Use an iPod Mini to Broadcast Pirate Radio 558
StJefferson writes "Ever want to silence the urban assault vehicle beside you at the stop light, pounding out gangster angst at orthodontia-rattling volumes? Now you can, and here's how, courtesy Engadget."
Atricle Text (Score:4, Informative)
How-To Tuesday: Make your own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod
Posted Jun 15, 2004, 11:07 AM ET by Phillip Torrone
Related entries: Portable Audio, Wireless
This was going to be "How-To increase the range of your iTrip mini". But after playing around with the new iTrip mini, the FM broadcasting accessory for the iPod (our review here) our little minds got working on some ideas. We thought we might be able to make the range of Griffin's iTrip mini a little better if took it apart and exposed the antenna, turns out we could. And then we thought, hey- we could use a couple iPods to broadcast something we wanted to get out there, perhaps not "should" that is, but could. So that was our motivation, and here's the How-To.
Ingredients:
* 1 iPod mini
* 1 iTrip mini
* Optional: Addition iPods, iTalks and iTrips
Getting Started
First, to become your own pirate broadcast station you'll need to increase the range and signal of your iTrip mini. Turns out, there is an antennae built inside the iTrip mini. All you need to do is remove the top sticker-like protection which hides the antennae and then using tweezers or your fingernail, pull the antennae out. We've found a 20% to 30% increase of range on average. This likely voids the warranty, so there, we said it.
Next up, if you're using the iTrip mini, then you know that you can install all the stations on the dial to broadcast on. At first we we're really sure we'd ever use them, but now we have good reason. So make sure you've installed all the stations, on the go you might need them to switch to. Remember, the iTrip is a FM broadcasting device, intended to broadcast 10 to 30 feet to a FM radio.
Next, choose your broadcast, it can be any song or a spoken word MP3, don't worry we have a few suggestions. A lot depends on the situation you're in.
Pirate Broadcasts
We usually keep a couple tracks of silence ready to go, ever get stuck at a stop light for like 10 minutes and the dude in the next car is blasting the radio? With the super easy iPod interface you can quickly get to the station he's on and send over whatever you want, a couple gentle ocean waves or birds usually works out great.
If you've ever gone to the Gym, or starred in to one from the outside- you'll notice the TVs are muted and set to broadcast on specific FM frequencies, folks then tune in their radio headsets to whatever station to listen to the audio as they exercise. Now we're not suggesting you go around and broadcast over CNN or anything, but we think broadcasting "Aliens have landed today, the President and UN will be making an announcement immediately" could be quite fun. We'll be trying this out with our gym pals who are usually up for a good gag.
There are other times where you simply need to broadcast back. Let's say you're at the park, enjoying a nice quiet day with your family- then comes along someone blasting the radio. We've found broadcasting a silent track tends to work nicely, sure you need to be within 30 to 40 feet, but no one will even suspect that their FM broadcast is getting usurped by you.
Advanced Pirate Radio Broadcasting techniques
We've also discovered another fun example. If you use the iTalk, Griffin's voice recorder accessory with 2g/3g iPod you can record your pirate broadcast on the fly, pop in the iTrip and start broadcasting. Usually pretending to be an omnipotent being and asking folks to build a water proof car, drive across the English Channel with two of every gadget gets some interesting reactions.
Now, if you really get in to this- you could easily increase the range even more, google around for ways to do this- we're working on a few and will let you know too. You can additionally use multiple iPods, when you're broadcasting something like a silent track, you and a pal can cover more area and really surround the FM receiver. And finally, there are also a lot of other things which use FM that you can discover and broadcast to, happy hunting.
This concludes our broadcast. Send comments and ideas to torrone@gmail.com
the article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:great idea, but would never work... (Score:3, Informative)
As I understood it, the broadcasting antenna is placed right next to the receiving antenna, pretty much overpowering any other signal to that antenna
Re:Atricle Text (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't anti-sound. (Score:5, Informative)
Silence Machine Article 1 [techtarget.com]
Silence> Machine Article 2 [newscientist.com]
Re:Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad... (Score:2, Informative)
Uh, not that I would, uh, ever go in there... (Looks over shoulder)
Re:Great way to get yourself shot. (Score:2, Informative)
RIAA - They don't care unless you are broadcasting their music, and unless they have recently copyrighted "silence", you are okay with them. If they HAVE copyrighted "silence", I'm moving to Canada.
DMCA - WTF? Where did you get that from? How is upping the range of your iTrip by 5 feet considered reverse engineering software?
Re:great idea, but would never work... (Score:0, Informative)
Most radio stations are playing a CD over the air. How the fuck, Mr. Moron, are you proposing that modulating, broadcasting, receiving, and demodulating that signal is going to *improve* it. Theoretically, it could be as good. In practice, that is FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE YOU FUCKING MORON.
Jesus fucking christ. Everyone on slashdot is a goddamn idiot.
not pirate radio (Score:5, Informative)
911 abuse, noise ordinances, police reports, etc. (Score:5, Informative)
It's called prioritizing. "Deal with shooting or deal with guy who's being followed by some teenager punk. Hmm." "I am not sh1tting you", 911 is heavily abused. Sample calls, according to dispatchers I've spoken with: "Hi, do you know the number for ____?" "I lost my dog..." "Can you give me directions to...", then the ever-popular hangups, which of course they have to investigate, tying up an officer's time. Then there are shut-in bitches who tell war+peace about the neighbor's [dog barking/yard mess/porch lights on/you name it]. The list goes on, and on, and on.
