meaning it provides the R/C,
drone pilot a live view from the cockpit. These are Fig. 20 5.8GHz, FM-TV gear
available for the part 15, unlicensed 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands. Some are
being marketed also for the 1200 MHz region and being marketed for "Ham" use. The
ARRL and FCC have been clamping down on these because they also transmit illegally
on frequencies outside of the amateur 23cm band. Specifications for these are virtually
non-existent and rf power specs. are typically overly optimistic. Today, the most readily
available equipment is for the 5.8 GHz band. These are found typically on the internet
from Amazon, E-Bay, etc. A complete 5.8 GHz, FM-TV transmitter and receiver pair
can be purchased for an amazingly low price of about $30.
DVB-S Modulators: There are quite a few choices for modulators. For "appliance"
operators, there is professional grade equipment available, but at a high $$ cost. A
goggle search on the internet will turn up a lot of sources. In the amateur ATV
community there has been considerable effort by some dedicated amateurs to develop
lower cost, pc board level modulators which rely upon an external personal computer to
do a lot of the necessary number crunching. A lot of the early DVB-S ATV work in
Europe was done using PC based modulators. The British Amateur Television Club
(BATC) developed several DTV modules and sells them to members via their web site
https://batc.org.uk/ Their DVB-S transmitter is called the "Portsdown". There is
another group of four US/UK hams (WA8RMC, WB6P, W6HCC & G4GUO) that
joined together in 2012 to create a low cost ($300), PC based, DVB-S modulator called
the DATV Express transmitter. (https://www.datv-express.com/ ). More recently other,
lower cost, SDR based pc boards have become available and are being used for DTV
modulators. They include: the Analog Devices ADALM-PLUTS SDR and the Lime-
Micro mini-LimeSDR. Recently, the DATV Express hams turned their attention to
developing the MiniTouner-Express DTV receiver based upon the free software created
by Jean, F6DZP. One disadvantage of using a PC based approach is it is not easily
transported for portable use, such as for ARES deployments in the field. It is more
suitable for home based ATV stations.
Fig. 21 Hi-Des DVB-T modulator (left) & set-top box receiver (right)
DVB-T Modulators: For DVB-T, a low cost, appliance style, KISS, solution
does exist for ATV. The Taiwan company, Hi-Des ( www.hides.com.tw ) offers a line
of affordable modulators and receivers. See Fig. 21. Most of the ATV amateurs in the
USA that are experimenting with DVB-T are using Hi-Des equipment. Hi-Des is
focusing on the digital signage, in-house video distribution, FPV and amateur TV
markets. Their equipment is frequency synthesized and offers continuous coverage from
100 MHz up to 2.5 GHz in some units. This equipment is very simple to operate. The
only controls on it are Up/Down push buttons for channel selection. Far simpler to
operate than your 2 m HT. The modulator does require a minimal amount of initial
setup, mainly to program it with the desired TV channel(s). Other parameters, such as
Forward Error Correction (FEC) can also be adjusted. A windows program called AV-
Sender is supplied for this purpose and connects to the modulator via a USB cable. After
programming, the external PC is no longer required to be connected. A computer is not
required for the receiver. It is programmed using the supplied remote control. Most
DVB-T equipment supports bandwidths of 6, 7 and 8 MHz, i.e. commercial broadcast
standards. In response to requests from ATV hams, Hi-Des equipment supports
narrower bandwidths from 1 to 8 MHz. Hi-Des also offers great customer support via e-
mail. The author highly endorses the Hi-Des equipment.
Fig. 22 A complete 70 cm, 3 Watt, DVB-T Transmitter. It consists of a KH6HTV

Video, model 70-7B linear rf power amplifier, a Hi-Des model HV-320E modulator, and
a Canon camcorder,
RF POWER AMPLIFERS for ATV: The requirements for rf power amplifiers

for ATV depend upon the modulation mode used. However, there is one common
requirement. The amplifier must be rated for 100% duty cycle, continuous service.
While typical amateur voice communications are mostly receiving and intermittent
transmitting, a typical ATV transmission can run for many minutes, to hours in length.
Another common requirement is that it should be broad-band, preferably covering the
entire ham band. With ATV, we tend to move around the whole band with our 6 MHz
wide ATV channels. Tuned amplifiers tend to be too narrow-band for ATV service.
The least stringent requirement is for FM-TV. Here any amplifier can be used. Class C
amplifiers are preferred for most efficiency. The FM amplifier is driven hard to full
saturated output.
For AM-TV, or VUSB-TV, a linear amplifier is required. If the AM-TV operator is not
concerned about chewing up spectrum, they often push their power amplifiers to their
limits. Doing this does cause severe compression of the sync pulses, which is actually
self-defeating as it impairs the receiver's ability to lock onto a weak TV signal. This was
often overcome in the AM-TV modulator stage by adding a sync stretcher circuit to boost
the amplitude of the modulating sync pulses. This technique was used in the older P.C.
Electronics AM-TV transmitters.
Fig. 23 Pout vs. Pin Transfer curve for a linear (left) & non-linear rf amplifier (right)
For all other ATV modes, both analog and digital, very linear amplifiers are required and
they must not pushed to their limits. Driving an amplifier too hard and also the inherent
non-linearity's in the amplifier itself result in creating distortion products which appear
outside of the allocated TV channel. For VUSB-TV, this becomes very evident by the
re-appearance of the lower sideband. It is most noticeable on the 3.58 MHz color and
4.5 MHz sound sub-carriers. An acceptable upper limit for amateur service VUSB-TV is
to keep the lower sideband SSC at least 20dB below the upper sideband SSC. This is
usually found by driving the sync pulse tips up to, but not beyond the -1dB gain
compression point of the amplifier. A good, linear amplifier should have a straight line
on it's Pout vs. Pin plot and then smoothly roll-over at the top as it reaches saturation.
See the above plot in Fig. 22. RF amplifiers are typically rated for power output when
this gain curve compresses by -1dB. The plot on the right shows an rf power amplifier
which the author purchased from an amateur radio manufacturer who claimed it was
suitable for ATV service. It definitely was NOT ! It would only have been useful for
FM-TV service.
In DTV service, the quality of transmission is measured by Modulation Error Rate

