My "Pirate" Radio Station. 1670 AM Over 20 Years On The Air.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2018
- Well, here it is. The long awaited video on my little AM radio station.
I've been promising to upload a video about this little radio station that I've been running since late 1998 for ever.
In my old house I lived in a small town and I actually had a pretty good audience. Up here in the mountains, I doubt anyone is listening, but for whatever reason I still really enjoy the idea of running my own radio station.
"Mad dog" and "Rockin Woodie" put on dozens of live shows back in the day, inviting guests on the air with the two of us as well as doing phone interviews. It was a great time to be alive, and the two of us still chat about the station during it's peak.
Like all good things the live shows dwindled down as life grew more complex and these days the station puts out mostly re-runs of the older shows mixed in with a strong collection of Coast to Coast re-runs.
Still, everyonce and a while Old "Mad Dog" will fire up the mic and do a live broadcast of
This video shows the tools I use to put my Hamilton Range Master on the air. An old laptop, a Radio Shack mixer board and the 1670 transmitter all work together to put out about a 1 to 1 1/2 mile range.
"Take Back The Airwaves" and join me and "Rockin Woody" on the air! - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![แม่กลองสองใจ - ซีแกรม โตเกียว มิวสิค [ OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GSQfVjcr_f4/mqdefault.jpg)
I also had one of those Ramsey kits when I was in high school and i took it on the school bus and would pirate the bus drivers FM radio and play my own music over the bus’s speakers. The driver would always listen to the same morning show on 95.5 so i was able to pre tune the tx to that frequency and just step on that channel for the duration of the ride to school in the morning.
Steve Hartman one of the coolest things I’ve heard!
Steve Hartman, fantastic! I love that.
Awesome!
Was it John boy and Billy lol
I never would have thought of that. Great idea!
I saw winamp and I knew it would be something-cast. Then you said it, Shoutcast. Took me right back to early 2000's.
I still listen to Shoutcast on Winamp today, too many commercials on Spotify.
I own a part 15 pirate radio station called "CJW Radio 95.7 FM" from Greenwood SC. I use a C.Crane FM transmitter 2 and I'm operating it from Sunday evening to Friday evening and off the air on weekends (sometime I be in the air on weekends). I play smooth jazz from iHeartRadio, late Sunday nights I play oldies and a mix of new school music from 12 midnight Sunday to 130am Monday morning for one hour, I air a talk show podcast called Late Night with Bry'Neir Seymore Monday thru Thursday at 1230am and record my own local advertisements from local businesses in my area.
Shout out to Alicias on Seabord avenue
@@380bees96 I'm off the air at the moment but I'll try to be back on the air sometime in April. If you want me to advertise Alicia's, I'll hit it over the airways.
@@chriswideman1218 I’m interested more about yours, I’m 16 and I want to start a legal community radio station (.5-1 mile) range. Is the crane FM transmitter legal? Or fcc approved? There selling around 50 bucks right now I might get one. Is there anything else I need for it? I have a laptop and microphone. Anything else to start broadcasting? Is it easy to broadcast on it? If you could respond this would be great. Thanks🎉
You might want to add a compressor/limiter in the audio chain, especially important for AM, that way you maximize modulation and range. Without it your station will sound dull and quiet.
I use the "Stereo Tool" program for my part 15 FM station, and it is a night and day difference. I no longer have to crank up the volume on my receiver and I am just as loud as the commercial radio stations. It actually improves the signal too because the louder audio covers up some of the noise!
Thank You! I'm a long time Amateur Operator and have always had an interest in Part 15 AM broadcast. This was a real treat.
Interesting video. I'm now listening to your online show on my Mac. Keep up the good work.
So nice to see winamp in the background there, what an awesome media player that was. Nostalgia! Peace from The UK
Whippin the lammas ass..
So much information here buddy, thank you.
This is a great video. I’ve always been into radio, originally on cb (when I was a kid) and later ham and shortwave listening. You mentioned talking houses. My wife and I are realtors, and years ago we had some talking house units. Anyway, keep up the great work and thanks.
