This chapter is part of the book Image Communication on Short Waves.

© 2012, Martin Bruchanov OK2MNM — http://www.sstv-handbook.com

Document version: November 17, 2019

6
SSTV Equipment

6.1 Transceiver
SSTV images can be received via a standard communication transceiver (or receiver)
that covers the HF amateur bands and supports SSB modulation or a VHF trans-
ceiver with FM. There is no need for further modifications, although the IF filter
should not be narrower than 2.5 kHz, a width of 3 kHz is recommended. The SSTV
signal is taken from the audio output or headphone jack that is plugged into the
SSTV decoding device.
For transmission, a common HF or VHF transceiver with an SSTV signal con-
nected to the microphone jack should be used. The band in which you are determines
the usage of LSB or USB, which is the same as in voice transmission.
No transmitter modifications are necessary. But when operating SSB, it is im-
portant to realize that the broadcast of very loud speech can be achieved at approx-
imately 3 /4 of output power, so the load of the output amplifier is fairly low and
there is no danger of overheating. But SSTV signals transmitted via a voice channel
create a 100% load due to the presence of an auxiliary carrier.

Keep the limits set by the manufacturer for SSB operations. The usual max-
imal keying with full load is about 20 minutes for professional equipment.
Modern transceivers switch on cooling during heavy load and it is not suitable
to switch off TRX immediately after the end of QSO, but wait a few minutes
for the equipment to cool down.

SSTV transmission is not dangerous, but it is advised to adhere to some safety

measures.

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SSTV Equipment 6

6.2 Station equipment for visual communication

1. Computer system – a sound card or other special hardware interface and software.

video SSTV
digitizer modem

Figure 6.1: SSTV station equipped for computer operations.

Currently, the most common SSTV device is a personal computer with a sound
card. There are a number of programs for personal computers with Windows,
Mac, GNU/Linux and DOS. There are also special modems (MFJ, Roy1, AOR
TDF370,…) or the very simple Hamcomm modem. Hamcomm is based on a
simple comparator circuit and connected to the RS232 serial port. But it is
only usable for old DOS based software. The most varied software options are
for Windows and a sound card.
Additional equipment can be used such as a web camera or a television card
with analog video input.
2. Digital scan-converter is a stand-alone device that digitizes received signals and
stores them in memory. The decoder converts memory content to analog signals
(PAL or NTSC) for display on a normal TV set or monitor. The converter can be
connected to any color or monochrome camera, which then transmits live images.
Due to digital data processing, most converters are equipped with a computer
interface. This allows for the addition of texts to images and the upload and
storage of images to/from computer. Tape recorders were historically often used
to record SSTV and for storing QSO images.
3. Long persistence CRT monitor and circuits for signal filtering and vertical and
horizontal drives, etc. The usage of these monitors is long over. Electro-
mechanical scanners or sampling cameras were used as SSTV signal sources in
these days.

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6 SSTV Equipment

SSTV
converter

Figure 6.2: An SSTV station equipped with a stand-alone SSTV converter.

6.3 Historical tidbits

6.3.1 SSTV monitor

Long persistence monitors were the most important SSTV equipment in the seven-
ties. There were other commercial products available, but most homemade monitors
were built by SSTV enthusiasts.

Figure 6.3: Monitor Robot Model 70 and camera Model 80 from

Robot Research Inc.

Products from Robot Research Inc., Wraase Electronics and Venus were very pop-
ular. These products were not produced for just the ham radio market, but were
also found in the image communication over telephone lines markets.

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A typical monitor consists of several basic parts, see fig. 6.4: input and limiter
circuits, video and sync detectors, scanning circuits, cathode ray tube drivers and
power supply. The long persistence CRTs are made with special photoluminescence
phosphor. In simple terms, phosphorescence is a process in which the energy ab-
sorbed by a substance is slowly released in the form of light. These CRTs were most
used in radar displays or oscilloscopes for the monitoring of slow processes.
The path of frequency modulated signals that contains video and syncs goes
through the limiter, where the signal is limited to constant amplitude and then
flows into image discriminator. There are video detecting circuits for syncs and
video separation here. Then signals from the discriminator are amplified and drive
both the vertical and horizontal scans. The output voltage of these circuits is the
saw-tooth voltage and drives deflection plates of long persistent CRT.