(MER). The ideal is to keep the MER better than 40dB. However, MER is very difficult
to measure without sophisticated test instruments. Another indicator of DTV signal
degradation is the presence of out of channel noise skirts. A typical DTV measurement
that can be done by the amateur ATV operator, is the shoulder break point of these skirts
on the rectangular pedestal of the DTV signal. This is typically measured with a
spectrum analyzer. It could also be measured with a SSB receiver and the S meter. See
the previous Fig. 13 for an example. For amateur DTV service, an acceptable
compromise between maximizing the output power, acceptable MER, and minimizing
out of channel spectrum pollution is to increase the rf drive level until the shoulder break
point reaches -30dB. In commercial broadcast DTV, they drive their power amplifiers
to about -28dB but then also add a sharp cut-off, band-pass filter to further suppress the
skirts. Commercial DTV transmitters also use electronic pre-distortion, but the costs for
this are beyond the range of the typical amateur budget. For amateur TV repeater
service, we also will always add such a band-pass, channel filter. See Fig. 19.
For linear amplifiers, we can not use class C. They must be either class A or class A-B.
Thus an ATV amplifier will be much less efficient than a class C amplifier. Earlier
amplifiers used bi-polar transistors. Linear amplifiers for TV service and in particular
DTV service today mainly use MOSFET transistors.
TV transmitters output power ratings are different depending upon the modulation mode
used. For an FM-TV transmitter, it's output is constant and the amplifier is driven to it's
max. saturated output. The FM transmitter is thus rated in terms of average, power.
For an AM-TV, or VUSB-TV transmitter, it's average power output is variable and
depends upon the gray level of the video signal being broadcast. It can vary by several
dB. What is constant for this transmitter is the peak power of the TV sync pulses. Thus
this transmitter is rated in terms of it peak power, i.e. PEP (Peak Envelope Power). This
is the same as the rating on a SSB transmitter. For a DTV transmitter, there is no easily
distinguishable feature, like a sync pulse. It's output is noise like. Being noise like it
has very random peaks and valleys, but it can be characterized by an average power.
Thus DTV transmitters are characterized by their rms average power. Depending upon
the type of modulation being used the peak to rms average ratio might be from 8 to 12dB
or more. Thus to avoid distortion considerable "Head Room" must be provided with a
DTV transmitter. It should never be driven hard to push the average power any where
close to the max. saturated output power limit.
As a typical example showing what can be expected in terms of output power, the
following lists what is possible with the KH6HTV Video, model 70-7B amplifier (see
Fig. 22). This amplifier uses MOSFET transistors. It's max. saturated output power for
CW or FM service is 20 Watts (43dBm). It's -1dB gain compression point is about 10
Watts (40dBm). This is thus the PEP rating for VUSB-TV service. For DVB-T
(QPSK) service, it is rated at 3 Watts, rms average (35dBm). This is at the -30dB
shoulder break point. Thus for DTV service, a minimum headroom of at least 8dB is
required.
Chapter 9 ANTENNAS for ATV
Fig. 24 Typical antennas used for ATV service, a 23cm loop yagi, a 70cm yagi, and a 5
cm parabolic dish antenna. -- insert a base station, omni-directional antenna & a flexible,
"rubber-duck" antenna.
We use the same antennas as we use for other services. There is only
one key criteria for selecting an antenna for ATV service. That is
BANDWIDTH ! Because of the broad spectrum required for ATV,
the antenna's bandwidth must be equally wide and preferably flat
across the entire amateur band to allow flexibility in changing TV
channels. There are quite a few suppliers of amateur band antennas.
Unfortunately, specs. from many of them are vague and usually do
not give any bandwidth information. Buyer Beware ! If the antenna
manufacturer can not give you frequency information on gain and
VSWR, especially vs. frequency, then you will need to rely upon
recommendations from your ATV peers and antenna articles
published in ATV magazines. For the 70cm band, for example,
many of the really high gain yagi antennas were only designed to operate on the weak
signal, SSB & CW, region right around 432 MHz. They had high gain, but narrow
bandwidths. Many vertical, omni, base station antennas were designed specifically for
the upper 10 MHz of the band (440-450 MHz) for use with FM voice repeaters. They
worked well there, but very poorly at the bottom end of the band.
Polarization: To use horizontal or vertical polarization is always a major issue. Using

