EMA Video
1306 NW Hoyt St. Suite 101
Portland
at
7 PM
or
6:30 PM for Pizza FEED Dutch Treat
(Please RSVP so we can know
how much pizza to get)
For those wanting to partake in the Pizza FEED dutch treat, bring your own beverage, and come visit with the rest of us before the 7pm meeting.
We will discuss the various solutions to linking the Salem repeater to Portland. Ed will also talk about why there are inconsistencies in color and picture quality coming from the repeater..
If you have not paid your dues its not to late. Since it is now about halfway through the year, you need only pay one half of the yearly dues.
Normally dues are paid by members in the month of January ($30 / 1 year, $55 / 2 years). So if you can help, it would be much appreciated. We need your support so we can improve not only the coverage area of the repeater, but also improve the quality and features of the repeaters. Send your check to: Oregon Amateur Television Association 3210 SW Dosch Rd. Portland, Oregon 97201
WA7DRO, WB2QHS, and WB7DZG went down to Salem for that group's meeting in March to take part in a discussion about linking the Portland and Salem ATV repeaters. Out of that discussion, we decided to try out a link on 2400MHz (FM) from Salem to Portland. Salem will monitor the output of the Portland Repeater. A special controller now under evaluation by WB7DZG and others will keep "feed" back loops from keeping the system keyed up all the time and give priority to a local repeater's input frequency. ATV being different from Audio, can not be mixed like audio can be such as found in voice only intertie systems.
We had a good time and also met many of the ATVers in the Salem area. Discussion about how to keep ATV signals from strong stations from getting into both repeaters produced some ideas about pointing our 426 transmit antennas in the right direction to keep this from happening.
The OATVA meets every Saturday morning at 11 am and every Monday evening at 7pm. This is an open net in which members and anybody who is interested may join in. We run the ATV repeater and use 146.43 simplex as voice. If its been a while since you have checked in you should drop by!
Over the last year a lot has changed and many new faces have joined us. The net usually runs about an hour in length. These are the two formal times we meet. But, they are not the only. During the week you can run into many ATVers on the air.
Many of you know about the Observatory out at Vernonia Oregon, northwest of Portland, run by the Northwest Astronomy Group. It is located on K7OOZ's (Sandy) property. It's about 40 or so miles from the Beaverton area. Sandy has agreed to work with us in doing a test to see if by some means we can get a signal from the Observatory into the Portland repeater.
Because of the location, it is believed that a link will have to be used, because there is no direct path to the Portland repeater. We think that a combination of 426, 900, or 1.2 frequencies could be used to get the very much desired pictures.
We want to begin discussions of how we could perform some initial tests. It would require some equipment and the aid of several avid and not so avid ATVer's.
This subject will be one of the on going discussions on the air and at the ATV meetings. Thus, you can be a part of this at the May meeting.
Well after a stint on the ORRC board and a little rest I once again find myself President of the Oregon Amateur Television Association.. Last time I held that office our goal was to get the repeater up on the KGON Tower.
Now we have a new goal. It includes making several improvements to the repeater as well as linking Salem to the Portland machine. Much of this means the need for money , so fundraising jumps in as well. Well membership has doubled and Salems group is growing like wild fire so it looks like ATV in OREGON has a great future.
If everyone pitches in we will accomplish our goals....meanwhile ATV activity has exploded. ATV now happens almost every nite and all weekend long. If you don't believe me monitor 146.43 the audio coordination frequency and what ends up being half the duplex conversation. What is so exciting is that we have a great group. enthusiastic, creative,,,,and thoughtful. I will look forward to watching this year unfold.
Did you know about the 145.27 repeater in the Beaverton Area? It is the Portland Access to the Evergreen Intertie, a system of about 22 repeaters (about half on 2 meters, the other on 440). It covers the greater Pacific Northwest, including all of Washington, Northwest Oregon, parts of Idaho, and Montana.
You can use it to connect yourself back home when you are on a trip, or chat with a friend in another city across the state. You can get the user's information sheets by sending a Number 10 (Business sized) SASE (2 Stamps a must) and a copy of your license to:
There's lots of nets, in particular, the Saturday Morning Swap Net starts at 9am. It ends at 11am, just in time for the 11am ATV net. Sunday evening, K7OOZ from out in Vernonia hosts the Northwest Astronomy Group's Net at 10pm every week. It's very educational and great for the kids too!
Wouldn't it be great to get ATV pictures to and from Seattle and beyond?
Called to order at 7pm at President Mike WM7L's home on February 20th,1996, and elections followed.
President: Ed Mellnik, WB2QHS
VP Mike Darneille, WM7L
Secretary Frank Hoffman, WB7DZG
Treasure Ron Polluconi, KJ7IY
Rickreall report : by Mike, WM7L: We made some money, and had lots of good questions. Those who assisted at the booth were: KG7KH, WA7DRO, N7NTV, WM7L, and you in we forgot about you. Donated equipment came from N7NTV, WB7QHS, and W7AMQ. Ed, WB2QHS, had display of a Tape on the VCR.
Next Year, Ed wants to save more equipment for Rickreall and get donations of equip from outside the membership. We'd also like to sell stuff at Portland Hamfest or the Vancouver Hamfest.
