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:
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
