Transmit incident scenes back to the EOC in live full motion color video and sound. ATV lets ICS supervisors more quickly and efficiently assess the situation and allocate resources. Shown is inside the San Bernardino County CA EOC watching a fire on the reverse slope of a mountain via ATV. - Scroll down

        To see your first picture it may be as easy as tuning your TV to cable channel 57 thru 60 and connecting it to a good outside 70 cm antenna of the same polarity as is used in your area by ATVers. Later, for best DX, get one of our TVC-4S downconverters. We suggest the OAL 5L-70cm beam, but check out the low cost homebrew antennas - It doesn't get any cheaper or easier than that to enjoy another of the many modes in Amateur Radio. Digital TV's tune directly but make sure your old pre-digital TV tuner is switched to analog cable channels when you try it - analog cable channels are on different frequencies than the old over the air analog UHF TV channels. Unlike slow scan TV (SSTV) or satellite digital TV, ATV standards are the same as analog cable TV and your camcorder so your TV set is your receiver without the need of any computer or other black box interface.

        Analog cable channel 57 is 421.25 MHz, the most common inband ATV repeater output, and 60 is 439.25 MHz, the highest frequency used in the band generally for repeater input and simplex DX. Analog cable TV channels, spaced in 6 MHz increments, are amplitude modulated (AM) video with a 4.5 MHz FM sound subcarrier. The automatic frequency control, AFC, in the TV set can usually lock up to within +/- 2 MHz of the video channel carrier frequency. So all the commonly used 70 cm ATV frequencies (421.25, 426.25, 427.25, 434.0 and 439.25 MHz) can be locked onto and seen with most TV's equiped with analog cable tuners. Even new digital TV's are required to have analog cable tuners Per FCC Rule 15.118(b), so don't trash your old TV's, use them for ATV. Also we have plenty of analog Rch3 channel 3 to A/V receivers available. Note that analog cable channels are on different frequencies from the old over the air analog channel 14 and up - analog UHF over the air channel 14 is 471.25 MHz and 57 is 729.25 MHz, well above the 70 cm ham band. Digital ATV is still a ways off due to the high cost and complexity of transmitting equipment. Also there are a few seconds of delay to get used to when talking back on two meters with US standard ATSC Digital TV and the picture freezes when mobile. So analog ATV will be around for a while.

        Any code free Technician class licensee can get on ATV. ATV frequencies work best with an unobstructed line of sight path between the transmitting and receiving antennas. So the antenna and height is the most important part of the ATV station. Antennas need to be made for the 70 cm band, preferably as high of gain as possible and the same polarity as is standard in your area. Low loss 50 Ohm coax like Belden 9913 or LMR400 with N connectors are also a must as it takes 150 to 200 microvolts into your receiver for a snow free picture and you don't want to throw RF away unnecessarily.

TVC-4S ATV Down Converter tunes the 5 standard ATV frequencies - 421.25, 426.25, 427.25, 434.0 and 439.25 MHz - in the 420-450 MHz ham band down to TV channel 3 or 4 if you just want to try receiving but be right on frequency with more sensitivity than a cable TV set. The TVC-4S contains a low noise HJ-FET preamp and GaAsfet mixer. The TVC-4S down converter connects between your 70cm antenna and TV set. Comes with 115 Vac wall plug power supply, or you can run from external 11 to 15 Vdc at 100 ma. Type N 70cm 50 Ohm antenna jack and type F 75 Ohm output to TV.....$149

       After you see your first picture, you may want to improve your reception for DX or get less snow with one of our downconverters and high gain beams - see our catalogue page 3. Then to transmit, we currently have the TX70-5s ready to go transmitter as shown left and the Videolynx VM-70X adjustable 0-5 Watt pep 70cm 4 channel ATV Transmitter module. This module is ready to go by soldering A/V cables to the module solder pads, wires to the 11 to 13.8 Vdc input solder pads, and connecting the antenna coax. As an alternative, download our app note to see how easy it is to package the module in a Hammond 1590D diecast aluminum box with the TR-1b T/R and DC power relay board pictured on the left. If you want higher power, you can add the Downeast 7025PA or Mirage D26N, D100N-ATV, D1010N-ATV linear amp for 40 - 70 Watts pep. We also offer the 50-100 mW videolynx modules for those who want to use them for portable, R/C, rockets or balloon ATV - see catalogue page 5. With the TX70-5s or VM-70X ATV transmitter plus 7025PA or D26N amplifier, 14 dB of gain from DSFO ATV-25 beam antennas and coax loss at both ends you can send and receive snow free video over 100 miles if line-of-sight between the antennas. However, getting line of sight is the trick or waiting for temperature inversion skip. Non-line-of-sight is not predictable and just has to be tried. How well you do on 2 meter simplex is a good indication that you have an ATV path if the signal is strong - See ATV DX Records.

        There are many small low cost color or black and white cameras available now that are made for computers or security under $200 that can be used at the home station, mobile, portable, R/C, balloon or rocket ATV. We stock the CC36icr (left) high resolution color camera for $199 primarily for home use and the CG35A color camera for $89 and is ideal for R/C, hat cams or even the shack.The SLDVR camera has a built-in Digital Video Recorder which is great for recording a scene at a public service event or for emergency communications when you are in a building or location without a good RF path. You can play it later from a better RF path location as well as have a record.

        Identifying your call letters is the same as any other mode in Amateur Radio - every 10 minutes during long transmissions and at the end of every transmission. With ATV, You can simply speak your call on the sound subcarrier or the easiest is to make a sign with your call letters on it that can be plainly seen on the wall behind you in the shack. If you want to get fancy, insert in the video cable between the camera and transmitter one of the OSD video overlay boards with your call. You can even overlay GPS data - latitude longitude, heading, speed, altitude and time - along with with your call letters as shown in this R/C aircraft ATV photo below right.