ATN - The Amateur Television Network

Amateur Television Network on the Internet

The Amateur Television Network has made several attempts to put the outputs of our mountain top repeaters onto the internet so that members and guests can "tune in" to the ATN anywhere in the world via the internet. We are currently looking at NetMeeting, iVista, PalTalk and EarthCam.

NetMeeting software is free from Microsoft. It was bundles with Internet Explorer and Windows 2000. NetMeeting allows one incomming and one outgoing Audio/Video streem. In addition, Netmeeting allows for several people to share a Chat room, "white board" and can even share applications. The video and audio are good but only one caller (at a time) can view and hear the provided video and audio streem.

iVista (Inetcam) software can be downloaded from http://www.ivista.com. The software was once free for video only streaming with a charge if the host wanted to add audio, but that was then. Now, there is a three day "free trail" but the software costs $49.95 if you want to be able to use it for more than three days. It allows a host to send video and audio to an iVista server where multiple users can watch and listen. This is a one way (one to many) broadcast and does not allow the viewer(s) to send a video or audio streems back.

INETCAM software can be purchased from http://uphi.inetcam.com. Earl from New Mexico is using this software. See the website for mor information.

PalTalk software can be downloaded from http://www.paltalk.com. The software is free and can be used for free, but if you are a paid member, there are some benifits. For instance, when requesting/receiving video, non-members (no cost users) only get ONE FRAME of video, while members (paid users) get video at about two frames per second. Non-members would need to continue requesting additional frames (one by one) in order to keep up with an active video conversation. PalTalk allows for four concurent video streems (the sender and three receive, or four receive if you are not sending video) to be viewed by each user. PalTalk is designed for video + audio + typed chat rooms. Theoratically, you could have a chat room with 20 or so members, with 15 of them sending video. Each member could open three video windows (four if he is not sending video), and switch on the fly which three he wanted to monitor. Each member has the opportunity to type in the chat (text) area or take the microphone. Only one user can send AUDIO at a time.
The Amateur Television Network currently has a room called ATN-Santiago in the Micellaneous group.

EarthCam software can be downloaded from http://www.earthcam.com. The software for sending video is free (all you need to do is register). You don't need to download the software if all you want to do is view a webcam. EarthCam allows a host to send video and audio to multiple viewers. The Amateur Television Network is currently testing EarthCam. Click here to go to the ATN Santiago Earthcam page.

Real Video software can be downloaded from http://www.real.com.
The Amateur Television Network is currently testing Real Video. Click here to go to the ATN Mt. Wilson Real Video page.
I-LINK See http://www.ilinkboards.com/ for more information.

IRLP stands for Internet Radio Linking Project. See http://www.irlp.net/ for more information, or http://status.irlp.net for current status.

EchoLink
EchoLink is software which allows Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, from computer to station, or from computer to computer. There are more than 42,000 registered users worldwide!
See http://www.synergenics.com/el/ for more information.

ITVLP The Internet Television Linking Project. Click here or here for information.

Please, please, please . . .

If your are an ATN member with a broadband internet connection and a good (P4 or P5) picture from one (or more) of the ATN repeaters and would like to help put that picture on the internet, or
If you have additional information that will help the ATN get on the internet, or
If you know of another Amateur Television repeater that is on the internet that we can link to
. . .then please email me at internet@ATN-tv.org.