Slashdot Mirror


Use an iPod Mini to Broadcast Pirate Radio

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."

18 of 558 comments (clear)

  1. From the no-shit-sherlock dept. by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hey, I know! Let's find motorists with sociopathic tendencies and piss 'em off! What could possibly go worng?

    This isn't even a clever hack. 'Take your iPod antenna and put an even bigger antenna on it! Then--get this--find somebody listening to a radio and use your iPod to broadcast on the same station that radio is tuned to! Pwn3d! OMGWTFBBQ!'

    --

    Obliteracy: Words with explosions

    1. Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. by strictnein · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah... don't quite get the excitement over this one. This type of thing has been done for quite some time. There's much much better hardware available for this type of tomfoolery. Although I guess now that it's with a iPod it makes it newsworthy.

    2. Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What I don't get is that someone actually thinks a Basshole is actually listening to the radio. Really. If you have such incredible musical taste that you feel duty-bound to share it with others, by force even, are you really gonna let your selections blow in the whims of the FM dial?

      Any Basshole who thinks he's worth his boom tubes who gets snarked by some yuk with an FM-broadcasting iPod deserves what he gets.

    3. Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      so... let me get this straight...

      You pick a fight with a badass, then, when he takes you up on it, you realize, "Oh my god! I forgot! I'm a big fucking pussy!"

      What are you going to tell the police? "I provoked this asshole, now he wants to fight."

      Police arrest you both for fighting or just wasting their time.

      Ignore annoying people-- or run the hell away from them-- do not poke them with sharp sticks.

      Or, you know, maybe call the cops with a noise complaint.

      Chill out with this self defense crap, Travis. The guy was not threatening you-- he was annoying you. Then you decide to *follow* him and act all crazy honking your horn and shit. What do you expect him to think? What do you expect him to do?

      If that guy who chased you to the police station *had* gotten his hands on you, there's no way in hell you'd win with self-defense, even *if* your candy-ass won the fight. Because *you* started the fight. *You* got out of your house and followed a complete stranger to his house (is that legal?-- stalking?). *You* started acting crazy toward him with your horn-honking. *You* were a willing participant in whatever shit was going to go down next-- just because you hadn't thought it through doesn't mean you weren't.

      Read this page.

    4. Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept. by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No throwing your vote away is voting for someone just because you don't think anyone else can win. It's a self fullfing prophecy.
      The only way to NOT throw your vote away is to vote for whom you honestly WANT to win. Elswise you keep electing the same crooks who have no worries they migh lose thier jobs if they don't shape up.
      When you vote lesser of two evils your saying "go ahead and keep screwing me, I won't do anything about it" and incouraging them.
      And ccw is Carry of a Concealed weapon permit.
      More and more states are making these available, some on a shall issue basis, as they see the benifits of lower crime in other states that have done so.

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
  2. Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad... by Skyshadow · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So, how long before we're driving down the highway and suddenly all of our radio stations turn into debt consolidation or penis enlargement ads? Hell, with all the traffic traveling in groups like it does, you could be stuck like that for *hours*. Might be time to update the CD collection or install an XM antenna...

    As a side note, living in Oakland I've developed the viewpoint that it's far better to just ignore the boom cars and go about your business. It might be cool with the wannabes in Nebraska, but around here you're just begging to need an appointment with your local auto body shop to get a bunch of 9mm holes Bondo-ed.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad... by evilviper · · Score: 4, Insightful
      how long before we're driving down the highway and suddenly all of our radio stations turn into debt consolidation or penis enlargement ads?

      Won't happen. An FM broadcast can be tracked down easily, and you wouldn't be affecting a large enough number of people to make it worthwhile.

      Might be time to update the CD collection or install an XM antenna...

      You'll be more susceptible to unauthorized broadcasts with satellite than with terrestrial... once people get their hands on them. If this becomes popular, I'm sure they will start being sold.

      It might be cool with the wannabes in Nebraska, but around here you're just begging to need an appointment with your local auto body shop to get a bunch of 9mm holes Bondo-ed.

      Get a gun of your own, and a continuous-loop camera in your car.

      The big difference between Nebraska and Oakland is that the public in Nebraska wouldn't put up with that. If you are willing to just close your eyes, and pretend that nothing is happening, it won't ever stop. Sometimes people really do resemble cattle.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  3. great idea, but would never work... by AmigaAvenger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Ever want to silence the urban assault vehicle beside you at the stop light, pounding out gangster angst at orthodontia-rattling volumes?
    yeah, great idea for 1% of vehicles listening to 'gangster angst' that aren't listening to CD's... most vehicles that you pull up to and cause your own car to shake aren't going to be listening to radio. lower end frequencies aren't there compared to CD.
    1. Re:great idea, but would never work... by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I have an iPod and an iTrip, and the article doesn't make much sense based on my experience. The iTrip is an extremely low-power device, and even when you're using it the way it was intended, to broadcast to your own car's antenna, it's actually too weak to override a commercial station. That's why the iTrip isn't all that great in an urban environment, where the whole commercial FM spectrum is packed with stations like sardines in a can.

