How To Set Up A Pirate Radio Station Without Getting Caught

[@hakology]

you forgot the golden rule "if anyone asks where the station is based, they don't need to know, anyone who needs to know will know, those who don't will ask." we were only ever told where the station was once from one person after that you never talked about it.

[@Diamond_Tiara]

«where is the station based?» >chadface.bmp «yes it is»

[@memeconnect4489]

if people wanna know where the station is they are just gonna triangle it down

[@hakology]

@@memeconnect4489 i was referring to people who hang around with the djs / mcs etc not OFCOM

[@1ute]

thank you

[@Acidlib]

when I was a kid and first learning about electronic music and rave culture back in like 2005, I always thought it would be really cool to run or even just help with a pirate radio station. I wonder if it would still be a plausible thing to do in America, without an inordinate amount of capital for equipment, OpSec, etc. or would it maybe be more viable to do a legal low power fm station with that community radio program (idk the official name) that Obama started a while back? Now I know that you’d be way better off just doing this over the internet via streaming, twitch, podcasts or whatever, but there’s just something about people being able to discover it randomly while channel surfing on their car or home radio and the physical nature of the equipment, plus being able to do things yourself without the restrictions of an online platform.

[@geigertec5921]

I was a pirate radio station hunter back in the 90's. During a raid once in Manchester a DJ took out a sword and threatened to stab me. Pulled out my sword and a swashbuckling exchange ensued. In the end muskets were drawn and after the smoke cleared 19 pirates lay dead. The pirate radio station was ablaze and taking on water. It's then that I noticed a train of gunpowder had been ignited. I leapt from the deck of the radio station just as the flame contacted a cask of powder. The station erupted in a great fireball. Cannons and broadcasting equipment rained down. That's when I noticed the Union Jack flying over my head, I had landed on the deck of the HMS Britannia. I was later knighted by King George III himself.

[@varunramakrishnan7676]

They had us in the first half, ngl

[@invadercem2]

🤘🏾

[@funnydude447]

And Obama was there and everyone clapped

[@funnydude447]

And Obama was there and everyone clapped

[@fixfaxr]

😆

[@AttilaSVK]

Had a station for a couple of years in my hometown. I made sure to never interfere with anybody, which turned out to be the key to not getting found. The other thing was that the regulatory authority was (still is) understaffed and they had more important things to do than to chase someone who wasn't reported by anyone :)

[@vajcochlpko]

Cauko, si zo slovenska? :D ak ano, tak v akom meste to bolo?

[@charleswest6372]

Used ham HF transceiver w 200w for quick broadcasting. We attacked Bill Clinton and what evil he did. Had to transmit fast about 5 minutes and move. Was in Kennewick WA 1996.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

@@charleswest6372 You had to move to a different location every 5 minutes? Politics aside, I'm curious about how hard that would've been, and I imagine a lot of equipment moving took place in that short time. How far away did you have to go each move? I salute your dedication!

[@European-Man-88]

@@StrangeScaryNewEnglandI doubt he *had* to, he just *wanted* to feel like he's in an action movie...

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

@@European-Man-88 LOL you may be onto something. It sounded a little extreme if you ask me and a logistical nightmare. HF Radio equipment wasn't THAT portable in the 90's

[@hugobloemers4425]

We had a very successful pirate station in the east of Holland in Nijmegen, called "Keizerstad Radio". They had a reach of about 50 miles (they would come in more clear than the regular radio stations) with commercials and on the hour they would just plug in the regular news broadcast of Hilversum 3 (which is the equivalent of BBC1). They would reside in a big flat building of a council estate and have the antenna on the roof. So the telephone company (in charge of finding pirate stations) would still have trouble finding the apartment. This was part of a criminal organization and their main protection was that the council estate tenants where very reluctant to help the police and even more likely to tip of the pirate station. There where also roomers that they managed to infiltrate the police, which is probably the best protection you can get. If they would be raided, which did happen, they would be back on air within 2 hours or so. There was always an other apartment from an other building with new studio ready to go. The most precious asset they had where the records. The studio only ever had enough records for two hours of programs. The records would be stored in yet an other apartment within the same building. I am not sure the station is still there, I have immigrated out of Holland.

[@kyle8952]

I'm close to Nijmegen and can confirm Keizerstad still exists! Ten years ago they stopped on FM and moved to an internet radio service keizerstad punt nl. The programming is nostalgic 80s music now

[@xminusone1]

Hi fellow RP. It's nice to hear 😊 I bet in a densely populated place it was pretty successful 👌

[@CallousCoder]

Ik ben helemaal voor Piraten 🏴‍☠️ Fuck de fascistische overheid en zeker die smerige ongekozen fascistische blob Bruls!

[@overcheats4518]

ben zelf ook geemigreerd waar ben jij naar toe ge gaan ? :)

[@CallousCoder]

@@overcheats4518 ik ben weer terug in Nederland maar ik heb in UK gezeten. En wat korte jobs in de US.

[@tannerbass7146]

As someone that has set up many microwave links in the past, I can tell you that the propagation path is never intuitive. In some cases getting from one point to another means bouncing the signal off a hill and hoping a herd of cattle doesn't come by and change the local dielectric constant.