the wrong polarization immediately results in at least a -20dB penalty. If there is already
an active ATV group in your area, then the obvious choice is to use what they are using.
Most of the weak signal, SSB & CW amateurs at 432 MHz are using horizontal
polarization. Almost all FM voice repeaters are using vertical polarization. This is
because it is far easier to make a vertical antenna for mobile use, hand-held transceivers
and omni-directional repeaters. For ATV, there is not a standard polarization. Some
ATV groups are using vertical while others are using horizontal.
Chapter 10 TV PROPAGATION
One of the first questions prospective ATVers always ask is "How far will my TV signal
go ?" The best answer is "line of sight". Comparing the TV signal vs. an FM or SSB
voice signal, using the same power levels, antennas, etc., the TV signal will not go near
as far as the narrow band voice signal. This is set by the fundamental laws of physics.
The limit is set by the noise floor of the receiver, which is a function of bandwidth. The
thermal noise floor power is given by the equation Pn = k*T*BW, where k is
Boltzmann's constant ( 1.38*10 ), T is absolute temperature ( 290 o K ), and BW (in Hz)
-23
is the bandwidth. The amount of thermal noise power in a 1 Hz bandwidth is thus

-174dBm. For various typical receiver bandwidths, the noise floor power is: -147dBm
(500 Hz, CW), -140 dBm (2.4 kHz, SSB), -132 dBm (15 kHz, FM voice), and -106 dBm
(6 MHz, TV). Any additional noise in the receiver, as measured by it's noise figure will
raise further this noise floor. Thus, for TV we take an extra penalty of more than 20 dB
over the performance of an FM voice signal.
For line of sight, UHF and microwave propagation, there also becomes the question of
"Where is the radio horizon ?" If we lived on a flat earth, the answer would be infinity.
Because we live on a spherical earth ( radius = 6370 km), the curvature of the earth limits
our horizon. It effectively puts a "hump" in the middle of our rf path. The line of sight
horizon is set by pure geometry. Note this may not be your personal optical line of sight
set by the resolution of your eyes, even using binoculars. The distance to the horizon is
set by our observation height (or antenna height) above ground level. It is given by these
equations:
optical distance (miles) ≈ 1.23 * √ height (ft)
The radio horizon is actually a bit further than the geometrical horizon. The refractive
effects of the atmosphere cause a bit of bending in the radio waves and will push them
typically about 15% further..
RF distance (miles) ≈ 1.41 * √ height (ft)
However, these atmospheric effects are totally dependent upon local weather conditions.
In extreme cases, strong ducting might occur sending our RF waves far beyond the
predicted RF horizon, while severe local storms might drop it back dramatically.
A few quick examples are: 5' => 3.2 miles, 30' => 7.7 miles, 100' => 14 miles. Adding
antenna height at the receive site, we add the numbers for the two heights. For example
transmitting from an automobile with an antenna height of 5 ft. to a remote base station
with the antenna on a 30 ft. tower, the radio horizon = 3.2 + 7.7 ≈ 11 miles This
calculation really only works over flat earth, not hilly or rolling terrain. On a large lake
or the ocean, we do have such a flat surface. Obviously either putting up a higher tower
or finding a high hill or mountain top works wonders. But of course, this is not news to
us hams !
So after determining our radio horizon, the next issue to contend with is RF Path Loss.
Path loss is the natural phenomena of radiating a certain amount of power but this power,
again due to spherical geometry, gets spread equally over an ever expanding globe as it
propagates away from the source. Thus the power density in watts/m 2 gets much smaller
the further we get from the source. The formula for free space path loss based upon this
geometry alone is:
Free Space RF Path Loss(dB) = 20 * log10 (f in MHz) + 20 *log10(D in Miles) + 36.6dB
Note in this equation the frequency dependency, For example, going from 70cm to
23cm bands we suffer about a 10 dB hit in path loss. The equation assumes the use of a
1/4 wave antenna. The frequency dependency is because the effective area of a 1/4 wave
antenna is a function of wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the smaller the
effective area to capture an rf wave.
A few quick calculations will give you an appreciation of the importance of path loss.
As an example, for the 70 cm band (430 MHz) we get: 0.1 mile => 69dB, 1 mile =>
89dB, 10 miles => 109dB, etc.
To determine the best case situation for a particular rf path we need to include all of the
major rf components. Calculations are done easiest in dB with power levels expressed in
dBm and antenna gains expressed in dBi. To determine the power input into the distant
receiver, we need to know:
Rcvr Pwr(dBm) = Trans Pwr (dBm) - Trans Cable Loss (dB) + Trans Ant Gain (dBi)
-RF Path Loss (dB) + Rcvr Ant Gain (dBi) - Rcvr Cable Loss (dB)
As an example using this calculator, let's enter the parameters of a typical 70cm ham,
analog TV station:
Transmitter Power = 5 watts (+37dBm) Cable Loss = 1dB each end
Yagi Antenna Gain = 11dBi each end
Desired Receiver Power = -65dBm (40 dB s/n, P5 for analog,VUSB-TV)
The calculator gives the answer of 43 miles for pure, unobstructed, free space, line of
sight path. The theoretical results really only apply for outer space applications. In the
real, terrestrial world, we encounter a lot of other obstacles and we would never achieve
this ideal. In 2011 and again in 2016, several Boulder, Colorado area TV hams have run
TV propagation field trials. Measurements were taken of the actual received signal
strength in dBm. One observation that stood out was "Over very clear, line-of-sight
paths, even with directional antennas, where multi-path was not a major issue, the actual
path loss was typically 5 to 15 dB worse than the calculated, theoretical path loss." For
obstructed paths, even more loss was typically encountered. Thus the likelihood of our
ever experiencing just free space path loss is extremely rare.
The above equations were for ideal, unobstructed, line of sight situations. What can
limit us in the real world ? Lots of things including: ground reflections, vegetation, tall
buildings, urban building clutter, hills, ridge lines, mountains, etc. The absorption by
vegetation, due to water content, goes up with increasing frequency. Getting over
obstructions to our line of sight path involves diffraction which can introduce
considerable extra dB loss. Most of the rest of the losses result from Multi-Path. This is
reflected waves from other objects which arrive at the receive site later in time and can
cause standing wave patterns in the receive signal which at certain frequencies might
totally null out the desired direct path signal. Another perturbing effect can be "Doppler"
shift due to moving objects disturbing the various multi-paths. A pure, free space,
channel is called a "Gaussian". It is very rare in a terrestrial environment. If there is a
direct line-of-sight path, but also multi-path signals arriving at the receive antenna, then
this is called a "Ricean" channel. If there is no direct line-of-sight path, but multi-path
signals arrive at the receive antenna, this is then called a "Rayleigh" channel. Each type
progressively degrades the channel performance and leads to more path loss.
Fig. 25 Typical RF path profile generated by Radio Mobile. ATV repeater to

