This is where I shall be re-producing articles from recent BATC CQ-TV Magazines, together with comment from YOU on anything related to SSTV. If you have anything that will interest the rest of 'us', then email me at

robin@dexter.nwnet.co.uk

and I'll not only include it here, I'll pass it on to the BATC for publishing in their magazine !!

Ham Radio Today - Web Changes

30th April 1997

The Ham Radio Today magazine Editorial Email address has changed!

Although mail sent to our earlier Email address will be forwarded on for a short while, we'd appreciate it if you could send any further Email, articles etc. for us to our new address, which is;

editor@qsp73.demon.co.uk

We'll also eventually (in a few weeks time) have a new web site, at;

www.qsp73.demon.co.uk
This will replace our existing (and rather out-of-date!) web site.

Here's a little 'background' in case you're interested;

Sheila G8IYA and I thought hard about a new Email and Web address that would reflect the nature of relaying ham radio related information. "CQ" or "QST" were considered, however these wouldn't have been appropriate in the worldwide ham radio magazine publishing field. "QSP" (i.e. "will you relay..."; and "yes I will relay..." was subsequently chosen, to followed by the international greeting of "73". The UK's largest Internet Service Provider, Demon Internet, is being used.

There was also another, very significant, reason for choosing such historically-used abbreviations. Methods of communication are ever-advancing, from the days of landline telegraph operators, through to radio, satellites, and coming right back again to landline connection via the Internet. Digital compression also constantly squeezes more information into a given bandwidth. Sheila and I thought it would be very appropriate for today's, and tomorrow's, Internet-based communications, which is of course all about interconnected nodes relaying information until it reaches the destination, to reflect on the origins. Whatever progress is made with such advancing communication, including multimedia use, at least the messages to and from ourselves will carry appropriate historic reminders of early Morse use, abbreviations (Q codes - the earliest form of digital compression), traditional relay methods (QSP, a manual relay), and lifelong international greetings of goodwill.

Do feel free to publicise this information if you wish.

73, Chris G4HCL

Consultant Technical Editor, Ham Radio Today magazine
Email; editor@qsp73.demon.co.uk

Dear OM Thanks a lot for your link to JASTA home page. Now we are moved to new URL.
http://www.ask.or.jp/~jasta/
 and
Email:jasta@ask.or.jp

We started "SSTVer Web callsign server" at there and are welcome to your registration. By editing registerd datas from now to the end of May, We will publish "JASTA '97 International SSTVer callbook" in July and present a book to everyone who made registration without charge.

Please inform "JASTA's New URL" and about "SSTVer Web callsign server" on your home page.

Then by the latest revision of the Japanese bandplan, We will come to operate SSTV same with phone from April 1st.

For example on 20m, now we can only from 14.225 to 14.235, but this limitation will disappear. But to avoid QRM with DX phone,we are going to set the operating guide line.
On 20m,14.280 for domestic SSTV calling and the upper for QSO. 14.230 will still remain for DX calling.

WARC bands are also opened for SSTV,so we want to settle new SSTV calling FREQ,18.160 for 18MHz and 24.980 for 24MHz band.

SSTV stations on 6m increased recently, and want to QSO with DX. Conviniently we set 50.300 for SSTV calling on 6m and at the openning chance, 50.510 for region 1.

The details are issued in the attached file.
Anyway, take a look at our home page!
All the best to you 73's
JASTA Webmaster: JA2BWH/1 Sugi
Email: jasta@ask.or.jp/ja2bwh@a2.mbn.or.jp

Robin,
I've just taken a look at your impressive SSTV site and thought you may be interested in a project I'm currently considering.

I represent the BCRA's CREG - the Cave Radio & Electronic Group. You may have seen some mention of our activities in RadCom and QST. Our aim is to encourage the development of radio and electronics equipment for use by cavers. A particular emphasis is through-rock radio, which is of particular importance to cave rescue organisations. This requires a low frequency, so the recent allocation of 73kHz was particularly welcome as it well encourage further development in this area.

CREG is next meeting together at a field meeting in the Yorkshire Dales over the weekend starting on the evening of the 21st March. On this occassion, we are having a number of cave photographers meeting with us. To a degree the photographers will do their own thing as will the radio types. However, I wanted to organise one "bridge" activity which will appeal to both groups. What I had in mind was SSTV between cave and surface.

If we are able to succeed in this, I will certainly want to get as much publicity out of it as possible. I write regularly for a number of magazines, so I'm sure this won't be a problem, In addition to our in-house Journal, I would expect to get a short feature in RadCom, the BATG group said they'd like to publish, I may approach some of the PC mags (whom I do write for) and I may try some national papers (for their technology section). This might sound a bit "over the top" but there is a potential rescue angle which would be worth persuing (ie. a doctor on the surface being able to see a casualty and give apropriate advice).

So far, so good. The only snag in all this is that we have no sstv equipment nor expertise, hence this e-mail to yourself. Would you be interested in helping us out with this exciting project, or alternatively, do you know anyone who would (either an amateur who would do it for interest, or a supplier who would do it as a PR activity)?

What I envisage is a cave radio at both ends. This is the one piece of kit we can supply - specifically that designed by John Hey, G3TDZ, who will be taking part. Interfaced to each I see a laptop with suitable software, a camcorder and a frame grabber / fast to slow-scan converter. All this would need to be battery powered, of course. I appreciate that many SSTV enthusiasts transmit "potted" pictures, but I think this project really reqires us to be able to transmit pictures taken just seconds or minutes before. At a pinch we could make do with pictues in one direction only which would reduce the amount of equipment somewhat.

The cave environment is hostile to fragile electronic equipment and this may be a cause of concern to suppliers of equipment. Indeed any operational equipment will only survive in a cave if it is thoroughly ruggedised and waterproofed. However, we have sufficient experiernce of handling kit with "kid gloves" that this need not be a concern for this experiment. We would carry kit in padded ammo boxes (which are waterproof and will provide resistance to mechanical shock). Furthermore, we would pick an easy cave and we would only consider dry locations to setup the kit. This also answers any concerns which participating (non-caver) radio amateurs may have about going underground. It will be an easy cave, so anyone who is reasonably fit will be quite safe.

So, that's the background. Does this interest you personally, and if so, do you have suitable equipment and are you free for the weekend in question? If the answer to these questions is no, can you suggesst anyone else who may be interested (I've already contacted BATG with no positive result)? Alternatively, which amateur suppliers do you know of who specialise in sstv kit and might welcome the opportunity to sponsor (by loaning kit) and activity such as this?

I look forward to hearing from you.

BTW If you want any further background info about CREG and cave radio, take a look at: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/creg

Regards,

Mike Bedford

G4AEE

So, has anyone any old equipment they don't want (a Robot 400, a Wrasse sc1, 12v camera's and the like) or are prepared to lend to the project, contact me via email at

robin@dexter.nwnet.co.uk

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