Getting Started

Amateur Television is a fascinating area of Amateur Radio covering all aspects of video production, editing, transmission and reception of Television and has always been at the fore front of the technology revolution. Many stations are now transmitting Digital pictures (DATV) using the DVB broadcast standards and using video streaming technologies to exchange pictures with ATV operators around the world.

You're probably here because you want to know more about Amateur Television and so help you get to grips with the basics of our hobby, BATC has put together a series of "Getting started" guides.

Getting started - the basics

A good place to start is by reading the Getting Started in ATV leaflet also available as an article extract from CQ-TV, our quarterly newsletter:

Or take a look at this introduction to ATV PowerPoint presentation

Receiving and transmitting ATV

To find out more about receiving and transmitting ATV signals download these "Getting started" guides:

DATV Reception

DATV transmission - take a look at the BATC Portsdown project, a simple easy way to get on air with Digital Television.

Reduced bandwidth TV

And to find out more about the latest technology called Reduced Bandwidth Digital television (RBTV) take a look at this RB-TV special edition of CQ-TV.

For more technical details take a look at our getting started guide to RB-TV. Getting Started with RB-TV

Video signal basics

If you want to know more about the basics of video signals, Brian Summers has written a series of articles for CQ-TV which are available for downloads as part of our "getting started" series.

Part 1-7 available as a single download: Video Fundamentals parts 1-7