How-To Tuesday: Make your own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod
posted June 15th 2004 11:07AM
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
Does the iTrip mini sticker on top protecting the antenna go back on after you peel it back?
My iTrip experiences are horrible so far - hoping to improve it
Is it possible that the iTrip (regular not mini) might be more effective in USA than in Australia? We are having trouble getting strong reception from ours back home in Tasmania after having really good performance while driving in USA recently. I have taken tips from other people here and pulled out the antenna. This has given significantly stronger signal but is still not strong enough in the car (the car's aerial is in the body). Clipping on an antenna extension seems to help a little. ???
I am going to be an electrical engineer and I am a student of level-2/tram-1 now.I don't know how aradio wark and how radio station sent frequency.I want to know everything about this.
so are the itrips not illegal over there as they are in the UK?
Finally can play "Banana Phone" over the schools intercom system =D adn they won't know who it is.
dont u have to be on an empty radio station to be able to use the ipod?
i dont no about you ppl but my car has a cd changer in the trunck (not factory) and it is not connected to the radio it uses a fm modulator. It broadcasts the signal about an inch the broadcaster is placed almost directly next to the antenna connection. It broadcasts on something like 88.6 or something could you not just set up the itrip to everride the cd player...
Yes you do need to tune an FM transmitter into a free frequenzy. The best things is an airplay as they are easier to use and much stronger. Also anybody seen the new itrip lcd coming out take a look
http://www.easyipod.co.uk
there is a picture of the item
how can you overide a strong signal? ex. if someone is playing annoying music, how can you play your music over that? doesn't the signal have to be really bad? my itrip mini (with copper wire wrapped around the antenna) can only go over stations with bad signals.
i was serching on how to build a piret raido station and came across this, looks cool but im looking in to building a cheep transmitter that i can leave playing a loop of "anti-vertisements, over the main raido stations. it has to be cheep because it will eventualy be found and destroyed. (im looking to build multipul units. id be intrested if any one has an idea on how to do this.
ps im not a techy kinda guy , so id need sum details. if you could help me out my e mail is sjsdr@hotmail.com
THANX!!! }:)
Can this be done with a 4g/iPod photo? If so, I will be all oer this idea.
One way to boost the signal is to build a parabolic shaped bowl out of balsa wood covered with copper foil. You drill a small hole in the middle of the bowl. Then, you put the antenna through the hole. Make sure the antenna's wire is exposed at the tip. Make a shape out of copper foil to connect to the wire. The shape should look like that thingy on a massive transmitter that points in the direction of the dish. You have just made a Marconi satellite transmitter.
hello
im trying to market http://www.autosurfmonster.com on the radio any advice on how i can do this??
All of you have no lives! I'm gonna build me a 4.5782901.43 FM transmitor ampliflicator hydro-foil system and aim it straight up your HINEY HOLE!!
In seventies when I was young and interested in electronics I discovered a way to make a radiocassette recorder into a transmitter.
It only needed microphone and 10 microfarad electrolytic capacitor in series to connect into the base of mixer/oscillator transistor of the radioreceiver.
Basically you find the spot by tuning a second FM radio 10.7 MHz higher than the one you are hacking into a FM transmitter. Lets say you have 90 MHZ on the transmitting radio and you find muted frequency on 100.7MHz on the receiving radio. You just tap your finger on the radio part of the transmitting radio near the tuning capacitor and you should hear a buzzing noise when you find the right spot. You solder the other end of the capacitor into this point and microphone in series.
Warning : if you are not familiar with electronic circuits use a battery operated transistor radio so you avoid getting electric shocks.
Me and my brothers had some fun with this when we tuned on top of pop music station in our small country town. (in seventies there was only two FM stations in our small home town)
We parked next to a police station and announced rego plates of passing cars and told they had a problem with their vehicle. One Morris Mini stopped, parked and driver walked around his Mini looking very puzzled and checking the tires. We cracked laughing in our truck.