SSTV image image

limiter discriminator
input amplifier

sync
separator detector

sync
amplifier
low pass

sync
rectifier

vertical horizontal
scan scan

Figure 6.4: Block scheme of SSTV monitor.

After the separation of sync, the image signal goes to the image intensifier and de-
tector. After filtration, the signal is fed to the cathode ray tube grids and modulates
the electron beam. Subsequently the image is displayed on the screen. The disad-
vantage of this process is that the image is seen clearest during the reception and
then the brightness fades. To be able to view the image after the 8 seconds transfer
a well darkened room was necessary.

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6 SSTV Equipment

6.3.2 Scanning devices

The image scanning methods used in early SSTV transmission can be classified into
electronic and electro-mechanical methods. Purely electronic systems used cameras
with a sensor element like vidicon, plumbicon or other camera tubes.
In SSTV cameras, the vertical scan frequency was adjusted from 50 Hz to 16.6 Hz
(i.e. horizontal scanning frequency for 7.2s SSTV or 15 Hz for 60Hz standard). Then
a whole camera or just a deflection unit only was rotated 90∘ . The TV camera scans
the image line by line, providing the sampling circuit with input. The sampling
circuits reads short samples from each line during each camera scanning beam cycle.
All the samples from scan-lines of the FSTV camera create one scan-line of slow-
scan TV picture. In the next scanning beam cycle, the sampling position moves to
the left and creates the next scan-line. The cycle is repeated until the whole picture
is sampled.
The next type of image scanner often used was a scanner with a photomulti-
plier for the scanning of transparent or non-transparent originals (FSS – Flying
Spot Scanner). The light through transparent originals falls on the photomultiplier,
whose output is a voltage that is proportional to the transparency of the original.
This creates an amplitude modulated video signal, which can be converted to the
frequency modulated signal of SSTV.
The electromechanical scanner was used for non-transparent originals, which were
scanned from a rotating roller. The mechanical part was assembled from a roller with
the mounted original, a screw-thread for sliding and a drive unit with a synchronous
motor. The second part consisted of a lens, a light bulb, a photo transistor and
sensor circuit for the generation of the SSTV signal.

6.4 Early FSTV/SSTV converters

SSTV/FSTV converters usually sample and digitize incoming SSTV signals and
store them in memory. Simultaneously, the memory content is read and converted
to an analog signal, which controls the fast-scan TV modulator.
The received SSTV signal is limited to the constant amplitude in input circuits
and then continues into an analog/digital converter. Digital data is processed by
the converter’s microprocessor firmware. Its task is to digitize every scan-line of the
image and store it in memory. The memory capacity is equivalent to the resolution
and number of colors.
The memory is continuously read in the FSTV scanning frequency and data goes
into a digital/analog converter. The output analog signal is displayed on normal
television. The SSTV image is stored in memory until it is overwritten by the
newly received image. The reverse process of digitization of an FSTV image and its
transmission by SSTV is similar.

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SSTV Equipment 6

One of the first SSTV converters was the Robot 300 model. This converter con-
tains 69 transistors, 41 integrated circuits, 41 diodes and its heart is a silicon memory
tube. The function of this tube was the same as a cathode ray tube or vidicon. The
electron beam electromagnetically diffracted and focus was directed into the scan-
ning electrode, which consisted of a dielectric memory layer used for analog image
recording.
The modern concept of converters began with Robot 400C and its successors 450C
and especially 1200C, which became available in 1986. In these years everyone, who
was serious about SSTV had to own one! A camera and a monitor were necessary.

RED RGB D/A

memory and controller

composite
NTSC / PAL video for
RGB A/D GREEN
encoder TV monitor
multiplexer converter memory

NTSC / PAL
video BLUE
to RGB RF RF output
input memory
converter modulator for TV
receiver

system display
clock controller

SSTV FM signal SSTV

input zero detector COMPUTER FM modulator output

interface for
front panel
computer and
control
printer

Figure 6.5: Block scheme of stand-alone SSTV/FSTV converter.

Robot 1200C was modified with optional EPROMs and a timing circuit, so it can
be used for operations in various SSTV modes. Its production ended in 1992, but
during the nineties there were clones available on the market – FH-21P in Germany,
SUPERSCAN 2001 in the United Kingdom, LM-9000C and Ribbit 1200C. These
machines can still be used for SSTV operations and many old-school operators own
them. They are also sometimes available in Ebay auctions.

