BATC bursary - GB3NQ approved

Details of the bursaries provided by the BATC
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g8gtz
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Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:26 pm

BATC bursary - GB3NQ approved

Post by g8gtz » Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:44 pm

The following application has been approved:

* Date of application:

11/16/2020

* Project description:

GB3NQ is a well-established ATV repeater based in St Austell Cornwall. It enjoys the advantage of being sited 1000ft above sea level in a central location of Cornwall and because of that has extremely good coverage of the county.
We have been using second hand DVBS equipment and configured the repeater to provide both an analogue and digital service with inputs for digital on 23cm and 70cm. Not surprisingly the reception reports of the digital output has shown a vast improvement on the analogue and this has encouraged more activity with digital television in the county.
Whilst these successes have been encouraging we are beginning to realise that set top box receivers and 2Msymb/s DVBS transmit signals are not that compatible with the current wave of projects of the BATC ie Ryde and Portsdown. So we want to move things forward.
We already have the back bones of the tv repeater, so only really need to replace our two set top box receivers for 23cm and 70cm thus opening the door for incoming transmissions of DVBS-2 and low symbol rates, and of course a new transmitter to send out DVBS-2. This can be achieved we feel with a Portsdown 4 and Ryde receivers.

Because of the modular nature of GB3NQ the current receivers and transmitter equipment are simply audio/video out for RF in and vice versa. Hence swapping in the new DVBS-2 kit is very straightforward, even the receivers have a lock light voltage to drive the input selection at the repeater controller, which we understand is available on the GPIO pins of the Ryde receiver.

* Benefits to ATV community:

Bringing Cornwall into the Digital Age ! We would approach the upgrade in two stages, firstly acquire build and install the receivers. Then we would support the locals to get their Portsdown transmitters functioning, and get them to build or acquire amplifiers to provide sufficient power to access the repeater. When a good number of users are active we would replace the old encoder, modulator and up-converter with a Portsdown 4 transmitter.
We would help support the user base to upgrade their old DVBS set top box receivers for DVBS-2 kit.

* Total amount of funding requested: £602.50

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