Dr. Ralph E. Taggart WB8DQT
Welcome to the Image Communications Handbook (ICH) web-site. This and the other linked pages will become active with the publication of the book by the ARRL sometime during the summer of 2002.
The purpose of this site is to provide additional support to readers of the ICH, especially with respect to the hardware/software projects featured in the book. The various resources are designed to parallel the organization of the book. Additional sections/features will be added as the need arises.
Getting Involved in Amateur Radio
While there are image communications activities that you can enjoy without an Amateur Radio license (receiving weather satellite images or experimenting with narrow-band TV equipment, for example) your options for interesting activities expand greatly if you are licensed. Besides, there is far more to Amateur Radio than just image communications. The ICH CD-ROM contains some resources to get you started. The title link at the head of this section will take you to the home web-page of the Americal Radio Relay League (ARRL), the U.S. national organization for Amateur Radio. While the ARRL exists to support U.S. Amateur activities, it has close links, through the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), with other national Amateur Radio Societies.
Initial coverage on the NBTV pages will concentrate on the hardware and software aspects of the NBTV solid-state image generator featured in Chapter 3. Other material will be added as my own or reader interests dictate.
There are lots of Internet resources for SSTV, many of
which are noted in the ICH and the CD-ROM. My intention is to use this page to highlight
new developments as they occur, including the implementation of SSTV operations aboard the
International Space Station (ISS).
This link will take you to a common support site for both
the ICH and my Weather Satellite Handbook (WSH).
ICH-specific material will include hardware and software support for the
satellite interface described in Chapter 6.
I had been relatively inactive in ATV dues to some serious antenna limitations. However, the construction of a near-by ATV repeater and some fresh ideas on DX antenna systems for 70 cm has gotten me back in the game!
In Memoriam
Clement Grant Dixon
1916 - 2003
It is with real sadness that I note the the passing of Grant Dixon, G8CGK. Grant died on 20 December 2003 after a period of declining health as a result of chronic heart valve problems. We corresponded up to a few weeks prior to his death and I, like all who knew him, found Grant to be a major inspiration in the area of Image Communications.
His interest in wireless began at the age of 11 (1927) when he built a single-"valve" receiver. I think he was always perversely proud of the fact that he didn't start with a crystal set! His interest in television begain a year later when his father assembled a mechanical televisor in an attempt to receive the Baird TV broadcasts that were just beginning. The whole enterprise was eventually abandoned when the local mains converted from DC to AC, for none of the motors so essential to the operation of the televisor would run on AC.
Grant constructed his own mechanical televisor in 1933. Early experiments in electronic (CRT) TV display were put on hold by WW II but resumed with the 405-line post-war BBC broadcasts. Grant was one of the early members of the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) and served as Chairman between 1952 and 1962. Grant constructed his first color TV equipment in 1954, prior to the advent of the BBC color service.
In 1959, corresponding with Copthorne McDonald, Grant was one of the early UK pioneers in slow-scan television (SSTV). He was also active in reception and display of weather satellite imagery. In 1991 is was asked to serve as President of the Narrow-bandwidth Television Association (NBTVA) and served in that capacity until 1997. While he initially viewed the post as ceremonial, it soon revived his early interest in mechanical television and his work in that area has inspired many others for the past decade.
Grant was a fine man and all who knew him will mourn his
passing........
Ralph E. Taggart (taggart@msu.edu)