[@peterdambier]

Bouncing is not a bad idea in the first place.

[@jasongreene303]

There's a new field of study: the dielectric constant of bovine. I know someone could figure out how to get funding for that from the US government lol

[@Mekaniac]

brilliant comment 👏

[@davisev5225]

As someone who has set up microwave links in the past, you're full of it. Links are always point-to-point; trying to bounce them off on ANYTHING would likely lead to unacceptable levels of interference. It would also never be a "perfect" reflection, so you'd diffuse the signal quite a bit by doing so, meaning you'd drastically reduce the signal strength by the time it reached the receiver. No RF engineer worth their degree would ever consider doing such a thing.

[@MartinE63]

Clearly you haven’t ever heard of Fresnel zones.

[@3xAudio]

My Dad had a pirate radio station in the 70s/80s in Ireland because there was only one national radio station RTE. The local police/guarda even knew who they were and would phone in to tell them local emergencies and news lol.

[@rspeak5768]

My uncle (RIP) who ran one in Philadelphia Pennsylvania used to say, “you can broadcast long distance for short times, or short distance for long times, but you can’t do both”

[@condb19]

We had a pirate station running in my hometown for most of the winter during late 2021 to early 2022.; started late November and lasted all the way to mid-March. What's funny is the guy must've had a powerful enough transmitter to overpower a 50,000 watt station (30 miles away) and a 100,000 watt station (45 miles away), and block them out for about a 1-mile radius around town. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did, he would be on just about every day of the week, alternating between transmitting over two larger, licensed stations.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

What was he broadcasting? Music or talk?

[@Bond2025]

That wouldn't have taken much power. If you think about a room of people shouting to each other, if you have someone next to you, you will hear them louder than others further away. That's how transmitters work. 50KW 10 miles away can easily be blocked by 10 Watts for a mile radius from the transmitter. It doesn't mean he had more power, it's just that he was closer.

[@HobkinBoi]

For modern setups, one could run a transmitter alongside a raspberry pi or a cheap mp3 player if you don't need any kind of internet/remote access or are not remotely streaming. One could even set up multiple lower power transmitters and have them go online/offline, switching between transmitters at random to throw off anybody tracking the signal.

[@BrightSpark]

Or you could just do a web radio via the internet.

[@HobkinBoi]

@@BrightSpark That would be a far safer option, with a further reach. The only catch is the bandwidth. Though you could just stream to KZbin.

[@thelaurens1996]

@@HobkinBoi these are viable for as long as there IS internet. The other ways are more useful for apocalyptic scenarios

[@leolego2]

@@BrightSpark that's just boring though

[@Jell0zz]

@Retro Game Elements Wouldn't exactly be radio

[@xminusone1]

I'm guilty of this. We built a setup on the mw band in the 90's. To have a good powerful sound you need also a good compressor/limiter. It was a tube transmitter of course. I built it myself along with the modulator who was solid state. We had so much fun with that little set-up and it sounded really professional. The hardest part was to get rid of harmonics and at the time, the hardest part to come by were the transfomers. It used a pair of plate modulated 845 in the final output stage. It was awesome 👌

[@RetroPlus]

Badass

[@chrissanders2562]

Ive seen some fm radio transmitters on Ebay for like 100 bucks that claim to go 100 meters. Ive allways wanted to have a little radio station of my own. Whats your opinion.

[@LagrangePoint0]

@@chrissanders2562 you gonna get the poo-lice up yo azz in no time, son.

[@chrissanders2562]

@@LagrangePoint0 hahaha ive never heard it put in that manner before🤣

[@memeconnect4489]

i will love to hear some of these stories

[@mutezone]

There is a BBC documentary from the mid 90s available on KZbin about London pirate stations. They were documenting Dream FM, one of the biggest London pirates which was reported to also be received outside of the capital. On one occasion of filming when the station was live on air, a transmitter link was taken removed by the authorities & Dream FM's signal went off air . If it was not for the microwave link trick, for sure the authorities would have raided the studio instead.

[@TheMisphit]

That was actually just done for the purpose of the documentary and they didn't really get taken off air (on that very occasion). I used to know the people from Dream back when it was filmed.

[@MNDXer1057]

Also, if you do this, another key is to blend in with other stations as best as possible. Use audio processing (Stereo Tool, Breakaway, Hellfire, Omnia, Orban etc.), keep your content on air clean / free of cussing and use a government approved transmitter (or something that you can at least prove yourself is clean enough) and you’ll be set - not saying you won’t get caught, but people usually report because of interference or “odd” sound. In this day, pirate radio is far from most governments’ concern.

[@3nertia]

Until you start talking trash about capitalism anyway ;)

[@bobblewebb01]

I was on a pirate as a DJ for 10 years, we used to broadcast from our home studios using shoutcast to a midpoint then link from that to the TX, the good thing about that was the studio location would change every 2 hours.

[@competetodefeat4610]

Fun fact. You can use a Raspberry Pi as a pirate radio transmitter, albeit a very short distance one. I was able to pick up a clear signal from several houses down the street though.

