Tag Archives: BATC

Feb 27 2019

Digital ATV co-ordination on Es’hail-2

Narrowband DATV image (150 kHz bandwidth) via QO-100 Noel G8GTZ Feb 14, 2019 at 0950 GMT

Narrowband DATV (150 kHz bandwidth) via QO-100 sent by Noel G8GTZ Feb 14, 2019 at 0950 GMT

AMSAT-DL has agreed to a proposal by the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) for the use of the bottom 100 kHz of the wideband transponder (10491 – 10491.1 MHz) for ATV co-ordination purposes.

The announcement on the BATC Forum says:

This is on an experimental only basis and stations must keep their power levels to a minimum and certainly not exceed power levels greater than 15dB above the noise floor as shown on the Goonhilly spectrum monitor.

This is sanctioned on an experimental only basis and AMSAT-DL reserve the right to move the WB beacon towards the band edge or implement DVB-S with a wider rolloff which would render the frequencies unsuitable for this purpose.

So another challenge but should be manageable and prove a useful facility although we do see the chat being the major tool for reports and contacts.

73 Noel G8GTZ

BATC Forum Announcement https://forum.batc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=5923

Es’hail-2 WebSDR https://eshail.batc.org.uk/

Es’hail-2 Wideband amateur radio transponder operating guidelines
https://amsat-dl.org/en/p4-a-wb-transponder-bandplan-and-operating-guidelines

Es’hail-2 amateur radio information
https://amsat-dl.org/en/eshail-2-amsat-phase-4-a

See the Satellite Forum for additional information https://forum.amsat-dl.org/

Jan 18 2017

AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2008-2012 Videos

Steve Hartley G0FUW presents the Louis Varney Cup to Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG - Credit Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

Steve Hartley G0FUW presents the Louis Varney Cup to Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG 2016 – Credit Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG has retrieved videos of talks given at AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2008-2012 and made them available on YouTube.

The videos were made by members of the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) and stored on the club’s streaming site. Dedicated BATC members have carried out the world-wide streaming and recording of the  AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium since 2007.

Due to lack of source information the descriptions and titles of the videos are not as informative as they should be. Have a search through them and share links with others on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch the videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/AMSATUK/playlists

Colloquium schedules giving speakers names and presentation titles for 2009-2012 are available on the bottom of this page https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/

Sep 1 2016

Amateur Satellites at BATC Convention Sept 24-25

BATC Logo SmallCAT 16, the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) Convention at Cosford in Shropshire Sat/Sun Sept 24/25 will be streamed live.

The talks program and agenda for the weekend has now been published and amateur space communications feature in the schedule, highlights include:

• Es’hailSat-2: Geostationary transponder for DATV – Graham G3VZV
• Receiving and Presenting HamTV from the ISS – Noel G8GTZ
• New BATC Streamer and Internet Presence – Phil M0DNY
• DATV Express and Future Developments – Charles G4GUO
• 146 MHz Reduced Bandwidth TV: A Practical Operators Guide – Shaun G8VPG
• MinitiounePro and Developments – Jean-Pierre F6DZP

The full program is at http://www.batc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=4569

BATC CAT16 live streaming starts 1300 BST Saturday https://beta.batc.tv/live/cat16

Please also remember that the BATC Biennial General Meeting is at 1:30 pm on the Sunday.  The Agenda is at http://www.batc.org.uk/GM2016agenda.pdf

All this in a venue with many other interesting exhibits.
See more at http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/
A guided tour will be available for those who have pre-booked.

Please register your intention to attend (and request a guided tour) using the BATC Shop (no charge at this stage, but £10/day on arrival).  Click here https://batc.org.uk/shop/cat16 and select cash payment of £0.00.

Lastly, we are  pleased to announce that Graham Shirville, G3VZV, has been chosen as the next President of the British Amateur Television Club (BATC).  He succeeds Peter Blakeborough, G3PYB, who died last December.  The appointment is for two years.

Looking forward to seeing you all at CAT16.

73 The BATC Team http://www.batc.tv/

The book – Getting Started with Amateur Satellites – is now available from the AMSAT-UK shop at http://shop.amsat-uk.org/

Nov 12 2015

HamTV on the ISS – Goonhilly update

While at Goonhilly Graham Shirville G3VZV received ISS HamTV on 2395 MHz with a 60cm dish

While at Goonhilly Graham Shirville G3VZV received ISS HamTV on 2395 MHz with a 60cm dish

Noel Matthews G8GTZ of the BATC provides an update on the amateur radio ground station at Goonhilly which will receive video from the ISS during the mission of Tim Peake KG5BVI.

Some of you may remember the presentation Graham Shirville G3VZV, gave at CAT15 subtitled “Tim Peake on a TV near you”.

Some of you may have also noticed a new station on the Tutioune map located at Goonhilly in Cornwall.

HamTV dish antenna at Goonhilly - Credit Frank Heritage M0AEU

HamTV dish antenna at Goonhilly – Credit Frank Heritage M0AEU

This station is using a 3.8 m dish is being loaned to the ARISS project by Satellite Catapult, and will be used to track the ISS and provide real time video during the schools contacts scheduled for early next year. This dish is almost in the shadow of the 29 metre dish built in 1962 to receive the first transatlantic television signals from the Telstar-1 spacecraft.

At the beginning of  November, we (G8GTZ, M0AEU and G3VZV) installed a PC with mini-tutioune software and a DB6NT downconverter to receive the ISS on the dish – It was no surprise that during the tests, we received video for 8.5 minute during one pass and had an MER of 30 dB 🙂

Currently the dish is not tracking the ISS but will be doing so in the near future and will be dedicated to this task for the next 6 months 🙂 In the mean time, the dish is pointing up at 90 degrees (zenith) but the receiver is connected and we received 25 seconds of blank video (visible on the TT monitor page) this morning when the ISS flew over the top of the dish!

There will be a full article on the ARISS Tim Peake project in the next CQ-TV along with pictures of the Goonhilly site.

Whilst we were at Goonhilly last week, Graham could not resist seeing if it was possible to receive the HamTV signal using only a handheld 60cms dish and the Tutioune software – much to the team’s surprise Graham was successful and this was the first reception of the ISS at Goonhilly as the equipment had was yet to be installed on the ground station dish!

Watch CAT15 HamTV on the ISS by Graham Shirville G3VZV

Local and Goonhilly Dishcams with map showing position of ISS at https://principia.ariss.org/dashboard/

Tutioune map
http://www.vivadatv.org/tutioune.php?what=map&sid=26af759a4ad0cf89cb0f0e59c1cd46c2

HamTV https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/hamtv-on-the-iss/

Satellite Catapult https://sa.catapult.org.uk/

British Amateur Television Club (BATC) http://batc.org.uk/
Twitter https://twitter.com/BATCOnline

Sep 15 2012

Videos of CubeSat / Microsat presentations given to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium

Holiday Inn and RSGB GB4FUN communications module

The videos of the amateur radio CubeSat and Microsat presentations given to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2012 are available to either watch online or download.

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Sep 10 2012

Microwave Spectrum Issues at EME 2012

This video was made by volunteers from the British Amateur TV Club (BATC) at the EME 2012 conference in Cambridge. In the presentation Murray Niman G6JYB, and Gudmund Wannberg SM2BYA, review world wide spectrum issues and in particular the loss of part of the 2300 MHz band in Sweden.

The spectrum issues faced by moon-bounce (EME) operators are similar to those affecting the Amateur-satellite Service.

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