I'm a blues-rock-C&W guy and most of the stations where I used to live were rap. Now, before someone gets their shorts in a wad I want to be clear that I have nothing against rap or anyone who likes it but rap just isn't my thing, so I bought a 1/2 watt Chinese FM transmitter and built a dipole antenna tuned to a clean frequency where I could listen to ZZ Top, SRV, John Lee Hooker and Alan Jackson in my garage. I let it rip. Whoa.... I underestimated the capabilities of a half watt on FM with a well tuned dipole and good coax. The town I lived in had a pop of about 11,000 and I was covering at least half of it.
Although thew results were FAR better than unexpected, and fun for a while I decided to take it down. Now I'm using a thumb drive and a mini stereo amp in the garage so I don't break the law or offend anyone.
My station call sign?
WHTY Whitey Radio. Music for the rest of us.
😂😂😂 hilarious call sign
I too had a 1/2 W mono FM transmitter and made a triple leg 1/4 wave at 30 feet high, i also was surprised at the range being like 3 to 4 miles on a clear frequency if i remember well, so I took it down, but it was a nice experiment.
I'd rather try (if i could, but I don't have nor the place nor the equipment to do so) on AM 1700 Khz the propagation characteristics of a 10W transmitter or on 40 something meters to see what gives 10W AM with a low dipole.
That would be fun, but i prefer to stay on HAM bands, where i am licensed, better to keep things safe ;)
Greetings from WDFA!
Back when I did college radio I also ran an online station out of my house. Also we learned that broadcasting music on airwaves there is still a licensing process and licensing fees.
Nice Tough book!! I'm an amateur Radio Guy myself and found your video on my feed. The irony is that I'm a VP at the largest Toughbook reseller in the world (Rugged Depot). Thanks for the video!
That is incredibly cool !
This reminds me of the transmitter I build from scratch. It was a lot of fun broadcasting. You have a nice setup.
Could you build me one?
@@antonio1681 I am in the midst of moving. It may have to wait a month or two.
@@davidsradioroom9678 okay, just update me
I ran a pirate station out of a van. I had wire antennas in trees on top of mountains around where I lived and would transmit with as much as 1000 watts. After 10 years of doing that I did finally get an FCC visit, and $15,000 fine in 1987. I wrote my own radio station software and launched my station on the internet in September of 1987. 32 years later I'm still running it.
Great Duck.👍
Wow, cool :)
All you have to do to scared the FCC guy off is to open carry. They will not come back..
ElfNet Designs: I did run the FCC officer off. He wanted to come in my house to confiscate my equipment. I told him he would have to come back with a Federal Marshall, and by then I would have the equipment off the property in storage. That didn't stop them from sending me a fine in the mail though. Which I never paid. And shortly afterward my case was apparently lost when the FCC office on Battery Street in San Francisco burned to the ground, and I never heard from them again. Ahh the good old days before everything was computerized and stored in clouds.
I did finally get an FCC visit, and $15,000 fine in 1987 and yet you still break the law and have no respect for it ???? ok thanks youre a shining example of why some people shoudnt have guns! and why these videos make no sense...
I love your radio that cures my diarrhea
That's pretty cool!
That’s really cool !,,
Sounds like fun !
Interesting topic of discussion for sure .I do t have a am) fm radio station I do find it very interesting.Im a ham as well Kb1pyb. I used to enjoy listening to late night talk radio as well.
Decades and decades ago I might’ve participated in some FM pirate stations that might’ve had 100 W or so with some pretty good antenna height and we might’ve even done call ins, Hmmm 🤔
I might have also done that back in the early 90s, I would have run 90 watts into an antenna that might have been poking out of the top of a 60-65' pine tree.
Very interesting!
Only 20 seconds in and I can't believe there's actually someone else out there (other than myself) who still uses Winamp version 2.xx. You not only know radios my good man, but you know the good software as well. Cheers!