[@billwilson7841]

many pirate radios nowadays use raspberrys and just boost the signal

[@antonliakhovitch8306]

@@billwilson7841 The aforementioned approach uses a Pi, a piece of wire, and nothing else. I think it's some clever hack using ridiculously high speed PWM as a DAC (Imagine that! Your switching speed needs to be a few orders of magnitude larger than your radio frequency, which in turn needs to be a few orders of magnitude larger than audio frequencies. Electronics are ridiculously fast these days) Any actual long-range radio station that uses a computer is almost certainly using something closer to a proper radio setup, with the computer connected to the audio input as per norm. The PWM approach will get you worse signal quality, worse signal strength, and most importantly, will create harmonics that cause interference with other frequencies and get you reported faster.

[@antonliakhovitch8306]

Edit: it looks like I might be wrong about some of that; they're simply using a square wave as the actual carrier and modulating the frequency of the PWM output at audio frequencies. That still has all the aforementioned issues though

[@handlesrtwitterdontbelivethem]

@@billwilson7841 bruh thats the wortst pi bs nein

[@PR0EST]

how did you manage to do that?? i dont know much about radio but is it really that easy??

[@CriticallyInsane]

the video is super insightful but coming in and reading all these comments of people recalling their pirating days is wildly fun. thanks for opening up a small window for sharing experiences! :)

[@Koen75NL]

Pick any interesting subject on youtube and don't watch the vids, just go straight to the comments.

[@CriticallyInsane]

@@Koen75NL Agreed! This one came through in recommended which made it feel like a treat rather than hunting it down. especially something as "mystified" as pirate radio.

[@paulofurtado81]

The video is long over and im srill reading comments.

[@nkonkonko]

damn, this is making me so nostalgic. a beloved mentor back in the day built a radio tower for our local hackerspace in the US. he's passed on but the energy of radio lives in a few of us there. he was friends with all of the university of berkeley pirates.

[@tahoma6889]

With modern SDR, the spectrum can be recorded for weeks, months, and even years. This, done from multiple locations, makes it very easy to go back in time and triangulate a signal. Add to this many smaller remote listening stations in urban areas and you have coverage 24 hours by 7 days by multiple years, with rewind capability. Imagine, being able to pick a date years ago, and view the radio spectrum for any time period, on any day. So, be aware that all signals are being recorded in a very fascinating way.

[@hardwareful]

I wish people were willling to do this just for music these days. There's just no more incentive to commit to such levels of dedication.

[@DJPhantomRage]

There was a time, when a station was run from a Ramsey FM-100b and a J pole antenna. It covered the whole area needed and stayed on the air for a good year until someone got scared and never returned it to the air again.

[@3dsmaxrocks699]

We used something similar in the early 80s....can't remember the brand model....but we used my dad's flag pole to mount the j pole on top. I was in the 9th grade. We'd broadcast German marching music from an album we got from this catalog replica gun company that was popular back then. We'd also broadcast R Crumbs band Cheap Suit Serenaders. I miss being a kid and those fun times.

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

that's okay: my pirate radio station is for educational purposes as well

[@redeye_]

is it sea or land.

[@snowmanbuzzfm]

We used band 1 most of the time and microwave if we had a certain doctor around at the time. Funny thing is we had the longest time on air (no studio raids) whilst using band 1 which was the easiest to detect. The philosophy at Buzz was that no matter how much money was spent on extra tech...we were getting hit anyway so why bother. Experience taught us that.

[@RingwayManchester]

Mate! Reply to my email lol

[@snowmanbuzzfm]

@@RingwayManchester Check Inbox my man 👊🏻

[@RingwayManchester]

Replied

[@hakology]

@Felix Ive pirates usually sell ad space to local businesses and charge subs to play on the station

[@rabbiezekielgoldberg2497]

Pirate radio stations seem like something from a 1930s vision of cyberpunk.

[@HowardKlein1958]

This must be how it must look from generations brought up on microprocessor based gear. Truth is, its real electronics dedicated to do a single job very well.

[@critical_always]

At the rate the internet gets censored we will soon be back at pirate radios.

[@susantuna3434]

there is and always be the free internet the one ppl keep saying its bad and only criminals use it to sell drugs and other illegal stuff

[@watermang1680]

I'm all for it

[@superguy7044]

Why do you think I came all this way?

[@IAm-zo1bo]

If everyone does it they can't take us all

[@siluda9255]

internet isn't censored XD

[@SMETSYSGNIMIT]

I knew a guy back in the 1970s that ran a shortwave pirate radio using ham gear. He was really smart. The signal from the studio was sent out at around 330mhz on a series of hidden antennas that were switched on/off between each song. There were 3 final transmission sites spread apart by 10 miles and each of them had a beam that would change polarization between songs. One transmitter site would send out a signal and then another site would send out the next song. It was a random rotation with random polarization changes. The power transmitted from each site was about 600 watts and the frequency was around 6mhz. He could be heard all over the world and every night he would play rock hits for 3 hours. He never got caught, but he gave it up when he went to college. Most nights, I could hear his station just fine. He came from a family with money and he was an electronics genius. Hence the money he spent to do it. After he gave it up, he told me that he had paid people who had apartments in different high rise building to let him setup the equipment. He had a small rack case for each transmitter and he ran the antenna up to the roof through vent pipes for the plumbing. He told the people that he was studying radio astronomy and just needed high up locations to gather data. Apparently nobody ever caught on. It was crazy. By the way, that guy went on to get his electrical engineering degree and he moved to Europe to work for the BBC.

