Market St Bridge on Amateur TV for San Jose Grand Prix W6SJC

W6SJC-3 camera on top of St Claire hotel viewing Market Street foot bridge during 2007 San Jose Grand Prix race (third year). Camera was a Sony model CCD-TRV138. Transmission was from a VideoLynx Z23B 1.2GHz amateur television (ATV) transmitter feeding a 8 element yagi antenna. Receive was done using a Comet-1434 1.2GHz omni antenna and a 1.2GHz ATV receiver from PC Electronics.

Command Post at convention center consisting of SJ police, fire, SAR, EMS, and RACES wanted to view footbridges to observe if crowd congestion occurs which was a problem during the first SJ Grand Prix.

For more information on San Jose RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service), see http://www.sjraces.org

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Market
• St
• Bridge
• Amateur
• television
• TV
• San
• Jose
• Grand
• Prix
• W6SJC

[SuperTechieJ]

Something like this would have been awesome on 9/11.

A completely unobstructed view of what was going on without media interference.

[k6mfw]

@SuperTechieJ Not really, unless would have access to high elevation such as a skyscraper or helicopter for hours and hours (which a amatuer radio operator would never get), but I doubt if 9-11 responders could value from it compared to everything else going on at the time. A major problem besides a disaster of magnitude nobody has experienced before was lack of Incident Command System management structure in NYC.

[ttacm11]

is this the trv-138? is it good quality?

[k6mfw]

Yes but it is not broadcast quality and not highly rugged. At $200 is very cost effective, audio is relatively good also. Key reasons cam was chosen:

1. Composite video out, a must for use with ATV transmitters.

2. Easy to set onscreen display (callsign W6SJC)

3. Can disable "auto shutoff," camera must always be on when left unattended (most brands shut off after 15 min).

4. Able to run camera when external power source is connected (either AC or 12VDC adapter).

5. Not too big but not too small.

[SuperTechieJ]

@k6mfw

I guess 9/11 was a bad example.

Wasn't Hurricane Katrina a good example where amateur radio helped? Are repeaters fairly easily taken out in a disaster like that?