closet house operators

[FMEnjoyer]

anyone got a sneaky one in the loft or out the window ina block and come on for a few hours
if everyone into radio had a little rig they brok out every now and than that a be a laugh..ofcom could not really
find so many stations that came on any time for couple fo hours.

anyone do that as a cheeky one buss a few tune

[DJ Mikey]

Can see where your coming from mate but it does take a fair few weeks to build up the listeners like you may well know, unless you can advertise it well and get loads locked, 87.5 would be the best dial to do that on, plus if your gonna do that bang on 300watter with a double...But then again these days if your going to do that why goes through that hassle, why not just stick on at night at 6pm in the week when Ofcom wont be about and switch it off at midnight. And Ofcom these days aint like the Ofcom of 10 years back

[thewisepranker]

You lot clearly need to look a bit closer at some of the solutions that Agilent (now Keysight) offer.

[DJ Mikey]

Baffled me there mate

[sharky]

You lot clearly need to look a bit closer at some of the solutions that Agilent (now Keysight) offer.

Some of their gear is just upsetting....

[maxx]

anyone got a sneaky one in the loft or out the window ina block and come on for a few hours
if everyone into radio had a little rig they brok out every now and than that a be a laugh..ofcom could not really
find so many stations that came on any time for couple fo hours.

anyone do that as a cheeky one buss a few tune

I used to. Used to get some regular listeners now. Don't get the time these days..

[fuze]

i done a 5watt broadcast a few times from my house, and a 180watt direct a few years ago when we was testing a rig, but i got carried away and done a few hour show lol, when i first ever done a station we was running a 40watt nrg rig from my mates shed and had the rig and aerial up the tree next to the shed, that got out ok around our local area, but there were some blind spots within 5 miles where we couldnt pick up a thing, but we had reception reports from 10-15 miles away which was good considering we didnt have a clue back then, i must have been 16 when we done that station, but we stopped it after a month of not getting caught and put the rig up on a block and surprise surprise it lasted a weekend and got taken down. There was also another station coming from hutton near brentwood which was running on a 40w nrg rig they had the same sort of set up in a shed but i believe they got raided by dti. I also done a 5watt station when i was younger and regretted it as i had a crew down mcing and they came back the same night and cleared my shed out, 2 technics mixers, some of my vinyl, stereos ect i was gutted and never foound out who it was. I just have bad luck though lol

[sinus trouble]

I used to broadcast back in 99ish from my house with an NRG 20 watter and a single dipole on my roof!
i was never certain of how far i got out? but i got a few callers from the hackney areas!
The thing i miss is the crazy times getting stoned and pissed, spinning tunes with some of the best MCs and DJs in our Crew!!
GOODTIMES!!!

[DJ Mikey]

Sorry guys but If your gonna put a rig on, put it on proper !!!!!

[sinus trouble]

I agree Mr Mikey! to be a professional pirate and get yourself established? its gotta be done proper! ive been lucky to have the experience working with some pirates in the mid 90s i loved being on the roof of a tower block plumbing a rig and watching the world go by down below! it was a feeling i cant describe? but i knew that kind of work was not for me! ive always been into the electronics side and loved seeing the different rigs that they used! thats what really got me into radio! broadcasting was always just a bit of fun and nothing serious!

[FMEnjoyer]

i mean for the thrill of it

[teckniqs]

Someone in the local area I know has a 40w rig which they switch on very occasionally from their tree in their back garden. Signal reaches a good 10 miles each way so not too bad considering the lack of height above sea level. (if any)

[dave.parsons]

With Christmas coming up I daresay a few temporary signals will pop up

[ir8 pir8]

my mate knows someone in herts who has a small rig but they havent been on for ages.

[MiXiN]

This is just what I used to do back in the day in the mid 90s every Friday between 8 to midnight using one of those big free running transmitters that were readily available from various electronics surplus catalogues.

We lasted about 6 or 7 months but threw the towel in when we got a knock on the door one daytime even though we weren't transmitting.

A guy over the road was a pirate radio ham with antennae all over the place, and that being the case he ended up getting most of his gear confiscated.

[djmysterykanefm]

The station we ran (Energy fm) back in the 90's lasted 11 years from 1991-2002 and no bust!!!!!. We ran straight every weekend. Sometimes 48 hours!!! A 30 watt rig. Used to cover 10-15 miles from Aldershot area. Just used to move everything most weekends to various bedrooms / bedsits etc. Dipoles on broomsticks. Even gave out a phone box number with area code!! Sounds mental now, but fantastic fun back then. F##k knows how we got away with it.

[fuze]

haha phone box number

I remember divine 88.6 in london used to do live calls and they would send people out on "missions" to find a phone box in a certain area and if they answered and said divine fm they would win a prize

[pjeva]

About mid 90s, someone imported big stock of 1w transmitters (no pll, actually something close to wireless mic, but with one watt output). Every fuckin building had its own pirate radio! In a neighbourhood of 400000 residents.
Few months later, mos of them burned output transistors of their "rigs", so only few of them continued to work. New wave of transmitters were handmade models from local electronic technicians mostly 20w. I forgot to mention, all of these pirates were "bedroom" type radios. Every year power of these radios rised.

Also their popularity. So until year 2k, 300w rigs were all over town. Stations were 200khz separated (some even 100khz). And then, breakout of 1kw PIRATE transmitters! RVR, Elenos, R&S, Imtel... Homemade ones were rare and mostly tube designs. Pirates rented apartments in tall buildings, so they don't need link to transmitter. Frequencies changed every few months, not because of government, because fm was crowded with stations.

I was "running direct" one of stations for good 12 years and never had any issues. In 2006, our version of Ofcom cleared airwaves. Since then, there were only few pirates, which work on a corruption basis. People lost interest in broadcasting. Now, after 8 years, government lost interesti in chasing pirates, so pirate broadcasting is possible.
Actually, I am running one rig (150w) for almost a year, and nobody called (here they have to call you two times to turn transmitter off before they come to your door). Only my neighbours think I have HAARP antenna on my roof

[radioman]

In 1988 i did a station from my bedroom the transmitter was 50 watts, i was only 12 years old at the time and didnt really no much about DTI, After a month of broadcasting every night, we got a visit by 2 bloke in suits who said they was from the DTI and showed us a warrent card. I find out at a later date they where not DTI, It was some rig builder from basildon/pitsea area..

[FM King]

Martin Kelly??