[@fredlogan6159]

Excellent content Thx. We are seeing a bit of reemergence of Pirate Radio on SW in the US. Retired now I can F off and monitor all I wish. My Sdrdx with a waterfall has totally changed the hobby! Thanks for your efforts!

[@paulrydzinski9995]

Haha a lot of those Corsair SW rigs came on the market recently ;)

[@Madhatter.1]

Been climbing on roofs all over London since 95 and still doing the same thing today. Radio is a life choice and not a hobby. Fantastic little video 👍🏻

[@O1Richard]

I miss those days that we could easily pick up pirate radio from Sheffield and even Barnsley, hardcore fm, fantasy fm, dance fm, scr and Britannia just a few from my late teens and early twenties. It helped that they had many tower blocks in Sheffield and often they’d rent a flat as close to the top floor as possible to allow easy access of their equipment, I wish I could have those stations now rather than the boring commercial stuff we have now.

[@xavier6130]

@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 Back your discs up before you run into any issues. You need to make a backup before you can use it when things (knock on wood) go wrong!

[@IbbiAhmed]

@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 what about USB? load up MP3s on a stick and plug that in..

[@Bond2025]

SCR? As in Storeton Community Radio on 1026KHz? Anyone from the North West will remember that station from around 1982 onwards, then NCR North Coast Radio 1350KHz and Radio Merseywaves 1242KHz. All had fairly good coverage from different blocks of flats. One of the best was Mersey Heights in Tranmere, Wirral. That had outstanding views for miles. It was possible to see the Winter Hill TX, also down the East Lancs Road and across to Southport and Wales. I remember the panic when an electric company thought people were stealing electric by running wires from the roof on the flats down to lamp posts, they had no idea it was a medium wave aerial and were up on the roof touching it. In the North West everyone remembers Radio Julie 104.8 stereo and Slag Off International 105.3 who blocked the gas board in 1985 by using 106.2MHz. This was in the Liverpool Echo. A lot of the people involved in Pirate Stations in the North West have died. Famous people like Andy Davies who inspired a lot of people - then the larger than life Dave Collins, who ended up on Internet Radio Stations. Many stations were raided each year.

[@stuartarundale6219]

Quite a few band 3 links were used (easily traceable of course), that's how we did it. One big advantage of UHF links are the antennae. High gain UHF yagis generally don't look any different to a conventional TV aerial

[@PsRohrbaugh]

Then they show up because you don't have a TV license and you start explaining it's a uhf link 📺😂

[@rayoflight62]

The different impedance (52 Ω vs. 75 Ω) makes the directors / reflectors of the transmitter Yagi slightly stubbier. Any ham would be able to tell the difference...

[@stuartarundale6219]

@@rayoflight62 Indeed so. Also of course, it would be unlikely to be aimed exactly at the local TV mast, I was referring more to the untrained or casual observer. Any ham should be able to DF it in the first place too

[@alienwarex51i3]

Band 3? Is that a 3m band?

[@stuartarundale6219]

@@alienwarex51i3 UK band 3 was about 174 to 220 megs

[@chreinisch]

As the spark master I set up a FM radio station relaying a short wave signal from home at a peace keeping missions base. Twice a day it had to change the receiving frequency for best reception. We did use a 5 Watt transmitter which was sufficient for receiving FM signals in short range. Some of the locals were surprised but never complained. And our guys received the news from home 😁

[@gordonbrown6793]

Back in the 80s most of the London pirates had fire service pass keys to get into lift rooms on blocks. One station used reel-to-reel tape recorders to air their programmes as certain members worked for the GLC repairing them and could acquire a few! Another station ran from a terrace of houses with flat roofs, they sited the tx and aerial about seven houses down from the studio and if they spotted any DTI activity a quick jerk on the audio cable from the roof hatch disconnected it and the rig shut down.

[@HowardKlein1958]

This would be the much maligned Truvox tape recorder at 1 7/8ips used by Radio Free London and a few others. Mostly on Pepys estate in Deptford. Also Tandbergs and Elizabethan reel to reel.

[@RoninAvenger]

Pirate radio has always interested me a lot. Now days I want it so I could block out the popular classic rock stations and play nothing but underground garage rock/punk from the 1960s, instead of the same 12 mainstream “classic rock” songs being played several times a day on 3 different stations.

[@keithweiss7899]

In New York City today there are huge numbers of pirate radio stations. One electronics kit manufacturer got into trouble with the FCC for selling kits to build your own high quality stereo FM radio transmitter that could be built to exceed the maximum allowed power for unlicensed transmitters. They were raided by the FCC and other government agencies.

