1) When hooking this up to a TV via the RF input
- is there any "magic"
involved, or will a suitable braided co-ax TV cable with a phono connector
added at the Atari end do? I know it "works" because I lashed one up
Maybe... The modulator output is nominally 75 ohm, and should be linked to
such a piece of coax. European TVs have a 75 ohm aerial input, often on what
we call a 'Belling-Lee coax socket', so it's just a cable. US TVs, I am told,
may have
either a 75 ohm coax input, often on an F connector, or a 300 ohm balanced input
(for parallel twin feeder cable) on a pair of screw terminals. For the former, just
connect it up. For the latter you may need a matching transformer, aka a 'balun'
(BALanced to UNbalanced converter). I am pretty sure you can buy these, but
it must be possible to wind one if you can get a suitable core
I don't know whether some US televisions do this too but I have a Japanese radio
that has two screw terminals for a 300 Ohm balanced feeder and alternatively
allows a 75 Ohm unbalanced feeder to be connected between one of those terminals
and a ground terminal which is also provided.
Regards,
Peter Coghlan.