It's like this. It works, It works well, and It's damn near perfect. Why bother to change right? Glad to hear I'm not the only Winamp fan left!
On a whim about a year ago I checked the old winamp web site and found they had released a new version 5.8. Seems it was a beta version that got leaked so they decided to just release it. I had been using 5.6.6 for some years since they quit updating it, and once in awhile it would lock up and wouldn't run again till I uninstalled and reinstalled it. I'm happy to say that 5.8 seems real stable and hasn't locked on me once.
Wonder if replacing all the old capaciters, pots, etc. would remove the noise?
Wow. You are doing what I would like to do. I have searched but have not found how to setup up a legal "pirate" radio station. I am a licensed Ham and would like to get into legal broadcasting. It would be awesome if you make videos on a step by step, how to broadcast and have a legal radio show.
I will try and make something more in depth.
I love and I like it because you are real
Aaaayyyy shiver me timbers. Why not. Pity i live in Australia , can't do a darn thing .
Nice posters with WRN news girls :)
I ran several intermittently from the early 1970s to the end of 1990s. My most powerful was 5kw erp and employed a silicon valley power amplifier on loan from a commercial radio station owner.
I designed and built everything else from pll excited to power amps and audio processing.
Lost our 102.5 freqvwhen a new station went on the air. Lost 92.9 two years later. No channels left.
We evolved into the Anime Music Network for the last four years in which we covered parts of three states with out state of the art audio processing.
Fun days, but risky.
Sounds like an incredible setup!
@@FarpointFarms I used to have a website with the schematics and how to instructions, but the feds took it down.
When I was stationed in England (USAF) we would tune in a Dutch pirate radio station that was located on a ship. I think someone made a movie about the ship. I believe that the ship sank. 1979?
I believe that Vectronics makes a kit similar to the ramsey kit, although it's for the FM band.
In the east of Holland we have hundreds or even thousands of illegal radio stations.
mooi werk
that is good
Great LAPTOP! i use the same one for programming my Motorola 2 way stuff.
Ever checkin on the channel 14 or 8 roll calls on CB on Saturday night?
Don't know about AM, but for FM, the Ramsey kit is Part 15 approved when assembled as is, with an on board antenna, but the moment you add an external antenna you're in violation and those Ramsey kits can give you up to a quarter mile range with a proper antenna. I know, because Ramsey was my first transmitter in middle school.
I never owned a FM kit, but you are right. Those part 15 rules are really out there. make a minor change and you are in violation.
Recently our church purchased a 1 watt FM radio transmitter. We will not be putting any antennas on the roof the only antenna will be using is the whip antenna that it came with nor will we be broadcasting over 1 watt do you think the FCC will come fine us
cool!
SWR in this case is critical if you want to transmit further than the table you are set up on........with low power you need zero losses in the system......
You may already know, but Live365 is back! It's one of the few ways you can stream online and let somebody else worry about filing the royalties paperwork.
I didn't! I'll look into them!
I don’t know if things have changed, but when I was in radio in the early ‘70s, broadcast stations had to pay royalties to ASCAP and BMI for the music they played. It wasn’t an exact thing. Periodically we would have to write down everything we played for a week, providing a sample of the programming. From that, the agencies had some formula to come up with the amount owed.
Curious about your BBS. From 1988 to 1992 I ran a board called “The Eagle’s Nest,” in support of scouting. It ran on an old DOS 5.0 XT clone using Wildcat software. Pre-internet, we had only a single incoming phone line but still tallied over 50,000 sessions with an “off-hook” time about 70% around the clock.
We had an Eagles Nest BBS in Wisconsin
BBS's were a great time in our history. I am still working on making a video of the little BBS I still run.
Best AM transmitter is ASPiSYS ASMAX1. It is a part 15 C-QUAM Stereo transmitter. Only issue is that it has to be shipped from Greece.
Cool
Popping noise from the transmitter would likely be a bad capacitor. Good luck witht the repair and let us know what you find.
Here I've heard that you got a vision of advertising globally across the world I do help with that and it is no charge ever I can send you information for free, because you have taught me something in that video a skill.
Max range is 1- 2 miles and the closest neighbor is 1/4 mile? You could reach more people with a CB or handy talkie. I guess it's just fun for you. 73
Exactly. It's a hobby. Back in Raleigh I had lots of ears for a 2 mile station, but those days are long gone.
I’m on 1670 too!
Lining up music is like a full time job .
Hey, had a question for you. I did some DJing of FM radio back in college and I really miss being on the air, and this kind of Part 15 AM setup looks like a really fun way to do it. I've never listened to much AM, but I've heard that modern music doesn't sound great over it? How much truth is there to that?
Props from QYNI/1700-Middleborough, Mass.!
Always great to hear from another Micro Broadcaster!
Farpoint Farms Thanks! I’m looking at getting a Rangemaster. I’m using the talking house for the main & a Vectronics for an auxiliary.
@@jayrogers8255 Yes, greetings to my fellow microbroadcasters....from "Radio Free Connecticut" in Bridgeport/Stratford, CT!
Matt Boland nice! What’s the frequency?
@@jayrogers8255 I'm on 1540 AM. Not a 24/7 operation.....should be doing another broadcast in the next day or so. :)
After 20 year of use , check all electrolytic capacitors first. You might find some have dried up.
agreed, bad caps do buzz, start with electrolytic cap(s) in the rectification part of the circuit.... nice setup, Cheers
caps are really the only thing to go bad. I have a tube tester thats from the 50s. Works fine after a cap job
I have a LPFM and I'm in WNC. I have a Talking House AM transmitter and have considered adding an AM signal to simulcast the FM. I'm curious as to how you'd tune the Antron 99 for AM broadcast frequencies? BUZZ
The rangemaster transmitter has a tuning circuit that makes that magic happen. It is made to work with a 102 steel whip so the antron is simply a double of that. It wasn't far off at all.
Thanks. I knew about the tuning circuit, but didn't think it was that close to the needed length. When you get it up and running please post your results.
Could not find your station on my radio app
i use to run a shoutcast only radio station that played all old time radio shows. then when i worked for the school system, it ran for a short time as distrix radio, which basically broadcast education based material. i got fired for whatever reason, and distrix, went black. i got better things to do anyway. those were the days though. and i do miss it alot too. someday maybe i'll bring it back, but i dont know under what format as you did mention copyright rules are different for internet then they are for radio.
How do the old radio copyright rules apply for low power stations.. THats always been my hangup on setting up a station . no content to play music wise.
I broadcast Heavy Metal from all parts of the world .
Wouldn't use cb antenna for that project...going to be a massive antenna mismatch and range grossly effected as well as damage to transmitters output
I have a couple fm transmitters that both run 1watt and 5watts. On high power i can get the signal a little over 5 miles with some static.1watt can get me about 3 miles. Antenna is just a standard car 3ft antenna on a 15ft mast outside that is being share with another antenna for my shortwave radio. I only run the transmitter on weekends or at night. I play mostly 90s country with a dash of alternative, pop, and softrock on an mp3 player on shuffle. I know the fcc isnt gonna knock on my door as long as im not stepping on the toes of a local big station and music clear of foul language accept for two songs by mumford and sons that have a couple f words in them. I just like to share songs that most radio stations no longer play.
Putting up a Comet antenna would make you happy
Very useful and interesting. Now I do understand why the word “pirate” is in quotes. People get bent out of shape over such silly trivial stuff.
Yeah, because its not even close to a pirate radio. Its a Part 15 station. This is all 100% legal and by the book, even at that... its not even really broadcasting to anyone it seems. He even said hes got about a mile range, the next house is half a mile away and he doesnt suspect hes interfering with their radio... so... hes just broadcasting to himself? Then you have the shoutcast aspect, and thats all legal too. Unless you have like, i think its more than 1000 concurrent listeners, you dont even need copyright licenses, and that has nothing to do with airwave radios. *shrug*
Our Australian Government AM Radio Station ABC Radio 720Khz here in Armidale NSW Australia is only 50 Watts of power.
