notes on modifying VirtualVision for use with ATV

The Virtual Vision display device is a nice lightweight wearable television set in the form of wrap-around sunglasses that are lightweight (about size and weight of ski goggles), so that they can be comfortably worn for an extended time period.

This may facilitate the monotoring of ATV while walking around, which affords one the convenience of being able to locate and orient the antenna for best reception.

By walking around between buildings, the reception can suddenly come in really clearly by simply finding a location where the waves interfere constructively.

The tuner in the Virtual Vision system has a local oscillator (LO) that can go up to about 1 gigahertz.

As the tuner is shipped, it is programmed to skip over anything other than commercial broadcast television frequencies, so it does not tune continuously. The simplest way to modify it is to break open the loop (which means that you lose the automatic tracking that locks a TV station in).

To get it to tune into the ATV bands, you can also use a resistor from the tune voltage to ground (e.g. to pull it into a band that it is programmed to avoid).

You need to open up the case with side cutters or the like. The case is sealed (glued) quite well, for durability and resistance to moisture and dirt. However, once you break it open to make the modifications, you should be careful to either put it in another enclosure, or seal it well, using, perhaps gaffer's tape and hot melt glue, as the inside circuits are surface mount (easily broken).

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