IVCA
VISION NEWS LETTER No.4 November
Keeping
Amateurs informed on Developments in Visual Communication around the
world
Reported
by Louis W. McFadin W5DID ISS-HAM Hardware Manager
You may be interested in something that AMSAT
and MAREX is working on. We are building a SSTV module with a Software
SSTV program that runs on the ISS laptop. When delivered to the ISS
they will have the capability to send and receive SSTV in most of the popular
slow scan TV formats.
Get on the IVCA Yahoo reflector!
Any one that would like to receive and exchange
e-mail information with the IVCA members can do this by going to the Yahoo group
page ,i.e. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ivca
and on the right side of the page click the "Join this group" and fill in
the details. The Yahoo IVCA reflector let's you receive all the mail that
members are sending and you can also send mail to them at
ivca@yahoogroups.com This is a free
service that members can take advantage of for information exchange. It also
permits file attachments with size limits.
.. General
Information
In reply to inquires as to where is the IVCA VISION news letter No. 1. (It
was only a little short demo version of VISION used to try out the
group mailing operation and was not saved.) As we are trying to put all the
SSTV amateurs In the VISION mailing list and do not have every ones correct
e-mail address we are requesting every one to tell there friends using
on air contacts to send an e-mail with the
name and
call sign and correct
e-mail address to
ray@junct.com that wish to be included
in the IVCA VISION group mailing. As we are continuing to add to the
mailing list I'll need to repeat some of the information in earlier news
letters.
Help Wanted
We need news and information
of activities of the members around the world to put in the VISION news letter.
Send any thing you are doing or know of including graphics in JPG and GIF format
including diagrams etc. to me Ramon Glidden W5NOO Editor at ray@junct.com We also would like to
learn of any good informative SSTV web page URL's that we can include in VISION.
I would also welcome any suggestions, Ideas and comments you may have.
On the road again
We have learned that Don
Miller W9NTP SSTV Pioneer is traveling in China. (On his previous trip to
Australia some time back when he was operating HF SSTV mobile he indicated
I was one of the only USA SSTV stations he was receiving. Don't know
if he is on SSTV in China but we never have received a QSL from that part
of the world HI.) At home in the states Don runs a hi powered SSTV mobile
setup in his car using the Tasco TCS-70 and transceiver/amplifier and transmits
and receives while in route with a front windshield mounted Camera.
Past Present and
Future
We have came a long way from the early SSTV systems
using radar tube P7 displays with the green/black/blue 120 line low quality
displays to the present big screen 16 million color high resolution
displays. If we had the option however I believe we would like large
screen full motion in color displays with sound that we could use on the Amateur
HF frequencies and also be free of interference.At present band conditions and
band width limits prevent this but a number of creative Amateurs are working
on the developments of programs for new and improved performance. As an
example several years ago I found programs that would convert a Bit mapped
graphic to a Text or ASCII file that could be sent by radio using several of the
digital modes that used error correction and then received as a text file and
converted back to a pixel perfect picture. I have also looked
into the various video/audio compression or CODEX methods and found I
could compress an AVI type video with sound and motion to 1/10 it's size
using several free programs like Real Media RM format that let's me send
compressed little movies in e-mail. At present computer programs used on the
web have the jump on Amateur Radio using streaming Video
methods. I understand that now in Japan using the new g3 technology small
Cell Phones with color displays and equipped with a small attached color camera
are used for Video phone calls and can also are used as wireless web
access and are now available. (The Dick Tracy famous news paper cartoon two
way wrist watch TV has almost arrived.)
Windows XP
?
With the new operating system by Microsoft "Windows
XP" starting to be available, we wonder if any one has had a chance to use it
with any of the SSTV software programs. I understand it is less likely to
crash and is similar to the Windows 2000 operating system used in business
applications and runs almost all Windows software
programs!
.
Happy Viewing 73 Ramon Glidden W5NOO
Editor