Realizing that the video is over a year old, but Keith Hamilton still supports and repairs older Rangemaster AM transmitters. Also, as long as you comply with Part 15.219 your transmitter wouldn't be considered a "pirate" station. Also, the rules for both AM and FM broadcast bands differ quite a bit and with the FCC going after FM pirate operators both hobbyists and campus-limited radio are best served with compliant Part 15 AM broadcasting. My site offers copious resources for those who want to get involved with legal license free Part 15 broadcasting.
I visited you site many times over the years! Great info on it.
I think Live365 is still going. But I haven't used them since 2002
Does the UK have an equivalent of part 15? I am planning on setting up a pirate analogue TV transmitter using a VCR and some amps.
I don't know the law there, but I can tell you that once upon a time back in 1999 I did the same thing. I got my hands on a room to room UHF TV transmitter and it didn't take me anytime to figure out that with a larger antenna and some minor modifications I could broadcast "Channel 19 Public TV" to the neighborhood! Only did it for a few weeks before I moved on to other projects, but it was a great time in life. Good luck with your station!
A bit late, but no there isn’t, unfortunately. You can buy the equipment, but you run it at your own risk.
Would be cool to listen to your station . Would you be willing to put it up on the broadcastify app?
I haven't heard of that one. I'll check into it!
I put your station as a favorite.As of a few minutes ago there's no activity on your station.
It's offline as of now while I try to get the transmitter fixed.
@@FarpointFarms Thanks.
A pioneer. What one sentence advice would you give to one just starting up?
You work out. Obvious.
Legal is hard to define for AM BCB. It's signal strength at distance. A +mile range is excellant but that sounds too good to be legal. However as you say rural who cares. I had a part 15 AM station but it's range was a block.
So curious question, what is the advantage of having a radio station that only reaches 1-2 miles? I can see this being useful for drive in theater, or like in my home town for a Christmas drive thru show.
It's like a poor man's wireless headphones. You put a little portable radio in your pocket an have music as you walk around. Nobody questions why you only get 30 ft. from bluetooth, but you don't think a couple of miles is enough?
What about finding a station to broadcast on? And how do you know if someone else (another part 15 user) is broadcasting on your station if you been on the station for years? You can’t kick them off or anything would you just fight with them or no?
There is a website that lists stations broadcasting in your area. I can't remember the address right now, but look it up, find one that is open, then verify that you can't pick up anything on it, and if it's clear, you just found your station!
7 years in a cage , maxed my sentence out so I wouldn't have to pay the 300 grand in fines , ya pirate radio is a fucking blast
Farpoint Farms when you gonna do another live chat
It's been a busy few months. That's why the video count has gone from 3 a week to just 1 or this week 2. Let's try and do a live one next Saturday at 7:30.
What antenna are you using for the cb now?
Max 2000 by solarcon.
how are the mutliples linked together as you described?
Using the built in "Dove-net" network, or by literally creating your own Net. There are ones that cater to preppers, ghost hunters, and just about anything else you can think of. There is also a way of adding in Usenet (Google that one) and it's a unbreakable censorship free worldwide network that predates the modern net. I've been active on Usenet as a standalone since the early 90's. There are a lot of ways around the modern network that many of us old timers still remember and use. Good Luck!
I plan on making a transmitter (I built my own from scratch, puts out about 89milliwatts) to broadcast techno/electronic music in my area, since all the radio stations here suck
you can buy one of those car cigar lighter plug in FM transmitters and save yourself the headache.. or buy one of those chinesium FM transmitters that adjust from 100 mW up to whatever watts..
@Frost add external antenna and it will get more range. The idea is to NOT get the attention of the FCC or similar governing body.
