4 ms·

In the late 90s, while in high school, I built an FM transmitter and with a few friends ran a weekend pirate ration station. (AMF - Anonymous Mother ....) The

by jmacd 5y ago

In the late 90s, while in high school, I built an FM transmitter and with a few friends ran a weekend pirate ration station. (AMF - Anonymous Mother ....) The kit was sold by a company called Ramsay Electronics. It was 1 watt and with the right antenna (which was quite visible on the roof of my friend's house. They lived right at the top of a hill) it did a good job of covering our small town. There was a brief time when we would get word of several house parties all tuning in when we started to play more dance music late at night. There would be requests from people all through the week at school to play this or that, or call a certain number because someone wanted to say something. This time also coincided with the very first MP3s and I was a "Vice President" of an irc "courier" group, so we could get all the latest stuff! It only lasted one school year and my friends loved the notoriety, but I used to just sit there and day dream about the audio passing through the low and high pass filters that I had been constantly tweaking, and then being modulated and then re amplified before being pushed out. I still get an excited sensation just thinking about it.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
We had a baby monitor that apparently broadcasted on AM, a cassette player, and a lot of shouting and we weren't afraid to use it :p. I'm not sure it even worked outside the confines of our own house.
myself248 5y ago
> excited ... Peak in-joke, right there.
resters 5y ago
great story! I believe 1 watt may actually be legal, so it was not actually pirate radio from an FCC perspective, only an RIAA perspective.
- alamortsubite 5y ago
  The output of the original Ramsey kits was about 25 mW, which was FCC-compliant. The one watt kits used a MRF557 transistor (rated for up to 1.5 watts) and were definitely illegal to operate in the U.S. without a license. They were sold in the U.S. as "export" models for overseas use only. I may be wrong, but I think this eventually got them in hot water with the FCC and led to them discontinuing the kits.
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    As a teen in the early 80s I played with many FM transmitter kits, but liked one in particular (can't recall the brand, possibly Amtroncraft) which used a MRF237 and was rated 5W. I didn't have a FM antenna nor a VHF SWR meter to make one and test it, but I thought: "27*4=108, my mobile CB antenna should resonate...". So I put that CB antenna on the balcony, turned on the TX with an audio oscillator as input then called a friend living roughly 2Km away and his home on the other side of the building (no line of sight) asking him to tune his FM radio to my tx frequency, and he got the beep loud and clear. I couldn't believe that, I just had to hear it with my own ears, but I thought the beep would draw too much attention, so I connected the input to the stereo, put on a record (by KISS if memory serves), then went out and as fast as I could with my boombox walked to my friend's house and further; At some point the 1st side of the record ended so I was left with the carrier alone, but that was a success. I had too much fear of operating it however; the seventies were gone, piracy was being taken very seriously and our equivalent of the FCC, then my father, would spank my ass badly If I was caught, so after a few other tests I put that transmitter in a drawer and pretty much forgot about it.
  - jmacd 5y ago
    You are right! I actually grew up in Canada and the Ramsay kit shipped from Rochester NY if I remember correctly. 1 Watt was very clearly labeled for Export Only, although still not legal in Canada. I believe they do still sell the 1watt through distributors (I guess downloading the compliance risk?), at least they did 5 or 6 years ago last I looked.

by jmacd 5y ago

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

We had a baby monitor that apparently broadcasted on AM, a cassette player, and a lot of shouting and we weren't afraid to use it :p. I'm not sure it even worked outside the confines of our own house.

myself248 5y ago

> excited ... Peak in-joke, right there.

resters 5y ago

great story! I believe 1 watt may actually be legal, so it was not actually pirate radio from an FCC perspective, only an RIAA perspective.

alamortsubite 5y ago
The output of the original Ramsey kits was about 25 mW, which was FCC-compliant. The one watt kits used a MRF557 transistor (rated for up to 1.5 watts) and were definitely illegal to operate in the U.S. without a license. They were sold in the U.S. as "export" models for overseas use only. I may be wrong, but I think this eventually got them in hot water with the FCC and led to them discontinuing the kits.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  As a teen in the early 80s I played with many FM transmitter kits, but liked one in particular (can't recall the brand, possibly Amtroncraft) which used a MRF237 and was rated 5W. I didn't have a FM antenna nor a VHF SWR meter to make one and test it, but I thought: "27*4=108, my mobile CB antenna should resonate...". So I put that CB antenna on the balcony, turned on the TX with an audio oscillator as input then called a friend living roughly 2Km away and his home on the other side of the building (no line of sight) asking him to tune his FM radio to my tx frequency, and he got the beep loud and clear. I couldn't believe that, I just had to hear it with my own ears, but I thought the beep would draw too much attention, so I connected the input to the stereo, put on a record (by KISS if memory serves), then went out and as fast as I could with my boombox walked to my friend's house and further; At some point the 1st side of the record ended so I was left with the carrier alone, but that was a success. I had too much fear of operating it however; the seventies were gone, piracy was being taken very seriously and our equivalent of the FCC, then my father, would spank my ass badly If I was caught, so after a few other tests I put that transmitter in a drawer and pretty much forgot about it.
- jmacd 5y ago
  You are right! I actually grew up in Canada and the Ramsay kit shipped from Rochester NY if I remember correctly. 1 Watt was very clearly labeled for Export Only, although still not legal in Canada. I believe they do still sell the 1watt through distributors (I guess downloading the compliance risk?), at least they did 5 or 6 years ago last I looked.