Modify an old VCR TV modulator to channel 5

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by jeyurkon

Clever, but what was your motivation for changing it?

By SAW I assume you mean Surface Acoustic Wave. I had never thought about trying a regular crystal in place of one.

John

If I wanted to build a miniature MATV (master antenna) system, this will give me a second channel I can have along with another TV modulator at channel 3 or 4. One STB DTV converter feeding this channel 5/6 modulator, and a 2nd on the more usual 3/4.

I wasn't sure if subbing these crystals for a SAW resonator would work, but I tried it and it did work! Worked with two different xtals, so odds are it will work for someone else who has a modulator like this one.

Be aware that there is another style of TV modulator, which uses a PLL referenced off of a 4MHz xtal to make channel 3 video and sound carriers, and channel 4 video and sound, and trying to move one of those (by changing the 4MHz xtal) would yield channels with a wrong sound carrier. If you pop the cover off a TV modulator and only see one 4MHz xtal, odds are this is what you have.