Video Recorders

Most domestic video recorders have a video output socket, which can be used a source of composite video for transmission purposes. This can be either from off-air broadcast signals or from a taped source. You should be very wary about relaying a broadcast signal onto the Amateur bands, since this will almost certainly constitute an infringement of both the copyright laws and our licence conditions. None the less it is a good source of a high quality technically correct video signal, which can be useful for test purposes when running into a good quality dummy load. There are similar restrictions on most commercially produced films available on video. Another use for the domestic video recorder is as a video processor. If you put a video signal into the input socket, the signal that it returns to the output socket will often be corrected to the proper levels. This is because most video recorders contain some form of video processing circuitry, which will clean up off-standard video.

Some of the newer VCR's also contain digital frame stores that can be used to produce prefect freeze frames and other special effects. These can be used to good effect to liven up your transmissions, and provide that extra touch of sparkle for your viewing audience. A video recorder can also be very useful to record that rare DX signal that you might have worked, or to record some incoming signals from a local Amateur. ATVers like nothing better than to see their own transmissions coming back to them, and in a serious vein, this can be very useful in diagnosing problems or assessing the strength of a particular signal path. For these reasons, many ATVers like to keep an old VCR in the shack.

There are also a growing band of people who are interested in Video editing using ex-broadcast equipment that their original owners have now upgraded to a higher specification. Shown below is one such type of machine a "Sony" low band "U-MATIC" machine. These particular machines were part of a complete edit suite.

Even the low band format provides a slightly better quality picture than that of a VHS machine. The actual tape used is three & quarter diameter and moves through the machine at far higher speeds than VHS. Tape length is limited to approx 1 hour duration, and comes in two distinct types low-band and high-band just as with the two VHS formats (VHS & SVHS)