[@CallousCoder]

Hail hail pirate radio! The air is for all of us and not solely for state propaganda! Pirate radio and TV were pivotal in the collapse of the USSR. So I love 🏴‍☠️

[@cbhlde]

Police Officer: "Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?" Hal: (stammering) "Certainly not for operating an illegal pirate radio station. I mean, even if I did have the equipment in college, I wouldn't have kept it and be using it today. What's with all these questions, anyway? Do you have a warrant?" Kid Charlemagne is back! ;)

[@cjrstudios4100]

Before he started selling meth he was a pirate radio operator

[@ejonesss]

another way(s) to get away with it is to. 1. use a sub carrier frequency like many businesses use for their elevator music. the sub carrier is usually located somewhere between the steps in the fm on a digital tuner. only down side is analog tuners may be able to pick up the signal since they cant skip the steps. 2. broadcast outside the business hours of the station as soon as the station finishes the going off the air (usually the star spangled banner national anthem). of course that is very rare now because midnight advertizement is very lucrative and many stations like tv will have half or full hour commercials from midnight to 6 or 8 in the morning.

[@The-Lone-Racer-30]

When running Don , Flex Fm we would bounce the microwave signal off a sky dish at the mid point.. This done the dti's heads in lol. Also we would wire the power to the rig through a contact switch fitted to the roof access door, as the door was opened the rig would go off. Golden rule is never return to the studio after switching rig on as you may be being watched by dti. Take the dti on a wild goose chase elsewhere.. Ezee. D

[@RingwayManchester]

Would love to speak to you over email mate. [e-mail] if you get chance

[@The-Lone-Racer-30]

@@RingwayManchesterWill drop u a mail either tonight or tomorrow afternoon?

[@RingwayManchester]

Perfect

[@thebrokenhomes]

The ol cut out switch. When you were playing in the studio and the rig went off and stayed off, DTI. if it went off for a bit and then back on, theives. Rush to the block.

[@The-Lone-Racer-30]

@@thebrokenhomes We then moved on and used motion sensors that would only send alarm sound over the rig live. 😁

[@daveg8htfadlibaudio250]

Fantastic as always Lewis, keep up the Pirate stuff 🎃

[@Rodrigo-lm1dk]

this section os comentaries is pure gold, only good information, great stories, no unnecessary jokes, great

[@Justin-TPG]

Memories during the mid-90s of being tuned into the various London pirates (whatever would come through clearly on the speaker wire aerials I'd stuck to my bedroom ceiling pointing towards central London) and sometimes hearing the DTI turn up while the mic was hot, shortly followed by pssshhhhhhhhh. That station down for a couple of weeks then one Friday night, what do you know, it's back :) Now you can get a lot of those ex-pirates online, all playing the good stuff and also legal, many running 24/7 so I guess those of us who appreciate good music won eventually.

[@aerial558]

Yes this brought me back to the 90s when we operated pirate station in a town but are biggest issue was not many tower blocks? We operated on band 3 link and it cost us a small fortune. It saved are studio and getting court. We would last around 13 weeks before we attracted interest from the Authorities. Excellent video well explained for those interested in that. It’s interesting to see that London still has the most pirates stations still around 40 to my last count at the weekend.

[@Bond2025]

In the mid 1980s, Radio Julie in Merseyside used a very clever solution. Andy the engineer used those Tandy mains intercoms to link the studio to the transmitter. Then he found that he could send audio down old Rediffusion cables between flats and this helped on one raid. The DTI man run in to the flat and followed the lead from the TX to a plate on the wall ! One of them even had a heart attack running up the stairs int he flats. Sadly, Andy is no longer with us. He would have approved of 10GHz links and what people got up to in later years like DIMENSION FM 92.2 in Telford. When they put their TX on The Wrekin TV mast and linked to the caravan studio in a barn, we could hear them clearly in the North West and often as far as Southport and Chester.

[@aerial558]

@@Bond2025 Happy days 😀 it was the fun setting up and broadcast and sticking two fingers up to the Authorities. Thanks for sharing your experience as well. The last major pirate station operated where I lived? Station called Mystery FM and there transmitter was placed on the Mendlesham Transmitter which in its hay day was the tallest transmitter in the UK for the old Black White TV service but now used for DAB radio. There coverage was incredible 100 miles and I believed there transmitter power was 500 Watts they stayed on air if my memory is right around 12 months I also believed they had inside help from the caretaker who owned the transmitter then🤣

[@emil871w3]

Me: who will not probably use this information in my intire life My brain: write that down! WRITE THAT DOWN!

[@jawnske]

IM EMCE GRINDAH HERE TO GET YOU HIGHAHHHHH

[@docmoody6908]

Great insight. "The X" was the most powerful pirate radio in north america. XERF. Out if Mexico Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. And could be recieved as far away as Canada.

[@cbhlde]

I love all those beautiful pictures of English housing; really helps with my depression! ;)

[@johnparsons9620]

Many years ago I worked for Network/Telecom supplies company. One the products we sold was IR transmitters/receivers. One product could transmit a 2 MB (Ethernet or E1) link bidirectionaly. It was the cheapest way to connect a factory to an office block that were separated by a main road, motorway or large river but in line of sight. IR suffers from less weather problem and would only stop working in a complete white-out snow storm. It was used legally in a German town to supply live music to all the town's restraunts, bars & clubs from a central studio complex.

