Melbourne's Western and Northern Suburbs Amateur Radio Club (WANSARC) extensively used the D-ATV repeater VK3RTV on Mt Dandenong on each of its recent three day roster slot for the WIA special callsign VK100WIA.
At the portable end was avid ATVer Mick Ampt VK3CH who transmitted from the Pentland Hills west of Melbourne, the Diamond Valley Market Latrobe University in Bundoora, and at Mount Cooper, Bundoora, the highest point in metropolitan Melbourne.
While Mike was playing digital television other club members were making many contacts on HF, VHF, UHF and D-STAR.
WANSARC is a medium sized but very enthusiastic club with eight or so of its members actively getting behind the WIA's centenary, and further exposing amateur radio to the public.
VK3RTV was digitised last year through major funding from Amateur Radio Victoria, plus $1,000 from the WIA Clubs Grants Program.
In its application for the grant, Amateur Radio Victoria promised that the WIA Centenary would be promoted through VK3RTV.
Already it has televised the live broadcast which occurred in Canberra, and now through the excellent efforts of WANSARC and its transmissions. More will be televised before years end.
David Park VK3JDA who watched the happenings on air, has put up highlights vision and sound on YouTube. The latest from Mount Cooper
The latest on the VK3RTV repeater on Mt Dandenong which services the Melbourne and Geelong areas is that stereo sound is now available for both its digital and analogue inputs.
Peter Cossins VK3BFG advises that for analogue the sub-carrier frequencies at 6 and 6.5 MHz, and operators need to activate it by DTMF code Star Zero Three Hash (* 0 3 #).
About seven stations transmitting digital DVB-S uplink also have the capability to transmit stereo sound.
New 23 cm antenna arrays are yet to be completed and the system is currently running VK3RTV-1 on a temporary antenna.
Peter VK3BFG also advises that experiments are being made with Internet streaming via the British Amateur TV Club.
The VK3RTV repeater digitisation has been primarily funded by Amateur Radio Victoria with $1,000 also provided by the WIA Club Grants Program.
The digitisation of the Melbourne amateur television repeater VK3RTV is continuing to attract international attention with the latest being an article in the Techtalk Bulletin of the Orange County Rad
The digital amateur television VK3RTV on Mt Dandenong east of Melbourne is now operational with inputs on 1250MHz analogue, 10.41GHz analogue and now 1276MHz DVB-S.
A video production of the recent contact by Melbourne's Sherbrooke Community College with the International Space Station is to played on the VK3RTV Digital Amateur TV repeater VK3RTV this Wednesday (
The digitisation of one of the world’s longest running fast-scan amateur television repeaters, VK3RTV on Mt Dandenong east of Melbourne is now fully implemented.
A digital uplink test has been held at the Mt Dandenong site of the ATV repeater VK3RTV with four stations participating – VK3GMZ, VK3KHB, VK3TRX and VK3CH.
With the second test of the digital amateur television from the VK3RTV repeater at Mt Dandenong east of Melbourne again providing to be highly successful, no more tests are planned.
ATV