@Frost Well the rule is to stay under a watt and below 92 MHz. We run a transmitter on 87.9 @ 1 watt for a PA link because in some venues it is impossible to run audio cables and maintain signal quality at some of the distances required.
Hello. What is the maximum transmitter power allowed by the FCC regulations for the 1670khz frequency?
One hundred milliwatts. About 2 miles if done just right, and as little as 1/4 mile if just plugged in.
hey not sure what part of NC you in but every Saturday night around 8-ish they have a roll call a few guys normally go in top of a mountainl in NE Ga SW NC or NW SC and calls for stations to get on the list. then after that they have races. we get check-ins from TN,GA.NC and SC normally over 100 real check ins. try it if your close enough. good video.
What channel do you guys meet on? I'll give it a shot next week.
Ch 14
Good job) pirate radio this is hobby with romanticism.
Consider recapping the Rangemaster.
I just sent them an e-mail to see if they wanted to work on it. If not, that's my next move.
if you see this next time you do a cigar review i request Blender's gold churchill cigar from walgreens or philies titian
you got a sub from me
Thanks man! I hope you enjoy the content.. I tend to do a little of everything.
Interesting video,. Does anyone know, if you had a boat and went 12 miles offshore, can you run a real high-power pirate station? Or would the FCC send the Coast Guard after you? 😁
That is interesting...
What kind of antenna do you work ??
It's a home brew setup. I've considered an Isotron 200B, but never did it.
Sorry my question may sound dumb but it this the same way people transmit on short wave radio?
Have a good question? Why don’t the FCC care if my building full of LED lighting drown out my neighbors radio reception? But if a person dose what you’re doing in this video is a problem
The FCC only cares about one thing. MONEY. If you are offering something for free, they get uppity. Since there is no money to be made by suing Chinese companies, they ignore them.
Hello from 28.05 mhz(1kw) and 99.1 FM(25 watts) Radio Pushka
u r broadcasting in a HAM band ? from where ? seems like hungarian pushka means gun lol
So how many TV channels did you pick up and how strong is the signals since installing your new TV antenna? Inquiring curious minds want to know.
Check back tomorrow for part two of that Antenna review!
I am looking at a part 15 rado wink wink. I am trying to start 95.5 JFM in my area
Recently our church purchased a 1 watt FM radio transmitter. We will not be putting any antennas on the roof the only antenna will be using is the whip antenna that it came with nor will we be broadcasting over 1 watt do you think the FCC will come fine us
No, I doubt it. Worst case scenario, they would send a letter to you telling you to turn it off. If you ignore that one, yes you could have a problem, but at 1 watt and limited range there should be no issues.
Farpoint Farms at only a single watt?! There shouldn’t be any issues with this at all.
I always love listening to Art Bell shows
Who can even tune in 1670 besides hams?
Literally every AM radio made after 1988 goes to 1710.
Can anybody help me out there how to improve the audio
There are a lot of professional audio compressors out there on Ebay. I've had decent luck with just using my little Winamp setup, but there certainly is room for improvement.
A sztereo - mono prblémát két potméteren keresztül oldottam meg. A sztereo jel egy 100k sztereo potméteren megy át egy 47 k-s mono potméterre, onnan pedig a jelközösített jel megy át a rádióadóba. Sajnos a rádióm forgókondenzátora tönkre ment, és az "új" szovjet forgókondenzátor nem jó.
Lots of comments below arguing over whether this was truly "pirate" radio or just legal unlicensed hobby radio. I'm torn as I think it is interesting, but I'm disappointed as I was thinking of an actual pirate station running illegal power and operating as a commercial station.
I just can't risk the fine or jail time for running a true pirate station. These are hobbies of mine. I'd love to get a true LP AM or FM station and really get into this as a job, but it looks less and less likely as I grow older.
He's using Winamp!
You bet! Its actually winamp 5.66 with shoutcast and dnas server software so that the station can also stream online. Super simple, 100% free, and works without fail. Sometimes the old ways are the best.
What makes it pirate radio if your complying with all the rules?