KH6HTV QTH, 5.3 mile path shown.
RADIO MOBILE: There is an excellent free, on-line, computer program for

calculating rf propagation in the real world. It is called Radio Mobile (
http://www.ve2dbe.com/english1.html ). This program was written and copyrighted by
Rodger Coudé, VE2DBE. The free, on-line version is dedicated to amateur radio use and
as such will only accept input frequencies in the amateur radio bands. The mathematical
model is a mix of the Longley-Rice model, the two rays method, and the land cover path
loss estimation. Radio Mobile first calculates the free space path loss. It then adds
estimates for the excess path loss contributions from: Obstruction Loss, Forest Loss,
Urban Loss, and Statistical Loss (typically always set to about 6.5dB). Radio Mobile uses
topographical information from Google Earth maps. Radio Mobile can calculate point-
to-point rf path profiles and also wide area rf coverage maps. Comparing Radio Mobile's
point-to-point predictions with the results from actual, mobile, field measurements of
ATV signals has shown good agreement. The ATV repeater coverage maps also
correlate well with the field measurements.
Fig. 25 shows a typical rf path calculation from Radio Mobile. For this particular
example, Radio Mobile predicted that the received signal strength would be -50.3dBm.
The actual measured signal strength was -51.5dBm, a difference of only about 1 dB.
Fig. 26 Boulder, Colorado TV repeater coverage map generated by Radio Mobile.
Fig. 26 shows the northern half of the rf coverage area of the Boulder, Colorado, 70cm,
DVB-T repeater, as predicted by Radio Mobile. The yellow shaded areas are the "weak"
signal areas with signal strengths of -90 to -80dBm. The green shaded areas are the
"strong" signal areas with signal strengths > -80dBm. Actual mobile field surveys have
verified this map. A DVB-T, DXpedition was made to the farthest point on the map.
This was on the border between Colorado and Wyoming, near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The distance to the repeater was 77 miles. Successful two way QSOs were held on both
70 cm and 23 cm with DVB-T. The predictions of Radio Mobile were verified.
Chapter 11 TV REPEATERS
Fig. 27 A basic, 70 cm, 10 Watt, DVB-T, Television Repeater
Fig. 28 A 70cm, Digital TV Repeater, Block Diagram
All amateurs are familiar with the use of FM voice repeaters. Practically every amateur
radio club sponsors their own repeater either on the 2 meter or 70cm band. ATV groups
also have TV repeaters. They are on typically the 70cm or 23cm bands and there are
also some TV repeaters on the higher frequency, microwave bands, especially the 3 cm
(10GHz) band. Most of the ATV repeaters are still for analog TV, but some are now
transitioning over to digital TV. See the list of references for a directory of the USA
ATV repeaters.
Most FM voice repeaters are using a single common antenna for receive and transmit. To
accomplish this then requires the use of an expensive duplexer to separate the signals and
isolate the transmitter from the receiver. For TV signals with bandwidths of 6 MHz, the
ratio of transmit/receive separation to bandwidth on 70cm band is only 18 MHz / 6 MHz
= 3:1. It is very difficult to build a duplexer which can provide sufficient isolation for
such a condition. Thus for ATV repeaters, we typically use two separate antennas for
receive and transmit. Isolation is achieved by separation of the antennas. The best
arrangement is for the antennas to be mounted vertically on a common axis. As an
example, for two, 70cm, vertically polarized antennas mounted vertically on the same
common axis, and separated by 10 ft, the isolation is 54 dB. To achieve the same
isolation if they are instead separated horizontally from each other, would require a
separation of at least 100 ft. For cross band repeaters, additional isolation is provided
by the frequency selectivity of the antennas.
A basic ATV repeater usually consists of two antennas, one for receive and the other for
transmit. A pair of very sharp cut-off band-pass, channel filters are required on both the
receiver and transmitter to provide the required isolation to keep the transmitter's signal
out of the receiver. The A/V output from the TV receiver is then fed into the TV
transmitter. There also needs to be circuit to detect the presence of an incoming ATV
signal. The analog TV repeaters used a form of tone squelch for recognizing an incoming
TV signal to key the repeater. Instead of the typical sub-audible tone, they detect the
presence of the 15 kHz horizontal sync pulse.
A basic TV repeater for DVB-T is actually quite easy to assemble. Fig. 28 shows the
basic elements needed. It is far easier to build compared to a typical FM voice repeater,
or an older NTSC, analog, TV repeater. Many of the elements needed for those repeaters
