A former TV transmitter control room engineer built a functional analog broadcast station into a 10-inch rack, designed to feed period-correct signals to vintage CRT televisions. BorisDigital, who worked in broadcast infrastructure in the 1990s, replicated the full chain of professional gear using modern hardware at a fraction of the original cost.
The rack holds a Chinese transmitter board at the top, a Pi Pico-driven clock and audio monitor, vectorscope and waveform monitors running on Raspberry Pi 5s with USB video digitisers, two SD card record and playback units, and an automatic scheduler, all on a single board from Cambridge. The front panels are 3D printed using multi-filament for integrated labeling. That construction approach alone is worth studying.
Analog television was switched off in the US roughly a decade after the UK went dark, and collectors with working CRTs have had few good options beyond composite inputs ever since. This build closes that gap with off-the-shelf parts and a rack format that mirrors real broadcast infrastructure. The full video walkthrough shows every module in operation.
[READ ORIGINAL →]