today i built a little low-budget tv- transmitter to be able to use my pocket tv‘s. heart is a wide-band hf-transmitter from far east (ca. 10 bucks), wich covers the complete vhf and uhf band. source for the little amp is the rf (antenna...) out from an old vcr, wich works on channel 39 (uhf). from there is goes directly to the antenna, donor for that was an old and useless cb- two-way-radio. you can pull that one quite good on 1/4 lambda, wich allows to transmit roundabout 5-6 meters, wich i think is fully ok to power a few old tv‘s... if i feel like, i‘ll replace the vcr tomorrow with an rf-modulator (a/v to rf). also a „higly pro“ 10 bucks china-product. this works on channel 2 or 3 in vhf-band. i‘ll have the antenna pulled out a bit longer but i‘m sure it‘ll work, too. would mean that i don‘t need to keep that huge vcr-thingy on my beer-table. will keep you informed...
It feels good to fire up those old CRTs! A lot are pretty good deals now but pretty soon everyone will be building their own transmitter.
If you found an old VCR and a service manual you could probably take the modulator out. An older one with the tuning screw next to the connections would be best as it would work with just inputs and a PSU. Alternatively there were external modulators available for consoles like the Playstation 1, which were the same thing cased up.
mate, don‘t rob the modulator from that vcr, complete one, ready to use with usb-power in and video/ stereo-audio rca sockets costs nothing
as you‘re in the UK check here f.ex.: https://www.ebay.de/itm/Universal-TV-Modulator-/164782669659?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