are not needed for the DVB-T repeater. The basic elements required are just the DVB-T
receiver, the DVB-T modulator and an RF linear power amplifier. This is all that suffices
for a cross-band repeater, plus the appropriate antennas. However, if any other features
are added to the repeater, such as multiple receivers, dual-mode, extra video sources, etc.,
then it becomes a very complex engineering project quickly.
If assembling an in-band repeater, then Band-Pass Filters (BPF) are also required on the
input and output. These BPFs need to be wide-band to match the channel bandwidth, in
the usual case, 6 MHz. They also need to be low loss and have very steep skirts. Most
TV repeaters are using inter-digital BPFs. discussed earlier, see Fig. 19.
Notice that the interconnection, in Fig. 28, consists simply of an HDMI cable between the
receiver and modulator, coax cables for the rf circuits and one single logic data wire,
called "Valid Signal", from the receiver to the power amplifier. If this is a local,
manually controlled repeater, simply set up on the fly for an emergency situation, even
this wire is not needed, just the control operator operating the power amplifier's On/Off
switch. For automatic repeater operation, we do need the "Valid Signal" control line.
Most DVB-T receivers include an LED front panel indicator showing when the receiver
is actually receiving a valid DVB-T signal. The LED typically goes from red to green
when a valid signal is received. What we thus need is to get inside of the receiver and
pick off from the circuit board the LED drive signal and buffer it with a simple transistor
circuit to provide an open collector to ground logic output. This is then used to connect
to the Push-to-Talk (PTT) input on the rf linear power amplifier to key on/off the
repeater's transmitter. Bingo at this point, you now have already easily assembled your
own DVB-T television repeater ! ! !
OK, you say, "But what about meeting the FCC's requirement to identify the
transmissions at least every 10 minutes ?." For ATV, the FCC accepts either a visual or
audio ID. From your home station, this can be simply holding up your QSL card in front
of the camera and/or making a voice announcement. For an analog TV repeater the
repeater's call sign is usually superimposed on the video and/or with a Morse code ID
superimposed on the audio. IDing is real SIMPLE with DVB-T ! ! With DVB-T, you
are automatically identifying your signal, not every 10 minutes, but with every frame of
video. Included in the digital data stream is a header of meta-data describing for the
receivers, the modulation parameters used, including the call sign of the transmitter.
Bingo, you have immediately satisfied the FCC's requirement to ID. Recall on today's
TV sets, a simple push of the INFO button on the remote control puts up on the screen a
display of the channel number, station call sign, resolution, and program description.
This is from the meta-data header. However, to be on the safe side with the FCC, most
DTV repeaters also actually switch into the video stream every 10 minutes, a separate
video ID source with the station call letters.
Fig. 29 An ATV live net - on the internet streamed from the BATC.
TV Repeater Streaming: If you would like to see what other ATV groups are
doing, it is now a simple matter to watch their video over the internet. The British
Amateur TV Club (BATC) now offers an internet video streaming service from their
server in the U.K. See Fig. 29. You do not need to be a member of the BATC to watch
the video streaming. Go to their web site at: https://batc.org.uk/ Click on "Streamer".
A/V streaming is available there from members and also member TV repeaters. You
will find video there from ATV hams all around the world, primarily from the U.K. but
also other countries, including the USA.
Chapter 12 - Amateur TV & ARES
Fig. 30 BCARES live video feed on 70 cm ATV from mountain top to Boulder 911-
EOC of slurry bomber fighting the Four Mile Canyon forest fire.
Amateur TV, also called ATV, is an often overlooked communication mode which radio
amateurs can offer in times of emergencies to our public safety agencies. RACES and
ARES groups should strongly consider using ATV in addition to the more traditional
radio services. In Boulder, Colorado, the local ARES group (BCARES) has been
providing ATV for almost 30 years now. It is the most often requested BCARES
service, far exceeding HF, VHF or UHF voice radio or packet radio. BCARES gets
called several times a year by the Sheriff, Police and Fire depts. to provide ATV coverage
of events ranging from forest fires, floods, political demonstrations, protest rallies, riots,
SWAT operations, university football games, campus visits by VIPs, and large (50,000
runners) 10K races.
Fig. 31 BCARES TV camera crews at a University of Colorado football game

