Anyone interested in these publications I have?

[Steve Anderson]

Gents,

The following JPGs show three titles that I have here, all are out of copyright now, so I should be able to distribute them freely.

They're not specifically related to NBTV, but I'm sure a few would be interested in having a software copy. Be warned though, these are going to be large files! I'm not going to put them on the forum for that reason. I will individually e-mail them to each interested person.

If I get a response from ten or more I'll go ahead, it's going to take a lot of effort to do this and I only have a few days before I'm off to India for a few months....

RSGB 1.jpg is the cover of the Amateur Radio Handbook, published by the RSGB in August 1944. RSGB 2.jpg is the cover of the same thing published in November 1976. SSTV 1.jpg is the cover as stated, published in 1977.

If you want them...shout!!

I also have a Brimar valve/tube manual as shown in the Brimar Cover.jpg from (I think) 1961...and others too..

Steve A.

P.S. If you're scared of voltages above 100V, these are not for you!

[Dave Moll]

If you decide to scan the "slow scan TV" one, I would be interested in a copy, but would be happy to await your return from India in a few months' time.

[Steve Anderson]

If you decide to scan the "slow scan TV" one, I would be interested in a copy, but would be happy to await your return from India in a few months' time.

OK, no problem. I intend to scan almost everything I have in hard-copy as a back-up if the original should get lost or destroyed. The SSTV one has some pages missing (as it was when I bought it), but is 95% complete.

The others are fully intact and in good condition.

Steve A.

[Steve Anderson]

OK, via a number of PMs, it appears that for the moment the 1944 RSGB publication seems to be the one that has stirred up most interest. So I'll do that first. Then the SSTV manual.

Attached is a sample page, they're in greyscale and even so are about 2MB per page scanned at 300dpi! If this is too large, or not good enough, let me know. This book alone runs to over 300 pages...make sure you have plenty of storage and/or CD-ROMs!!

My apologies for the rather large size in having to make people scroll left/right.

Steve A.

[Steve Anderson]

Here's the same page at half the above resolution, 150dpi. Is this good enough?

Steve A.

[Andrew Davie]

Here's the same page at half the above resolution, 150dpi. Is this good enough?

Steve A.

Same resolution, a tad of image processing... specifically, dithered reduction to 1 bit per pixel (stucki dithered) then noise reduction/despeckle, then resample to 50% and saved as a JPG with 20% quality. File size roughly 30%, quality still very readable.
Cheers
A

[DrZarkov]

I'm interested in the SSTV-paper, too. Thank you!

[Dave Moll]

they're in greyscale and even so are about 2MB per page scanned at 300dpi!

dithered reduction to 1 bit per pixel

Does your scanner have the option to scan as line drawings? This would have the same effect. I have always found this the most satisfactory way of scanning pages of text/diagrams without photgraphs. Not only does it dramatically reduce file sizes, but I find the text much more readable with a white rather than grey background.

[Steve Anderson]

Does your scanner have the option to scan as line drawings?

Yes it does, but in the past it hasn't been that successful on printed material where the paper is discloured and old. But I'll give it another try and put the result here later in the day.

Thanks for the 'tidy up' of the image Andrew, it proves that things can be improved, I'll just have to have a more determined go at it!

Steve A.

[Steve Anderson]

OK guys,

I've had a go using the 'line-art' option and it's come out far better than I thought it would. It requires a bit of mucking around, but no bother.

Is this OK? I've kept the width at 1024 pixels. Even so, the file size is less than 10% of the first one I posted! If this is a typical file-size, with some 300 pages in this publication will equate to around 60MB in total.

Steve A.

[Andrew Davie]

OK guys,

I've had a go using the 'line-art' option and it's come out far better than I thought it would. It requires a bit of mucking around, but no bother.

Is this OK? I've kept the width at 1024 pixels. Even so, the file size is less than 10% of the first one I posted! If this is a typical file-size, with some 300 pages in this publication will equate to around 60MB in total.

Steve A.

I will be happy for scanned books of around this size, give or take, to be hosted on this site.

Cheers
A

[Viewmaster]

It seems to me that this is an enormous amount of trouble for 2 books which can be cheaply bought on ebay, UK booksellers or Abe books.
For example Radio Communication Handbook - 5th Edition Vol 2
is listed at 99p start on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Radio-Communicati ... dZViewItem

BOTH volumes here for £15.......

http://ukbookworld.com/cgi-bin/order_en ... RS%2360579
The Radio Handbook is listed on UK booksellers from £5-£15. At Abe books there is a copy for 1$ in USA !!.....

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR ... &x=83&y=14


So is it worth all that scanning effort for relatively cheap books?
Just trying to save a lot of work and it's nicer to have a real book sitiing in front of the fire in these autumn nights with a cup of coffee

Or am I missing something here?
Albert.

[Steve Anderson]

It seems to me that this is an enormous amount of trouble for 2 books which can be cheaply bought on ebay, UK booksellers or Abe books.

So is it worth all that scanning effort for relatively cheap books?
Just trying to save a lot of work and it's nicer to have a real book sitiing in front of the fire in these autumn nights with a cup of coffee

Or am I missing something here?
Albert.

Albert, no you're not missing something. I wasn't aware that these were still available. It's the RSGB 1944 handbook version and the SSTV one that have raised interest thus far. Perhaps these are not so easy to get?

Coffee? What? Thankfully I don't have to endure UK winters anymore, but if I were to I'd be in a nice cosy country pub imbibing heavily! Ye OLd Kings Head in Epsom, Surrey used to be my local, and it was a short stagger home. I do confess, that's one of the few things I miss about not being in the UK

Steve A.