Checking feasibility of receiving and transmitting Amateur Television (ATV) between M0NWK QTH and Lincoln Cathedral repeater GB3VL

When I was thirteen years old, I remember hooking up an old Amstrad analogue satellite receiver to a homebrew yagi antenna to receive amateur radio television (ATV) from Lincoln repeater GB3VL. That was as far as I got with ATV until a recently.

GB3VL is located on top of Lincoln Cathedral together with other repeaters supported by Lincoln Repeater Group.

On 14th September 2016 I attended a talk by Bob G7AVU at Lincoln Shortwave Club (LSWC). Bob talked about the history of the repeaters, maintenance and support, running costs and fundraising and also the future of the repeaters.

After Bob’s inspiring talk, I decided I would like to try ATV again.

Checking distance and path between my QTH and GB3VL repeater

Prior to investing in any ATV equipment, I wanted to ensure it was feasible to receive from and transmit to GB3VL.

A member of the Lincoln Repeater Group, Terry (G7JFI), told me about a surface elevation tool hosted by Solwise Ltd (click here to view website). After inputting a start and end point the tool (a) calculates the point to point distance and elevation difference before (b) plotting surface elevation between points and the line of sight elevation.

Below is the map output from the tool showing the point to point line from my QTH (blue) to Lincoln Cathedral (red).

Below is the surface elevation plot that shows point to distance, surface and line of sight elevations.

The tool also includes a feature for you to enter a height above ground by clicking on each icon and inputting height in metres. However, after looking at the results of the default ground level settings and seeing I have good line of sight path already, I didn’t bother doing this.

With my QTH located at one of the highest points in Newark on Trent and the because the repeater is located high up on the top of Lincoln Cathedral (also located at the highest point in Lincoln), my conclusion is that it is perfectly feasible to develop a transmit & receive amateur television solution that is capable of good results.

Why not take a look at my YouTube channel here or Twitter posts here.

You can also register for my website here.

Thanks

73 de M0NWK