using DVB-T, digital TV transmitters, as back-pack, pac-sets. left to right: George,
KA0BSA, Steve, WB0NFQ, Jim, KH6HTV, Ron, K2RAS and William, KD0YYY
Fig. 32 Dave, KI0HG & Mark, KB0LRS, BCARES TV net control in the CU police
chief's command post receiving four simultaneous, TV signals on channels 57-60 (70cm),
from BCARES portable TV cameras/transmitters.
When BCARES initially started in 1991 with ATV, a single TV camera image was
provided. It proved so popular with the police command staff, that they soon asked for
even more cameras. This was first done on a single, 70cm, channel by switching on and
off separate TV transmitters. Soon the police asked to see all the cameras at the same
time. BCARES then drew the line at four cameras as we had run out of available 6 MHz
channels in the popular 70cm band. BCARES used channels 57, 58, 59 and 60. This
was a technical challenge to accomplish on four adjacent channels without co-channel
interference. BCARES was then using AM-TV transmitters with an inter-digital, 6 MHz,
band-pass filter on the output of each transmitter to produce VUSB-TV. BCARES also
used identical channel filters on the inputs to each receiver. Initially, we provided the
images on four separate TV receiver/monitors. However, these took up too much space
in the command post. The next improvement was to build a Quad TV Receiver box.
Four separate, commercial grade, cable TV head-end receivers were used. The
composite video outputs from these CATV receivers were then fed into a quad processor
which combined the four video inputs into a single composite video signal with each
image displayed in one of the four quadrants on a single video monitor screen. When
desired, with the push of a button, a single image could be selected and displayed in full
screen mode. See Fig. 31. This analog system was used successfully for many years by
BCARES. In 2015, BCARES transitioned over completely to DVB-T, including
assembling a new hi-definition, DTV quad receiver. They also added IP streaming
capability to their receiver.
BCARES has it's own ATV equipment which it stores in the Boulder County EOC / 911
dispatch center for immediate 24/7 access. It also has TV receiving stations set up in the
county EOC, police stations and also in police mobile command vehicles. For portable
field operations, it uses a small, ATV transmitter, transported in a back pack, along with a
camcorder, tripod, whip antenna and battery. The whip antennas are mounted along with
the camcorder on the camera tripod. This maximizes their radiation efficiency. The
DVB-T transmitters used are the same as shown in Fig. 21. Using a lithium battery, the
camera and transmitter can be run for many hours at 100% duty cycle. BCARES has
access to an ATV repeater, W0BTV, which covers the eastern, prairie half of the county.
It also has a portable ATV repeater in it's equipment cache for use in the mountainous
western half of the county. BCARES certainly serves as a role model for other
ARES/RACES groups showing what can be accomplished with ATV for public safety.
Chapter 13 ATV SUPPLIERS

The following table lists known suppliers of ATV equipment. It is by no means
complete. Many other suppliers can be found by google searching on the internet. Listing
here does not imply endorsement by KH6HTV. The list is arranged alphabetically.
ATV Supplier web site Country Notes

ATV Research www.atvresearch.com USA distributor of commercial security video eqpt.
CATV modulators & receivers, etc.
British Amateur TV https://batc.org.uk/ U.K. DTV kits -- free streaming service for ATV
Club repeaters
Comet www.cometantenna.com Japan antennas
CQ-DATV https://www.cq-datv.mobi/ U.K. free, on-line ATV magazine
DATV Express www.datv-express.com USA DVB-S receiver & transmitter boards
DCI www.dci.ca Canada RF filters, including ATV BPFs
Diamond www.diamondantenna.net Japan antennas
Directive Systems www.directivesystems.com USA VHF/UHF & microwave antennas
Down East www.downeastmicrowave.com USA rf products from 50MHz to 10GHz,
Microwave amplifiers, preamps, transverters, etc.
DKARS www.kdars.nl Holland ATV & amateur radio magazine
Hi-Des www.hides.com.tw Taiwan low cost DVB-T modulators & receivers
Intuitive Circuits www.icircuits.com USA OSD-ID board, DTMF decoder, analog ATV
repeater controller board
KH6HTV Video www.kh6htv.com USA 70, 33 & 23cm RF power amplifiers, preamps,
up/down converters, VUSB-TV & FM-TV
transmitter & receiver, BPFs, Duplexers -
ATV/DTV application notes
KUHNE Electronics www.kuhne-electronic.de Germany power amplifiers, preamps, converters,
oscillators, transverters
L-Com www.l-com.com USA microwave antennas
MFJ www.mfjenterprises.com USA 70cm, VideoLynx AM-TV transmitters
MiniKits Australia 70cm, AM-TV & 1.2/2.4GHz FM-TV
www.minikits.com.au
transmitter kits, rf amplifier kits
Mirage www.mirageamp.com USA rf power amplifiers
M-Squared www.m2inc.com USA antennas
OE7DBH [email protected] Austria rf power amplifiers
OREI www.orei.com USA HDMI A/V accessories
P.C. Electronics www.hamtv.com USA former supplier of AM-TV transmitters
ATV application notes
PE1RKI www.pe1rki.com Holland high power, microwave amplifiers, pre-amps,
filters & antennas
SR-Systems www.sr-systems.de Germany DTV cards
SuperPass www.superpass.com Canada microwave patch antennas
TV-AMATEUR http://agaf-ev.org/ Germany ATV magazine
W6PQL www.w6pql.com USA high power amplifiers
Plus the on-line resources of AMAZON, E-BAY, Alibaba, Banggood, etc. should be
searched for a lot of misc. ATV parts & accessories.
Chapter 14 -- Other Resources
FREE DVD: I have also prepared a DVD lecture on ATV. It is entitled "Amateur,
High-Definition, Digital TV". This talk was originally presented at the Seattle,
Washington, MicroSoft ham club's annual, Micro-Hams conference in the spring of
2020. The talk covers the same topics in this ATV Hand-Book with many Power-Point
slides. The talk runs for 45 minutes. It is excellant material if you are looking for a
speaker on ATV for your local ham club. For a free copy of this DVD, send an e-mail
to: [email protected]
Free Newsletters: If you want to keep up on the latest happenings in amateur TV

