[ADXA] Response to Jonathan's post.

[WB5JJJ]

As long as we aren't talking about DX....
George, JJJ,
I'm remembering something about A basketball tournament at ATU where
Corliss Williamson was playing his last highschool game. Must have been @
1990.

No TV station intended to broadcast a HighSchool basketball game. Somehow
The game was transmitted up to the Russellville Cable station via ATV, and
just "Showed UP" on the local TV Cable channel.

I dunno if you had anything to do with that, but you got the credit for
it.  Ok, lots of us knew YOU did it.
N5QJ
--------------
Not exactly DXCC, but still it was kinda, so I'll fill everybody in that
they just might find to be an interesting, however not conventional, use of
Amateur Television (ATV) as most of us think of today.

Yes, that was indeed me at the forefront.  We had 3 cameras on the floor,
one high up mid-court and a switcher all moved from the TV studio to
Arkansas Tech's Tucker Coliseum.  I used my 10w ATV transmitter with a 4
element UHF beam pointed toward the CATV tower on Skyline Drive.  Had
another 4 elements up there and brought it down to an ATV receiver and then
to a VCR where I injected my video while a guy at the tower monitored the
audio from the local AM radio station carrying the game that was also
injected into the VCR.  I had to do it this way since I could not run the
commercials on the ATV audio link.  We did have good game sounds from the
Coliseum via the radio broadcast mics.  Back then thankfully, there were no
advertising banners all over the Coliseum or on the court.

During the commercial breaks, I had my switcher guy pop up a message about
amateur radio and my callsign.  He would also put a "super" in the bottom
right every few minutes with my callsign as well.  This all went out on the
local cable channel 6 and in color.  I monitored the AM station and my own
audio net in a pair of stereo headphones and would give the director and
switcher the cue as to when the play-by-play was about to start back.  It
was amazing that it actually worked.  The kids were great.

Unfortunately, we did not put a tape in the old VHS VCR to document the
event.  An oversight for sure.  We only had a few days, once the school
decided to move the game to the Coliseum, to get it all pulled together and
did not know if it would even be allowed until the AAA ruled that the
school controlled broadcast rights for their games up until the playoffs.
Then we had to wait until about noon to see if it was a "sell out" before
the school would authorize the TV broadcast.  At that point, the
"advertising" blitz began on the radio station for the rest of the day.
And of course the play-by-play guy made sure Russellville residents that
were listening were made aware that they could actually WATCH the game from
home as well.

I don't know how many folks watched, but probably hundreds due to the
comments we received afterwards.  It was FUN.  It was our students first
LIVE sports broadcast but at the time we were doing 3 or 4 live 15 minute
news shows a week and one 30 minute entertainment show.  The big difference
is that the game was NOT SCRIPTED and no run-throughs except for an
afternoon of practice switching and camera movements.  There were some
glitches, but overall nobody but us realized them.

As always, I talk too much, but I don't think this has ever been really
documented before.  It was a one of a kind event for me.  Thanks for
sticking with me to the end.

73's
George - WB5JJJ
HoIP - 100105
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