• janNatan@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    You know the devices that take audio and convert it to a radio signal for your car?

    We need the same thing but for old analog tv signals.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      It exists but you need to have an amateur radio license to do it legally. https://www.hamtv.com/ Long story short, some of the frequencies from analog television are now allocated for amateur radio use, so you can use that with little extra equipment.

    • agedcorn@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Plenty of those exist. They were given out like mad when the analog to digital switch was happening. Little boxes that would convert digital TV signals to analog for viewing on old TV’s.

      • janNatan@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        Digital converter boxes output their signal over cable (coax or HDMI, etc) NOT air. - some old (small) tv devices were antenna only.

        I mean, the old devices could be modified, but you don’t always wanna do that.

        • agedcorn@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          That coax output you mention contains the OTA signal, but yes, you’d likely need to amplify it within the limits of your local laws to broadcast it any usable distance.

        • agedcorn@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          They were referred to as DTA’s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_adapter

          You’ll still require a means of amplifying and broadcasting the converted signal if you need true OTA but this gets you an analog RF signal (NTSC in the US) from a DTV broadcast.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if you could take the output of the DTA and feed it to signal booster/amplifier with an antenna on the output and get short range OTA broadcast. Just know your laws on allowed output power.

    • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      You can find YouTube videos of people doing this for the GG TV Tuner. Usually involves a VCR iirc.