there are a couple of free publications relating to ATV. The first is an on-line, electronic
magazine from the U.K. called CQ-DATV. It comes out monthly. Free copies in several
formats ( pdf, ePub, mobi, and azw3) can be down-loaded from the web site:
https://www.cq-datv.mobi/index.php
The Boulder Amateur TV club also puts out a free ATV newsletter. It is distributed in
.pdf format to over 400 ATV hams via e-mail. It comes out at least every month and
often times more often. Past issues are archived on the web site:
https://kh6htv.com/newsletter/ If you want to be added to the mailing list, send your
request to: [email protected]
I hope I have given you enough information to first whet your interest in getting into
ATV, and hopefully DVB-T, and second to be able to assemble your own amateur, TV
station. If after reading this hand-book and consulting the various application notes cited,
you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached by e-mail
at: [email protected]
73 de Jim, KH6HTV
Chapter 15 REFERENCES
Additional material for subjects covered in this handbook.
Note: The references listed below are all newsletters and Application Notes from
KH6HTV Video. They are available free, to be down-loaded as .pdf files from the web
site: www.kh6htv.com -- click on "Application Notes" on the tool-bar.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
"Introduction to Amateur Digital Television", AN-45, Aug. 2018, 30 pages -- similar to
this handbook, but devoted exclusively to DATV.
Chapter 4 - Amateur TV Bands & Frequencies

"70 cm & Microwave Amateur TV Frequencies", AN-10a, Oct. 2014,, 5 pages
Chapter 6 - TV Modulation Methods

"Why VUSB-TV vs. AM-TV ?", AN-1, Sept. 2011, 3 pages
"Digital TV - the Good, the Bad & the Ugly", AN-2a, Oct. 2014, 6 pages
"Field Trials Comparing VUSB, FM, DVB-S & 64-QAM Television", AN-3a, Oct. 2014,
4 pages
"DVB-T the Solution for Ham Digital Television", AN-17, July, 2014, 8 pages
"Why I Selected DVB-T for Amateur Digital TV", AN-25, Dec. 2015, 5 pages
Chapter 7 - TV Receivers
"Reception of Amateur TV", AN-12a, Oct. 2014, 4 pages
"How to Receive Amateur Digital, DVB-T Television Signals", AN-21d, May, 2018, 8
pages
"Comparison of Hi-Des DVB-T Receivers", AN-57a, Sept. 2020, 6 pages
"Programming for ATV, The GT Media V7+, DVB-T, Receiver", AN-58, Oct. 2020, 5
pages
"USB TV Tuners -- Now Work on Windows 10 !", Boulder Amateur TV Club - TV
Repeater's Repeater (club newsletter), June, 2020, issue #45, pp. 1-3
"DVB-T Receiver Sensitivity Measurements", AN-29, June, 2016, 5 pages
Chapter 8 - TV Transmitters
"HLLY TV Transmitter Review", Boulder Amateur TV Club - TV Repeater's Repeater
(club newsletter), Jan, 2021, issue #66, pp. 5-7
"Notes on Setting Up Hi-Des DVB-T Modulators & Receivers", AN-18c, Oct. 2019, 16
pages
"Evaluation of New Hi-Des, Model HV-320E, DVB-T, Modulator", AN-28a, April,
2016, 14 pages
"Second, Re-Evaluation of Hi-Des, Model HV-320E, DVB-T, Modulator", AN-42, Dec.
2017, 7 pages
"DVB-T Recommended Parameters", AN-39, June, 2017, 9 pages
"Linear Amplifiers - Buyer Beware", AN-8, Sept. 2011, 2 pages
"Amplifier Output Power for Various Modulations", AN-46, Sept. 2018, 13 pages
Chapter 9 - TV Antennas
"Antennas for Ham TV", AN-4, Sept. 2011, 3 pages
"Simple Camera Tripod Antenna Bracket", AN-15, Nov. 2013, 2 pages
"70 cm Antennas for ATV", AN-40, Aug. 2017, 6 pages
Chapter 10 - TV Propagation
"70 cm DTV Propagation Studies", AN-26, Dec. 2015, 6 pages
"TV Propagation", AN-33a, Oct. 2016, 12 pages
"DVB-T DX-pedition", AN-20a, Jan. 2015, 7 pages
Chapter 11 - TV Repeaters
"USA ATV REPEATER DIRECTORY", AN-47, updated periodically 3 pages
"DVB-T Television Repeater", AN-23e, Sept. 2019, 7 pages
"Inter-Digital Band-Pass Filters", AN-22b, July, 2015, 8 pages
"Building a Basic, 70cm, DVB-T, Television Repeater", AN-48, July, 2019, 7 pages
"70cm, DVB-T, Television Repeater with a Duplexer", AN-49, Sept. 2019, 4 pages
"W0BTV - Boulder, Colorado - DATV Repeater", AN-51, Oct. 2019, 11 pages
"W0BTV - Boulder, Colorado, Digital ATV Repeater - Techical Details", AN-53, Oct.
2019, 23 pages
"Evaluation of Hi-Des, Model BR-101EH, DVB-T Repeater", AN-54, Nov. 2019, 10
pages
Chapter 12 - TV in ARES
"Add Television to Your ARES Took Kit", AN-9, Oct. 2011, 5 pages
Chapter 13 - ATV Suppliers