[@BeatboxNorwich]

When I used to run hot from my ol' gals house I received a letter from the "Norwich Anoraks" detailing how to set up a link. I knew this already but couldn't afford it so I carried on 'til the local pirates came over and tore the RG58 down. C**ts.

[@cori11ian]

I only discovered your channel yesterday and have been watching heaps of your videos, awesome stuff, keep up the good work!

[@peterdenes6353]

Me at midnight with bloodshot eyes, having to write my thesis: ok let's look up http requests on YT YT: how to set up pirate radio Me: okay I'm listening (bruh...)

[@Free__Speech]

If pirate radio was allowed it would reduce crime. Or even better have a dedicated radio station for young people to use to share music

[@runed0s86]

This allows for abuse. It should be allowed, but regulated. Maybe we could have a band of spectrum available for people without a license? Power limits as well so it doesn't interfere with other devices on the same spectrum. Oh wait, this already exists. Long distance microwave transmissions can and does kill people who don't know how to use the equipment. The internet exists, and you can self-host an icecast radio webserver if you really want to.

[@amp4105]

this is already a thing and you're using it right now, young people are sharing their music on here.

[@Free__Speech]

@@amp4105 U are wrong as it's copyright ©️

[@Dazzy84]

Look up irish pirate radio Lewis! There was a few pirate radio setups there. And one where they transmitted from monaghan (in kilowatts) to reach belfast!!

[@Bond2025]

I had a QSL from Radio Fax on 6205KHz i think.

[@christopherballis6145]

In the early 1970s in Melbourne, Australia, pirate station 3DR (draft resistance) broadcast from university campuses. The aerial was a thin cable lifted by a gas balloon. If a raid was imminent, they could cut the cable at the bottom and let it drift away.

[@joeyjojoe]

I was around for the end of one of it's successors, 3MR (3 Monash Radio) out of Monash Uni Clayton I was a student on the station comittee and had a show at the time. After 3DR, Monash students actually got a liscense after 1972 to broadcast sharing a frequency with another station in an arragement where they each broadcast 3.5 days each. In 2001 however all shared liscenses were abolished so each station had to bid for a full liscense in competition with the ones they were previously sharing with. 3MR lost its bid, which crushed everyone. The final 24 hours of broadcasting were a massive party and it was really amazing to be a part of. We rebooted soon after as DIY Radio, streaming online which was later rebranded to Radio Monash but still online. It was a kickass time

[@kevinrkinsella]

Talking about tracing signals, have a look at Ponds Wood, H99M+V5G Slough. There are now 2 Yagi’s in the wood but no sign of the teddy bears picnic.

[@RingwayManchester]

Is that the financial / stock market antennas?

[@WX4CB]

@@RingwayManchester looks like it, but either way, that's one helluva log periodic

[@kyshka]

Damn, so many of people had their own stations back in the days, thats so cool

[@Bond2025]

I always wanted to run on Medium Wave, but lost interest. I did have a 1 watt oscillator and got a few miles on a long wire, but no way of amplifying the RF. Years later I realise I could have used low cost Audio MOSFETs. I even tried a 6L6G in to two 807 valves, but that was a disaster too.

[@bromisovalum8417]

0:32 the mischief is radiating from their faces lol

[@martyp2138]

Glad I found this channel. Work in cellular telecoms and been on a few roofs and lattice towers with pirate radio kit - always intrigued me. Best one was a standard mains power cord connected right into the Single Phase 100A REC DNO head in a meter cab, cable running along the ground (unfused lol) and up the ladder to a metal enclosure housing the transmitter. Nardalert (RF monitor) also goes mental when you get near the antennas due to output power. lol

[@Bond2025]

There was a Merseyside MW station that saw DTI people and dropped an old fridge off the balcony of the flats! One station found that the door intercom on the block they were in was playing the station audio as the TX was around 100Watts on Medium Wave.

[@mfx1]

There were some quite low tech methods for finding studios once you knew or suspected the block it was in involving buckets of water, UV reactive powder or cream (used for hygiene training) and brief power cuts.

[@stewartdahamman]

Can you elaborate some more? Sounds very cool

[@mfx1]

@bruh Noisy, could.have used a UPS but as far as I know no one ever did.

[@runed0s86]

you can literally triangulate radio stations in 3d space with their signal strength

[@stewartdahamman]

@@runed0s86 To quite a wide radius, still a needle in a haystack situation

[@Aron102]

Nice video once again. Love the pirate videos

[@kubricksmith]

A good place to hide a studio was a secret room in the back of a kebab shop: "Limassol me, Alex"

[@seymourpro6097]

Maplin (RIP) used to sell a 2.4G CCTV remote sender with a warning that use without a video stream was forbidden!!!!

[@carcollerote8121]

this got randomly reccomended to me, and i'm glad that it did, amazing video!

