Radio of the pirate variety

Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
If a certain person - not me, of course - had a purely hypothetical interest in how one would go about setting up a pirate radio station, what could you tell them about it, regarding the basics of equipment, expense, method, difficulty etc?
Particular points that might be of special interest to this person - still from a hypothetical, theoretical perspective of course: Will the switch over to digital-only broadcasting spell the end of traditional pirate radio? Is it/will it be a possibility to hi-jack the digital frequencies in a comparable way to what is done now with analogue? Or if internet radio broadcasting is the only feasible way forward, is there any way to effectively target/market this broadcasting to a local area, rather than risk sounding out into the void?
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Oh, and the person who suggested this to me also wonders if there is any truth in the propaganda about interference with emergency and aircraft frequencies, and if so, is there any particular way to avoid it? - because in general he is actually a decent citizen and all-round good egg.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Also if you do a search on here for 'pirates' there's info about a book that Matt Mason wrote and some info by Magz that may be of interest, I should have copied the links sorry but really tired.
 
M

msoes

Well-known member
Tentative Andy said:
Oh, and the person who suggested this to me also wonders if there is any truth in the propaganda about interference with emergency and aircraft frequencies, and if so, is there any particular way to avoid it? - because in general he is actually a decent citizen and all-round good egg.
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apparently there is truth to it, but its only happens if you have no idea what you are doing or are really cheap. i guess you'd need to use some sort of technology to filter out those frequency signals and something to hold your frequency in place.

no idea if you can hijack digital frequencies, that will be interesting

i think the future of radio will be internet anyway. the next step after this will be having radio's that are connected to the internet, so you can listen to any internet radio station around the world. i guess this would be resisted by commercial interests though
 
owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
As far as I know the ambulances & firemen are on the bottom and top of the FM frequencies, in the UK at least. Never heard them on a radio, but I once picked up a local taxi firm on AM. you'd think they'd have more sophisticated technology than that. And I dont know why broadcasting taxi drivers is legit but music isnt.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Oooh - thank you for all the replies and info. My acquaintance is grateful, and very interested by the reading material, but he (or is it a she? - even I am being kept in the dark about this ;) ) is feeling rather overwhelmed and feels that starting a music-related blog might be a good intermediary compromise step whilst they try and figure out whether this is do-able. Perhaps getting in contact with local legal stations also.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
owengriffiths said:
This may be of some help. http://www.roguecom.com/rogueradio/radioismybomb.html
The title is refferring to a real life woman involved in pirates who was interrogated by the police, who suspected she was a terrorist.
I'm sure there are more technical guides out there. Speaking for myself though, I would struggle to rewire a plug let alone build a transmitter
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Very useful, but I wonder did the author have a bet on as to how many times they could use the word 'fascist(s)' in one article? :p
 
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