Posted: 3/1/2009 6:47:46 AM EDT
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A long time ago, when they first came out, I bought a set of Kenwood Visual communicators. I just found them while rummaging around..still brand new. I forgot that I had them. Is there a use for these anymore? Honestly, I've never worked SSTV, nor can I think of anything to do with them. |
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Quoted:
would be neat for field day to play around with. I wonder if they could be adapted for HF? ETA––remote security cam? send pics on a timed interval? SSTV not too fast though. I need to play with them some more, but I believe you can change the baud settings so that it would work with HF. |
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I think they do send a standard signal. Richard Garriott took one to the International Space Station with him. I partially decoded one of his transmissions with my IC-7000 on 2 meters and DM780 software. They work seamlessly with the TM-D700A radio, which is what I have in my truck, but I'm not sure how they might interface with other radios. Probably not hard to do with the right cable.
There is some interest in SSTV over FM among my fellow emergency management types around here, but I think these units sell for a couple hundred bucks when they come up on the market. That's more than I could sweet talk Mrs. BlammO into, but I do make a wonderful foster parent for wayward hardware. 
It's a really neat idea. I don't know why they didn't take off in the marketplace. Maybe because of a small potential audience. |
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Quoted:
I think they do send a standard signal. Richard Garriott took one to the International Space Station with him. I partially decoded one of his transmissions with my IC-7000 on 2 meters and DM780 software. They work seamlessly with the TM-D700A radio, which is what I have in my truck, but I'm not sure how they might interface with other radios. Probably not hard to do with the right cable. There is some interest in SSTV over FM among my fellow emergency management types around here, but I think these units sell for a couple hundred bucks when they come up on the market. That's more than I could sweet talk Mrs. BlammO into, but I do make a wonderful foster parent for wayward hardware.
It's a really neat idea. I don't know why they didn't take off in the marketplace. Maybe because of a small potential audience. I was reading the manual. It says that there are two transmit modes. It uses either Fast FM or Robot 36. It will receive Robot(color) 72, Robot (color) 36, AVT 90, AVT 94, Scottie S1, Scottie S2, Martin M1, Martin M2 and Fast FM. Hmm, how prevalent is SSTV on the lower bands? I tried ATV (440) and have yet to receive a single transmission. I'm still thinking about buying an ATV transmitter to mount to one of my model helicopters one of these days, so, don't think my downconverter will go to waste yet. EDIT: Also, I was thinking about a conversation I had with a fellow ham and aviation enthusiast. One of his friends is Able Airborne. I can't remember which news company he works for in the Cleveand area(maybe fox), but he has an ATV transmitter/camera mounted to the bottom of his news chopper. So, if you're in the Cleveland area, you might have an opportunity to use ATV equipment. |
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SSTV is alive and well on 20m, 14.230 is a good freq to start sending CQ's. I don't think SSTV did well on VHF/UHF because it is too slow and there is enough bandwidth up there for "fast scan" T.V. (aka:ATV).
It's still fun to play and you'll find a good use for them. |