our atv Repeaters

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  W3bab - Towson

  This repeater is located in downtown Towson, MD. Input is NTSC on 434 mhz. or DVB-T video on 439.25 mzh.  Output is on 421.25 mhz. NTSC (analog) video). If you are close-in to the Towson area, an analog-capable television on cable channel 57 -AND- connected to a separate antenna will enable viewing. A second output of FM satellite television format is on 1.291 ghz. Scientific Atlanta 9660 receivers are an inexpensive and quick way to view the repeater output in high quality. We have a small supply of these devices for sale at $10 each. They are pre-programmed for our repeater.  For farther away viewers, a pre-amplifier is needed.  The repeater features receiving antennas on both the north and south sides of the building.  Investigation is underway to add DBV-T output.  The Towson ATV repeater is live from 9:00 am. to midnight daily.  Picture #1 is the repeater ID. Picture #2 is the shared antenna farm at the top of the building elevator. Picture #3 is the controllable Eagle Eye camera which captures the Towson area.

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  W3bab - Laurel

• At this time, the Laurel ATV repeater is off the air and underwent disassembly for the move to a future location.  A big thank you to the UM Laurel Medical Center for our presence at their facility. 
• Located in historic Laurel, Maryland at the UM Laurel Medical Center. Input is NTSC video on 434 mhz. with output NTSC video on 421.25 mhz. This output can be conveniently seen on a cable ready television, connected to an outside antenna on cable television channel 57. Aim your antenna toward the hospital. PC Electronics created a weatlh of compatible gear for these frequencies. Check eBay.  We continue plans to use over-the-air or the Internet to link the Laurel and Towson ATV repeaters on an on-going basis.

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  web stream to the British amateur television club (BATC) website

  The Towson W3BAB output is streamed to the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) website. On the left side is Open Broadcast Studio software (OBS). The first callsign image in the picture is displaying repeater output of Ken K3UQQ's signal captured off-the-air via a Scientific Atlanta 9660 Receiver. The identical image to the right is Ken's callsign signal selected to be  passed to the BATC website by Internet stream.  The picture on the right is the BATC webpage showing the famous CATS logo. Audio is captured by an ICOM  HT tuned to 2-meters.
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• With processing at BATC via HTML5, the delay on this stream is 25-30 seconds; an industry norm where the HTML5 protocol is used in place of the now obsolete and disabled Adobe Flash product. A recent effective alternative is to view the stream via the free VLC Media Player software. Run VLC and press CNTL-N to "play" this video source: rtmp://rtmp.batc.org.uk/live/w3bab . Follow with selecting PLAY.  Streaming delays should be well under 10 seconds. A big thank you to John KA3ZTC for receiving the Towson ATV repeater output and 2-meter audio for streaming to the BATC facility and BATC for their support in this venture.
• If you find the internet web stream occasionally stops using VLC, you can improve the resilience by making a few tweaks to the VLC configuration as follows:
  Windows/Linux: Tools => Preferences => Show Settings – Radio Checkbox “ALL” => Input/Codecs => Advanced Change the following to the values below:
• File caching 1000ms (default 300ms)
• Live capture caching 300ms (default 300ms)
• Disc caching 1000ms (default 300ms)
• Network caching 1000ms (default 300ms) You can play with higher values, depending on your internet connection speed.