Now amateurs can enjoy SSTV short for Slow Scan TV without the prohibitive cost of controllers and equipment. With shareware available in the Net, you can be on air in less than an hour.

I have been fascinated with digital on on HF for a long time, I have been to packet, RTTY, WEFAX, AMTOR and other modes. For years I want to try SSTV but the cost of the equipment keep me away from this mode. For sometime I've seen software around that say you can operate SSTV thru the use of the computer, but there are not easy to operate, until I have read the article of DU1JZZ, Carlo from the PARA Newsletter. So, again I gave it a try.

First thing was to look for a suitable software. I browse the Internet and downloaded several software to try. I found out that the easiest to use and user friendly was W95SSTV. No controller board, all you unit is a sound card installed in your computer and some cable to connect your computer speaker output to your mic, and audio out from the rig to your computer mic.

My first contact was made Saturday morning Mar. 14, with a JA station after installing the software. I was totally unprepared, I just made a simple graphic file with my callsign and CQ SSTV and transmit it at 21.340mhz. To my surprise somebody answered my CQ call and the rest is history.

For those who are interested in SSTV and want to share their experience please email to: [email protected].

I will also feature some of the nice pics from sstv on our web site, and I hope this will be regular segment on our web.