British Amateur Television Club
Encyclopedia
The British Amateur Television Club (BATC) is the worlds largest television technology club; it has members in the UK and all around the world and is a non-profit making club run by an elected committee
of volunteers for the benefit of its members. Membership is open to all who are interested in television
, amateur
or professional
, indeed the club has many members who work for major broadcasting companies.
. Articles cover the full range of television interests from HD
to Slowscan
and Studios to Transmitting. Educational and construction projects are a feature of most issues and a full archive of past issues of CQ-TV is available from the BATC.
and other international ATV
organisations and is represented at international policy making conferences. The club organises meetings devoted to ATV as well as attending numerous radio meetings around the UK. The BATC fully embraces the Internet, with two web sites and an RSS news feed. The club runs various ATV contests throughout the year for fixed and portable stations and, there is an International ATV contest, organised each year by a different member country of the IARU
.
is not required for membership, indeed many members are interested in studio and video techniques. The BATC has just introduced an additional cyber membership category to allow instant delivery, low cost membership.
Committee
A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
of volunteers for the benefit of its members. Membership is open to all who are interested in television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
or professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
, indeed the club has many members who work for major broadcasting companies.
CQ-TV
The clubs magazine, CQ-TV, is published four times a year and is sent free of charge to BATC members. It is A4 size and has up to 50 pages and it is now in its 6th decade of publication. Available in paper (part colour) or in cyber form in full colour, as a PDFPortable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
. Articles cover the full range of television interests from HD
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
to Slowscan
Slow-scan television
Slow-scan television is a picture transmission method used mainly by amateur radio operators, to transmit and receive static pictures via radio in monochrome or color.A technical term for SSTV is narrowband television...
and Studios to Transmitting. Educational and construction projects are a feature of most issues and a full archive of past issues of CQ-TV is available from the BATC.
The BATC in today’s world
The objectives of the BATC are to encourage and co-ordinate the activities of amateurs involved in all aspects of television. The BATC liaises with the RSGBRadio Society of Great Britain
First founded in 1913 as the London Wireless Club, the Radio Society of Great Britain is the United Kingdom's recognised national society for amateur radio operators. The society's patron is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and it represents the interests of the UK’s 60,000 licensed radio amateurs...
and other international ATV
Amateur television
Amateur television is the transmission of Broadcast quality video and audio over the wide range of frequencies of allocated for Radio amateur use. ATV is used for non-commercial experimentation, pleasure and public service events...
organisations and is represented at international policy making conferences. The club organises meetings devoted to ATV as well as attending numerous radio meetings around the UK. The BATC fully embraces the Internet, with two web sites and an RSS news feed. The club runs various ATV contests throughout the year for fixed and portable stations and, there is an International ATV contest, organised each year by a different member country of the IARU
International Amateur Radio Union
The International Amateur Radio Union is an international confederation of national amateur radio organisations that allows a forum for common matters of concern and collectively represents matters to the International Telecommunication Union...
.
The History of the BATC
The BATC was founded in 1949. The first committee was formed and the publication of CQ-TV started, the world’s first magazine for amateur television transmission. In the early days of the club, members constructed their own cameras, televisions and transmitters. As early as 1954 members transmitted colour signals over a 13 mile path, establishing what is believed to be a record. The BATC were (and still are) instrumental in the development of the repeater network in the UK and the rest of the world. One of the major projects was the development of a repeater control system using a purpose designed microprocessor. The BATC is affiliated to the Radio Society of Great Britain and has frequent contact with other ATV organisations.The Future of the BATC
The Club is at the forefront of the new digital technologies with recent projects for digital transmission and reception and the professional SDI standards. Work is underway on using the new H264 digital encoder. This encoder has a number of modes and offers reduced bandwidth signals for the crowded amateur bands. A new BATC forum service has just been introduced and is live now on Link. It is thought that this will become the premier forum for news, help and exchange of TV information. From July 2008 the BATC has started a new video streaming service for the amateur television and radio hobbies.Television transmission
To send a television picture in colour across a radio link requires at least a camera, a transmitter, a receiver, a suitable antenna (aerial) and a monitor (TV). The camera provides the picture and the transmitter sends the picture. The transmitter must produce adequate power at microwave frequencies. The receiver must be sensitive at the frequency in use and decode the vision and sound signals. Things that can be added to these basic “blocks” are: multiple cameras, vision captions and effects. The expansion of a television system is almost boundless, a fully equipped ATV studio (and some amateurs do have these) can come later. In the UK all bands from 70cm upwards are available for ATV. In the 23 cm band and above the standard mode of transmission for ATV is frequency modulation of the vision carrier with a 6 MHz FM audio sub-carrier. The UK ATV calling and talkback frequency is 144.75 MHz FM. Listen or put out a “CQ ATV” call to make initial contact. A licence issued by your national authority is required to operate a television transmitting station, licence conditions will vary in different counties — in the UK this is administered by OFCOM.Membership
This is open to all who are interested in television, amateur or professional, anywhere in the world. An amateur radio call signCall sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
is not required for membership, indeed many members are interested in studio and video techniques. The BATC has just introduced an additional cyber membership category to allow instant delivery, low cost membership.