Well I was, but who has money for a fancy Robot type SSTV system? I was rag chewing with a friend of mine, Frank VE3ZN, who put me onto a web site that will let you download a free (unregistered) version of their SSTV software, and the hardware requirements, other than a computer system and an HF rig, are zero. That's right! you don't need fancy Modulators, Demodulators or even a TNC. We had found W95SSTV.
These Slow Scan TV Programs, written for computers running WIN95 or NT, use the computers sound card as an Analog-to-Digital converter for receiving or a Digital-to-Analog converter for transmitting. They are written in windows as true 32-bit programs, and will share processor time and resources with other 32-bit programs such that you could surf the web, run a word processor or whatever at the same time as running SSTV.
They offer an array of image formats including; BMP, EPS, GIF, JPG, PCX, PNG, PSD, RAS, TGA, TIF, WMF and WPG, however the unregistered version will only recognize BMP.
The following table lists a number of computer sound card software programs available today.