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6.5 SUPERSCAN 2001

The production of SUPERSCAN started shortly after the end of Robot 1200C pro-
duction. Its designer Jad Bashour had worked with Martin Emmerson. SUPER-
SCAN is actually a much improved 1200C and includes improved modifications to
the original 1200C. The price of this unit was about £ 750 and with additional mod-
ules the price could exceed £ 1000.

Figure 6.6: The front panel of SUPERSCAN 2001

Main features of SUPERSCAN 2001:

⊳ Total compatibility with all classic SSTV systems.

⊳ System upgrade is simply achieved by an EPROM upgrade. Its last version 1.6
supports these modes:
⊳ Color modes:
⊳ Scottie S1, S2, S3, S4, DX;
⊳ Wraase SC-1: 24, 48Q, 48, 96;
⊳ Robot Color 12, 24, 36, 72;
⊳ Wraase SC-2: 30, 60, 120, 180;
⊳ AVT 24, 90, 94, 188, plus QRM, Narrow variants.
⊳ B&W modes:
⊳ Robot 8, 12, 24, 36;
⊳ Wraase SC-1 8, 16, 16Q, 32;
⊳ AVT BW 125.
⊳ Radio fax reception:
⊳ 60, 90, 120, 240 lpm.
⊳ Contains four memory banks and stores images in a resolution 256×240 with
18bit color depth (262,144 colors).
⊳ TV PAL decoder with delay lines for perfect image digitization.

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SSTV Equipment 6

⊳ High speed parallel interface for computer connection.

⊳ RGB video output.
⊳ Control by computer mouse available (firmware 1.3).
⊳ Text addition.
⊳ Backup of CMOS memories for texts and configuration.
⊳ High stability oscillator for free-run reception.

6.6 Tasco TSC-70P

A modern type of converter is the TSC-70P (TSC-70N works with NTSC norm).
This converter includes a DSP for better reception of weak signals. It supports all
conveniences such as the automatic detection of VIS code and free-run reception.

Figure 6.7: Japan converter Tasco TSC-70P.

Supported modes:

⊳ Martin M1, M2;

⊳ Scottie S1, S2;
⊳ Robot Color 36, 72;
⊳ AVT 90, 94 (Narrow regime, only in TSC-70N available).

Image processing is done in a real-time digitizer, and images are stored in memory
with a resolution of 416×256 with 2 million colors. With an optional EM-70 module,
the video memory capacity can be doubled.
Tasco TSC-70P working with PAL video signal, you need to have a television with
video inputs or a color TV monitor. Control equipment is made via an infrared
remote control (WR-70) or via a RS232 serial interface. Using EB-232VP software,
images can be moved at 115 kbit/s speed between the converter and the computer.
The desktop PC can be equipped with an optional ISA card EB-70P that triples
the speed of data exchange. For greater convenience the converter can be controlled
by a computer program i.e. HIRES-70P or WINTSC.

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6 SSTV Equipment

The converter weighs 450 g (60 g remote control) with dimensions of 140 mm
(width) × 140 mm (length) × 25 mm (height) and it is powered by DC 11–15 V
with a consumption smaller than 250 mA. It is specifically designed for mobile or
portable operations and can be used with miniature television, such as EV-5xx from
CASIO, with small LCD display 7 cm, it weighs about 195 g.

6.7 Interactive Visual Communicator VC-H1

The VC-H1 was produced by Kenwood. It is a device intended for mobile SSTV
operations. The dimensions are similar to hand-held transceivers – 7×3.5×17 cm.
The unit has a built-in CCD Camera, 1.8" LCD color monitor and a microphone.
Its memory allows the storage of an uncompressed image in the image buffer and
10 JPEG compressed images. The JPEG memory has a battery backup, so it is
possible store images when the unit is switched off.
The converter has an RS232 interface for computer connection (115 kbit/s). The
input and output for external video signals is only NTSC.
VC-H1 is powered by four AA batteries or external DC supply with 6.0 V. The
maximum consumption is 650 mA when digitizing an image, otherwise the consump-
tion is 450 mA when the LCD is on or 100 mA in stand-by mode with the LCD
off.

Figure 6.8: Mobile

SSTV converter VC-H1.

Supported modes:

⊳ Martin M1, M2;

⊳ Scottie S1, S2;
⊳ Robot Color 36, 72;
⊳ AVT 90, 94;
⊳ FAST FM.