That's why the "Pirate" is in quotes. I say pirate radio as it better describes the whole micro broadcaster community.
Sadly if you read the part 15 rules, it's entirely possible that my 100 miliwatt setup actually is in violation of one or more parts of the impossible to understand rules. The info on total antenna length, if or if it doesn't include the antenna cable, and if or if it doesn't include the ground wiring to the unit is a lesson on stupidity via the FCC. The way the rules are written, I could literally have a station with a 5 foot effective range and still be in violation of part 15 rules.
I'd go on to rant that 100 watt to 500 watt LP TV and AM/FM stations should be something that is actually obtainable, but I figure you don't really want to hear that.
@@FarpointFarms Actually, I'd like to hear that. I've enjoyed your other videos, but this particular video is my favorite. The more information on this subject, the better. I'd like to do this as well.
Probably because these days, the term pirate radio has evolved to cover just about any unlicensed station going out over the am or fm broadcast bands whether legal or not legal. Or to be politically correct or sensitive, we could call it "undocumented radio"
It's pirate radio because you have to wear an eye patch and have a parrot on you shoulder when you broadcast
Joe Didit how can you be politically correct in a so called constitutional republic?
If you need more listener slots (unlimited listeners) for your internet broadcast check out www.zenomedia.com/ --- It offers both shoutcast and icecast with autoDJ, as well as unlimited storage for podcasts. And it's free! With autoDJ you can upload your recorded shows and when you aren't broadcasting live the server will be playing a random recorded show. If you use icecast rather than shoutcast your listeners will seamlessly be switched from live to autodj, or autodj to live without being disconnected (unlike shoutcast where they have to reconnect when you switch feeds.) I don't actually use it myself, I lease four icecast servers. But I have an account there and have played with it and it works quite well.
The antron 99 is not the correct antenna for your AM radio Station.
@@TimOlsonWB7TIM Part 15 transmitters (AM) are limited to 0.1 watts output. Even if you shorted the antenna terminal to ground, that would likely not be enough reflected power to damage the 2N2222 (or whatever) output transistor.
This guy should give classes
Thats cool that your into that. About 5 years ago I stumbled on a p1r4t3z his youtube channel is th-cam.com/users/p1r4t3z he was a pirate. He did get a notification from the FCC to stop. However he eventually became KNNZ. Its basically an old school radio station. Just wish he would post up some newer vids. Suggest you watch his videos from beginning.
Can you do it with fm?
You sure can. It's easier with FM as there are a lot of transmitters from China that are cheaper than the AM setups.
Do like the Dutch guys do....It's not uncommon for them to run several Killowatts and there signals propergate all over western Europe during the evenings as it's skywave of course.Many of my ex pirate radio friends also have Ham radio licences and they build there own transmitters too.No interference problems either because there all good radio engineers.👍73 Ian G7HFS/PA3IKH
The AM transmitter I have is 30 watts "LPB AM-30" and I built a proper antenna for it from PVC and copper pipe. And just to get under those anal retentive ham ops skin I use a ham radio tuner to tune the antenna.
The FM transmitter I have is a 2 part system. a 50 watt CZE and a 2 Kw Collins amplifier rack. I never had a need to use the amplifier but the exciter I use on jobs where audio cable runs are too long to be efficient.
Sounds like a serious setup! Cool.
@@FarpointFarms i guess.. the AM one is used around this time of year to transmit Christmas music for the neighborhood here, the FM exciter gets used most because there is a valid need for it when we set up for drag boat racing, you cannot run a line level signal cable 1/2 a mile to an amplifier cabinet that server the pits, too much loss and noise besides people will mess with the wiring, snag it with high profile RV's ot drive over it and eventually it will break. even using yellowjacket to cross a road the wires still get mashed and broke somehow.. In the long run the transmitter idea saves us on wire cost and we only run it at under 2 watts on 87.9 and only while races are going on. I know it's not 100% legal but we had an FCC guy look at it and they shrugged it off with the statement "Whatever works" .