Most police departments are also pretty short-staffed these days. Bush is mostly responsible on two counts; 1, for cutting back on federal funding for local emergency staff- police, EMS and fire all have been hit hard in almost every town throughout the US. 2, a large percentage of Guard and Reservists are (surprise!) also town/city fire fighters, police, EMS, etc.
I later went back to look at the laws in my state governing self-defense.
How about looking up the noise ordinances, instead? Most cities and towns have 'em. NY, for example, is getting very tough on noise complaints (I believe you dial 311, ie the non-emergency number?) Borrow a neighbor's video camera (they'll be happy to oblige if it's annoying them as well) and videotape the clown going by- be sure to get a closeup of his face, and his plates. Call the NON EMERGENCY ie business number for the local station, ask to set up an appointment with an officer or detective. Problem solved and out of your hands.
Next thing I know the guy is chasing me around trying to run me off the road.
Um- duh. Get away from him, file a police report later with the plates and vehicle description. You've also hit upon why I carry a Bronx Calling Card, aka 3-D-cell Maglight, in my front door pocket. I have been doing so ever since someone told me they'd "fucking kill me" at a stoplight when I told him he his highbeams were stuck on. This was, incidentally, in downtown Larchmont, NY(very swanky neighborhood), the guy was not driving a riced out POS, and he was white.
One of many reasons I moved out of NY state- everyone's a prick out to kill you at the drop of a hat.
Re:FreeCache (Score:3, Informative)
Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. (Score:3, Informative)
Just one point -- mere words -- even honking your horn or flipping someone off -- is inadequate "provocation" to nullify a self-defense argument.
Now, if you were to pull a knife or gun on someone, well, then you lose the right to sell defense. But words -- no matter how annoying or offensive -- are NEVER sufficient provocation for one to lose their right to self-defense.
Now, I agree that someone who does this sort fo thing probably deserves to get thier ass beat, and would likely get throw in jail because the cops don't want to have to sort this sorta thing out, but if you ended up in court, you could still prevail on self-defense unless you did more than yell and scream and annoy the other guy.
Another Portable Low Power FM Setup (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I call Shenanigans! (Score:4, Informative)
Which ever signal is strongest at the receiver will "win" and be heard. If the signals are too close in strength, you won't get either properly.
With a commercial transmitter putting out several KW's but being 50 miles away and you putting out 100MW but being several yards away it is quite possible you will win out.
BTW, this is exactly what these products do. You don't need to be on an unused frequency (trying finding one of those in the Bay Area) Of course it helps quite a bit if the commercial signal is weak and easier to overcome.
Crane transmitter is the real deal - iTrip crap (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad... (Score:3, Informative)
Power budget analysis:
The satellite might have a few dB of advantage considering relative power, but I think the EIRP of those birds is pretty low ... certainly less than +50dBm ... so even if I'm using a true QRPppppp (say one milliwatt) transmitter, I've still got 67 dB on the satellite
Re:The title of this article is misleading (Score:3, Informative)
Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FM radio, I think not. (Score:3, Informative)
Ask any CB'er who has a linear amp.
Re:Uh... (Score:3, Informative)
YDRC,DA.
A square wave is the sum of the fundamental and all odd harmonics.
It's a pulse that contains all frequencies.
More like EMP (Score:2, Informative)
(a) Overloading their system with RF. Me and my dad--at the time--had a 600 watt RF amp for ham radio. I could hear him on my telephone when he was transmitting (and my stereo). I would bet that a signal well below the F3 parameter of their speaker boxes--usually ported--would ruin the drivers, if they got enough of it. Just add it to the signal...most radio receivers--and the speaker--will filter that, anyway.
(b) For the "extreme edition"...make sure you get all your computers 20 miles a way, along with everything else you care out (even pictures on the wall). I heard a story of someone shorting out a cyclotron magnet...or the power supply that went to it.
Rules are: You have to ramp them up slowly, and down slowly, in regards to the magnet input current. A fast change will create an expanding or collapsing field, which can store quite a bit more than a capacitor can; and is not limited to an electrical connection. The magnetic field can effect a lot of devices, just as a nearby lightning strike can.
In the case of the cyclotron magnet. The power supply shorted...All wiring, in the immediate area, was vaporized. This included the thick stuff thay used to hang the pictures on the walls.
In a bang everything melted, or fell to the floor.
Interesting to see how one of those would do, if configured for that very purpose.
On the original post...this works great if they are "listening" to the radio (bothering the neighborhood with the radio). But, if they use a CD player, jamming the frequencies just won't help, unless you pick option (b)...and please make sure you get your TV, computers, video games, wife's jewery, etc. out of the house, beforehand.
And, I can provide (c):
If you have a car of your own...get a few high SQL to input power treble drivers (and MONSTROUS ear protection). Put those in your car, with an oscillator you can tune from 3 to 18 kHZ. Find one of them? Pop on the protection, and give them 800 watts of something that will make you sick or give a headache at 1 watt or less.