"Shopping Lists for Amateur, DVB-T, Digital TV Equipment", AN-38, April, 2017, 8
pages

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Table I --- TELEVISION TIME LINE

Chapter 2 - BASICS OF TV VIDEO SIGNAL:

Fig. 1 Scanning on a CRT to display a TV image.

Fig. 4 The rf spectrum of an analog NTSC - TV signal.

Fig. 5 Typical TV Camcorder used for ATV

Chapter 3 - TV VIDEO SOURCES

Chapter 4 - AMATEUR TV BANDS

Fig. 6 ATV in the 70cm band

Fig. 7 ATV system of reporting Picture Quality

Chapter 5 P5 - TV SIGNAL QUALITY REPORTING

P5 Very strong signal. Perfect, noise-free, picture and audio.

For VUSB ( or AM ) TV transmissions, to obtain a P5 picture requires an RF signal to

Fig. 8 P Units vs. RF S/N for VUSB, FM TV & DTV Signals

Chapter 6 - TV MODULATION MODES

Table II -- Typical TV Receiver Sensitivities

ANALOG TV MODULATIONS: For analog TV, there are basically

Fig. 10 Typical amateur AM-TV transmitter's spectrum

Fig. 11 Spectrum from an amateur VUSB-TV transmitter using a CATV modulator

Fig. 12 Typical amateur FM-TV spectrum 10dB/div & 10MHz/div

DIGITAL TV MODULATIONS: For ATV, there are essentially

Chapter 7 RECEIVERS for ATV

COMPUTER TV: Another option for DVB-T as a TV receiver is to purchase a TV

SCANNING REQUIRED: Unfortunately, the designers of our modern analog/digital

Chapter 8 ATV TRANSMITTERS

Fig. 16 VideoLynx, 70cm, AM-TV Transmitters

In 2020, Burt, N7CS, discovered AM-TV

Fig. 16a -- Chinese AM-TV

MODULATOR + AMPLIFIER: The typical approach used for building most

VUSB-TV Modulators: For VUSB-TV, the

A commercially available 70cm, VUSB-TV

BAND-PASS CHANNEL FILTER: One approach to building a VUSB-TV

FM-TV Modulators: With the transition to

Fig. 22 A complete 70 cm, 3 Watt, DVB-T Transmitter. It consists of a KH6HTV

RF POWER AMPLIFERS for ATV: The requirements for rf power amplifiers

In DTV service, the quality of transmission is measured by Modulation Error Rate

Chapter 9 ANTENNAS for ATV

Polarization: To use horizontal or vertical polarization is always a major issue. Using

is the bandwidth. The amount of thermal noise power in a 1 Hz bandwidth is thus

Free Space RF Path Loss(dB) = 20 * log10 (f in MHz) + 20 *log10(D in Miles) + 36.6dB

Fig. 25 Typical RF path profile generated by Radio Mobile. ATV repeater to

RADIO MOBILE: There is an excellent free, on-line, computer program for

Fig. 26 Boulder, Colorado TV repeater coverage map generated by Radio Mobile.

Fig. 27 A basic, 70 cm, 10 Watt, DVB-T, Television Repeater

Fig. 28 A 70cm, Digital TV Repeater, Block Diagram

Chapter 12 - Amateur TV & ARES

Fig. 31 BCARES TV camera crews at a University of Colorado football game

Chapter 13 ATV SUPPLIERS

ATV Supplier web site Country Notes

Chapter 14 -- Other Resources

Free Newsletters: If you want to keep up on the latest happenings in amateur TV

Chapter 4 - Amateur TV Bands & Frequencies

Chapter 6 - TV Modulation Methods

Chapter 13 - ATV Suppliers

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