[@265hemi7]

Yeah random for me too , and shared on my channel .🙂

[@Subgunman]

Having worked with some 10 GHz equipment in the states both on the ham portion of the spectrum as well as the radio location portion( police radar) it is a well known fact that any water vapor can either reflect or attenuate the signal so at the 9 GHz portion it would be easily affected as well. Another fact about police radar in the 10 ghz portion, speed readings during a rain storm were very prone to erroneous readings, this was never mentioned by police departments unless the defendant brought in a Microwave specialist to testify to the issues with rain. Any chance of finding something on pirate radio on the shortwave spectrum? I recall listening to a station or two back in the 70's. I believe they were located somewhere in Florida or off it’s coast playing rock music to the Cuban youth. Guess Castro wanted only propaganda broadcast from his stations.

[@giorgospapoutsakis5271]

This video's title is the first thing you see in your search history after the only thing you remember from yesterday is being drunk

[@outaspaceman]

I endorse the concept of “not getting caught”..👍

[@newpotatoes]

Big up the pirates 🏴‍☠️📻

[@hakology]

the peoples station ;)

[@marcharrison9847]

Forgot to say thanks, your channels one of my faves

[@neptun2810]

I didn’t expect this to be still a thing. That’s interesting. I think the most secure way to pull this off is really to have a mobile station that you broadcast from. Surely, police can track the signal, but that’s not such a big problem for a mobile station. It’s not like police is standing ready all the time to hunt down some Radio Pirates like they have nothing better to do; it will take some time for the police to do something about it. Just hide with your low frequency station in some field or in the woods, and bring like 3 or 4 guys to pull it off. Maintain a low profile and let one or two people watch the distant street with binoculars or something. Or you broadcast from a place where there are just one or two streets leading to it, and you send one guy as a guard post like one kilometre away from the radio station, to warn you when a police car passes him. That way you should spot police many minutes before they reach your destination, so by the time they find your position no one is there and the radio got silent. And next time you broadcast, you just go to a different location. And if you attract to much police attention, just go on radio silence for a few weeks or so.

[@iliashth1526]

My uncle had a room in his house which he was using as a pirate station back in 2005 which he had build by himself as a hobby but it was better equiped than some radio stations ive been to. Dont know if he still has it but now he works at a telecom company and got many promotions because of the stuff he learned while building it.

[@buckstarchaser2376]

"Put up sheets or curtains instead of nets to avoid being spotted." ...While it may be fashionable to hang nets over your windows in seaside tourist traps, why would this be the default that is being upgraded to curtains for some genius tactical move?

[@brianm9962]

Net curtains, not fishing nets but more like lace...

[@buckstarchaser2376]

@@brianm9962 Oh. I see. Still that caught me off guard. I was like "What? Why wouldn't they just stick to the old, reliable dog curtains?"

[@oliverwcm4248]

nice too see mc det growing up in london weeks we coouldnt afford to go raving we would have a yard rave at home listening to Kool 9.45 and the signal was still very good in dagenham i think they were transmitting from somewhere round totenham.. Call sign WDC208 used to do alot of sidebanding on my annoying magnum deltaforce around 05 when i moved up to wakefeld west yorks anyone remember me Oliver from j40 m1

[@Sonnyblack100]

Nightingale estate 1991 -97 , balfron tower 1997 onwards

[@MRblazedBEANS]

We didn't have these really in the USA at least not where I'm from. Cool history thanks for taking the time to make the video!

[@computerjantje]

In the high days of pirate radiostations in my country (The Netherlands) the pirate would rent an apartment (or multiple apartments) in a high rise appartment complex with indoor hall ways for keeping people coming in and out kind of stealth. The antenne would be on the roof and the antenna cable would be be lowered thourg an air shaft. This way ieven when the police found the antenna, the pirate could still not be located. The pirates were always a step ahead because they be on the lookout. When police entered the building they would cut the antenna cable and keep quiet. This way they would only loose an antenna and a bit of cable but keep the more expensive transmitter. Usually the studio was also in the apartment and everything was done live. Inlcuding people calling to be in the broadcasts. Very very professional broadcasts with a lot of income due to local commercials. The era ended when laws came in place that could tax pirates for the alledged income and the amounts were huge.

[@johnsiders7819]

We have a FM one up to 100 watts been at it for years here in the US the FCC will only investigate if their is a complaint the only person that threatened to turn us in was a local Sad Ham as we call the A hole ones we were at the local Halloween parade with the music box I had built with out name on it he walked up and he even said he was a FCC rep which is a lie I told him i am a ham too and he was a sad one and I should advise the police he was faking as a federal officer !! then the biker dad on one of my DJs looked at him and said you will only be able to turn them in ONCE ! well he left and we have had no problems . The FCC is very understaffed/underfunded and has more pressing things to do now days . plus we do not use foul language and do not play that dirty rap trash or any thing else offensive .

[@quantumenergysolutions9128]

Years ago in London, my mates did it. There would be several transmitter tower blocks allfar enough from each other, each with antennas hidden inside rainwater downpipes , power was hacked, and secured in a strong hidden box. There were spotters near each transmitter, if any detecting vans came close, they just turned it off, and switched links. Thats how they stayed on air and protected the studios which also moved around. Yes microwave were used ,And one more tech you forgot to mention are real hard to spot high band Laser links LOL The the police busted many, just tracking cell phones as people were texting shouts lol!

[@mindblast3901]

I think some used horns from traffic lights Siemens types fitted to traffic lights LoL Good video Lewis

[@mfx1]

Yes they were often doppler radar sensors stolen from traffic lights although I think they got redesigned to make them much harder to use for link transmitters.

[@mindblast3901]

@@mfx1 Martin Nice one thanks for the reply wild world of radio

[@johannesviljoen9656]

Duct tape, mp3 player and a hacked walkie talkie.

[@Dejaelvicio507]

I make a interference radio with my dad, just for make the community turn off his loud radios. And yes its effective replacing the sounds

[@Zynth301]

what is a interference radio and how do u make one?

[@marcharrison9847]

Fuck off I love how you start this with dnb. I was just about to look for your email to ask you about this topic after bingeing your videos about jamming and numbers. Excellent work, this was one I wanted to see your take on, the other is further explanation of jamming like let’s say someone who isn’t me wants to get their jam on what equipment would we need to disrupt as much government bs as we can

[@Jimmy-B-]

Wish was longer video.. good stuff!

[@scottforbes0]

Nowadays, it makes sense to set aside a portion of the radio spectrum for pirate radio. If everyone follows the rules on power usage, then anyone with a radio transmitter can use the space.

[@jamesw4656]

Mate I’m from Manchester so this peaked my interest. Im still p*ssed from my night out last night and when you started saying horizontal band 1 I got lost. I might have to study this video because its an interesting topic. I appreciate the content. Keep on rockin in the free world. Manchester life.

[@braadharrie]

In the east of the netherlands especialy twente there is Every day of the week at least one station on air so we got lots of them here The biggest one has a power of 30000watts on fm band and a mobile antenna of 120 meters

[@fgfhjfhjfbhfghf5771]

As a writer thank you for this. For anyone wondering yes it will be the good guys who run the pirate station and yes it will be glorified as them doing the right thing

[@Sonnyblack100]

I used to play on kool fm in 1992 , they had such good ideas for rigs , I can’t remember them losing one , they just lost cables and aerials

[@TheSlinq]

Yep, microwave midpoint still used, with internet mp3 stream from studio to midpoint.

[@anthonyduncalf-uk]

I wish there were Pirate stations where I live in Derbyshire. We had some in Notts in the early 90's like Rave Fm .

[@soulrobotics]

I am a ham radio from 70's and also worked in a FM transmitter factory. I use to make links as described here. EVERYTHING IN THE AIR CAN BE TRACED NOWADAYS. Nice video, i hope is not ecouraging some idiots.

[@johnsiders7819]

A Sad Ham I hope not ! that is what we call the ones that gripe about Baofeng hand held radios and pirate radio or what we are doing with GMRS and FRS that turns off so many people to amateur radio .

[@Defensive_Wounds]

I use an FM transmitter in my car and play mostly metal music. I use 88.9fm. Only people tuned into 88.9fm within 200M will be able to hear my music. I wish I could boost the distance...lol It is just a cigarette lighter port FM transmitter.

[@helijim]

Studios also used to use band 4 links, sometimes straight to their main site, using TV aerials. Or sometimes, band 4 to band 1, to main site. Microwave links were quite easy to make on the tx side and just needed a satellite tuner can on the receive side.

[@andycarless9069]

Been There And Done It Back In The 90's Happy Days 😁😁😁😁

[@kirkmorrison6131]

Arrrg Matey, we'll board the radio and capture the scurvy dogs. Pirate Radio

[@robthesamplist]

I used to service alarms in east and north London tower block lift rooms....they would go in and smash the alarm door contacts up wait for police then go back in when police gone before it got repaired and rig up... very dodgy rigs ive seen with scaffold poles leaning over like you wouldnt believe. Another one that stuck with me was they had 240v in a twin cctv power cable very thin going under these two doors at the top of a stairwell any kid could have got shocked from it. Often saw that the cables from the dipole would be leading down a air vent shaft in the motor room.... maybe one of the flats below intercepted this shaft or maybe they lowered the transmitter as far down as they could to stop people interfering with it and make it hard to get at. Was up in a lift room repairing an alarm and a group of lads came up and ordered me away saying you dont want to be taking the quick way down..

[@djscooby1064]

reconized one block in your video from birmingham... nice video thou, keep um coming ringway;

[@tr606]

3:14 - Wythenshawe, Southmoor Road?

[@wolfcanine100]

i have a pirate a.m. station here in Minnesota and been doing it for 8 years so far no problem never got caught and it seems like the fcc really doesn't care anymore tbh

[@CigsInABlanket]

How much distance do you cover; Whats your wattage and antenna height?

[@paulkocyla1343]

So adventurous. Unfortunately, internet killed everything.

[@barry-bradford]

I was a pirate we used to transmit from castle vale lynham tower in birmingham, we used rca cables down the roof drains to the balcony, transmitter on the roof in the service socket, we never got caught other stations did you could see there coax out the windows

[@KarlWitsman]

I've never had the desire to set up a pirate station, but I've listened to a few of them. But there were many years where I never heard one.

[@FalkyRocket2222]

just the perfect thing to watch in this nice midnight