      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.
      Huh? A 25% increase in range is only equivalent to a 50% increase in power (the inverse square law). I can't see how a 50% increase in power is going to matter, when our iTrip has never been able to override even the weakest station on the dial.

  4. But it's just FM Radio by TexasDex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a shame that this doesn't work to silence CD players and tape decks. Or sattelite radio, for that matter.

    --
    The Cheese Stands Alone.
  5. Great way to get yourself shot. by downbad · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Hey, there's one of those nerds with white headphones and a 5ft. antenna sticking out of his gameboy."

    Not to mention the fact that it's probably illegal. DMCA, FCC, RIAA - need I go on?

  6. Uhhhh.... by caffeineboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How the fvck did that get posted?

    Let's forget about the fm capture effect for a minute (the most powerful station on a signal will be the only one de-modulated) and think. Don't most people with loud amps just have a CD player with "Ultrabass volume IX" or something rather than actually listening to the radio?

    Is this slashdot or some shitty zine put together by highschool age "hackers"?

    --
    +++ ATH0 +++
  7. FM radio, I think not. by sleighb0y · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The idea that you are going to foil someone blasting their music in most cases is absurd. Who spends the money on an aftermarket sound system, only to listen to FM radio? Nobody wants to hear the latest furniture store jingle blasted at them, and who are they going to impress with that anyhow?

    A better use would be to take this in a store that plays a radio station acorss their PA sytem (non sat-based radio of course).

  8. Re:I call Shenanigans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ever here of the inverse square law, and the FM capture effect? At close range you only need a tiny signal to swamp a moderately distant commercial station, and the FM capture effect means that the signal that is slightly stronger, will be the one that you hear, not the sum of the two signals.

  9. Re:911 abuse, noise ordinances, police reports, et by Alaska+Jack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have GOT to be shitting me.

    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.

    "cutting back on FEDERAL funding for LOCAL emergency staff"

    While you were smugly typing in your oh-so-wise critique of Bush, did it ever even occur to you how inane this is? It's the central frickin' principal of federalist government, you idiot!

    Also, as far as the Guard and Reserve go, did it ever occur to you that this would happen, and has, WHENEVER Guardsmen and/or reservist are activated? Including World War II? Would you have said "It's all Roosevelt's fault?" I mean, really, what would you suggest, telling policemen and emergency responders that they can't serve in the Ready Reserve? Vice versa? Disbanding the reserves?

    Sorry to go ballistic, but it's not too far off to say that people like you are what's wrong with this country. You have no clue (or just don't care) about the principles of limited and local government on which this country was founded. You just want more, more, more from an increasingly centralized, monolithic government.

  10. Re:I would prefer... by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Make sure you wear Pb underwear, if you ever want to have kids.

    You're thinking of gamma and X rays. We're talking about reg'lar old radio waves. Radio waves live on the other end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio waves are non-ionizing (i.e. they don't hurt your DNA). An EMP can be almost entirely dissipated by a well grounded metal shield. Physics. It's not just for kids!

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  11. Ummm... what? by emtboy9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sorry, but I am failing to see where this is either cool, tech, neat, different, or even anywhere remotely newsworthy.

    Sorry, but I was a little disappointed. I went to the site expecting to find perhaps some hardware hacking info on the iTrip for boosting its output, or something like that... but come on now... has slashdot really gotten to the point where "if you pull the antenna out of the case, your signal will improve!"

    I mean, really. That whole thing did not take any bit of genious, or even the slightest bit of creativity. Geez... thats what the iTrip is for. Broadcasting... and it isnt the best around for that either... there are better version, and in fact, you can even get fm broadcaster kits with a good deal more transmit power than the iTrip has...

    But still, I dont see whats so special here. They are using an iPod and an FM broadcaster to do exactly what they were meant for... nothing new or special here.

    Maybe just a slow news day or something...

    --
    "Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
  12. Re:911 abuse, noise ordinances, police reports, et by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And obviously you did NOT read his post. How can you call someone wrong if you don't know what he said.
    Now if you did read it, then try to say something related to what he said.
    Funding for local should be local. This cuts out the middleman (fed gov) and thier 'share' of the pie. Frankly I don't wan't the feds taking any of the money I pay towards local police and paying for porkbarrel projects with it. They can not take the money in the first and let my local gvt collect taxes to support the local police, FireFighters, and so on. This way we can get a few more of each for the same amount of $$.
    Bush didn't re-do somthing stupid, so it's his fault? Bush has issues don't get me wrong, but this idiocy of adding an extra step and overhead to police funding isn't one of them.

    Mycroft

    --
    https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea