Homemade low power TV transmitter?

[RetroHacker]

Originally Posted by Steve McVoy

The FCC allows a maximum radiated power of 100 mw. This won't cover a whole house, but will work within a rooom. You can find devices that broadcast TV on ch 3. with that power on Ebay.

Ah. I knew that there was a limit, but wasn't sure what it was. Not enough for a whole house, so it probably won't be too useful for this particular application. I'll have to go with cable.

Originally Posted by Steve McVoy

It is very easy to connect sets using coaxial cable and splitters. Hook your channel 3 signal source to one of the 20 db VHF amplifiers that are sold at Radio Shack and you will have plenty of signal to feed at least 16 sets.

Good to know. I have never tried to drive more than two sets off one VCR before, so I wasn't sure what limitations I'd run into. The big question is if it's possible to modulate signals on other channels, and run them all together. The different signals should all be able to share the cable and amplifier, since that's what they are meant for, but how to generate them? Is it possible to modify a normal RF modulator to run on, say, channel 12 for instance?

If such hardware could be created or obtained, then you could have a stack of gear in the basement - 12 tuners(or DTV converter boxes), 12 modulators and an amplifier, and have a full spectrum of VHF channels available, sourced from 12 different cable channels/digital TV channels, etc. Feed it through the house using the standard cable lines. Then, you could hook up all your old sets, and just use the standard VHF tuner to choose the "station".

-Ian