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."

Comments

From the no-shit-sherlock dept.

[American AC in Paris]

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!'

Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept.

[strictnein]

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.

Re:From the no-shit-sherlock dept.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad...

[Skyshadow]

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.

Re:Jesus, and you thought Spam was bad...

[evilviper]

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.

great idea, but would never work...

[AmigaAvenger]

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.

Re:great idea, but would never work...

[bcrowell]

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.

Great way to get yourself shot.

[downbad]

"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?

Uhhhh....

[caffeineboy]

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"?

Re:911 abuse, noise ordinances, police reports, et

[Alaska Jack]

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.

Re:I would prefer...

[Dun Malg]

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!