Ed, WB2QHS, passed the newsletter baton to Frank, WB7DZG.
Puyallup, WA, the Mike and Key Club Hamfest was March 9th Saturday.
New modes: compression comments about the this mode of something within the 500KHz bandwidth, said Brit, N7JCF, says within 3 years or so. This is pretty neat stuff.
The ATV FM mode was discussed, but, still not much immediate interest, at least until the repeater has FM capability.
Jeff, KG7KH disussed slow scan TV, what can we offer, SSTV on 2m 146.43MHz, and possibly more SSTV articles in the newsletter.
Repeater stuff: We discussed the Salem to Portland Link. Portland would have a 2400 receiver, Salem might have a 2400 Transmiter.
We also had some discussion about the required link controller for the Salem/Portland ATV linking system, possibly using other sites. We also considered a temporary link so we could actually see the Salem repeater. We decided to do some site testing.
Net control: still Mike with club officers as backup net controllers
W7AMQ has been seen sending many of 15000 plus photograph collection! And those video's of his and his wife's vacation travels have taken us across the Western States!
WB2QHS has been peeking in from two sites! The new one is from his link repeater on Cooper Mountain using 900MHz. His pictures are much better now!!! He's also been sending pictures from the Salem repeater as received at his home on the Salem 1253MHz repeater! Hummmm!
WB7VWK was out doing ATV mobil on May 11th! from the West hills and had many P5 signals from many recognizable places. He even stopped by N7NLL's place had a long chat before traveling home in Aloha with the camera running live as we watched P1 to P5 signals from 10W PEP into an omnidirectional colinear double 5/8th wave antenna on 426MHz!
WB7DZG has been seen sending pictures from the B&W CCD camera mounted on a microscope! Not only that, but, pictures off the internet web pages from other ATV groups across the country have made it via Frank's laptop computer. And that digital ocilloscope ability to remember the video signal of the last ATVer that transmitted through the repeater is simply amazing. And those pictures of schematics and circuit board layout's.....Wow!
And some new ATVers: KB7ULT Dusty in North Portland, AA7FG Pat in Aloha.
Some new viewers are known to be watching us: KB7WUK near Rocky Butte, KE7CR in Sandy.
I've been doing amateur television for about 5 years. Let me tell you about my station. My basic ATV set up is as follows: on 430 I run an AEA FSTV 430A Fast Scan TV Transceiver into a Mirage D26 amplifier for about 15 watts of output power. My antenna at 430 is homebrew. Its a 15 element vertically polarized yagi connected through about 50 feet of 9913 coax with N connectors. The antenna is mounted on top of my roof on a Radio Shack tripod for a total height of about 25 feet. On 1277, to receive the Oregon Amateur Television Association repeater downlink, I'm using the PC Electronics TVC12G ATV downconverter. This converts the 1277 signal to output video and audio onto TV channel 7. I use a Downeast Microwave 24 element loop yagi cut for the 1270 band connected again with about 50 feet of 9913 coax and N connectors. I'm also able to see my transmitted signal from the AEA 430A on TV channel 3. I'm also able to constantly monitor both the input, 440, and the output, 1277, via two different monitors, or TVs, in my shack.
This year I've upgraded my ablity to add inputs to my transmitted signal in several ways. Like many others, I started in ATV with just my camcorder as a signal source. This allows me to send live shots of the shack, as well as any video I've taken on 8mm cassette with the camera. I've also added a second older camera this year and a switching station for different video and audio inputs. Four different sources of video/audio in and one output source for the ATV transceiver. I've also added a VGA to NTSC video TV/Scan converter from AITech, which allows me to use my computer as a direct source for ATV. This prevents the rolling and distortion some times associated with pointing a camera at a computer screen. I've been able to build all kinds of station ID pictures on my computer which I think has added some variety to my transmitted signal. I can also input regular VHS video from my VHS recorder through my audio/video switcher. Hopefully this quick overview will give you some ideas as to what's happening at my ATV station.
OATVA sponsors an annual contest for ATV Contacts - The ATV Round Up.
For the past few years repeater contacts have been allowed but given only half a point. This year we might dissallow repeater contacts and just make it a simplex test. Mobile and Portable OK but sting in one location. Contacts over 50 miles get two points. These rules are just suggestions and will be discussed at the next meeting. The date has not been set yet but will be in September.
Alltronics has for a limited time a 17 db linear amp that is perfect for åmplifing a 900 mhz rabbit 2 milliwatts to something like 10 to 50 millawatts. this is a great intermediate stage from rabbit to a higher power amp. The little amp is only 14.95. Contact WB2 QHS for more info.
For Sale Amiga 2000 plus AEA Slow scan converter and a genlock board for fast scan TV. $450 WB2QHS 241-8663 days.
For Sale: Antenna: 70cm FM Yagi, Ruthland
FO-11. (11dbi) gain. Boom length 6 feet. Price $35. Contact AA7FG, Pat
at 591-1027.
For Sale: CAT System Interface, Model FIF-232C, for Yaesu FT-736R. This is for computer aided tuning applications. Price $40. Contact KB7ULT, Dusty at 240-0914 or email: dustman@pacifier.com.