Power to your rigs
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Bigh123
- who u callin ne guy bruv
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:02 pm
Power to your rigs
Something that totally puzzles me . For the rig sites that aren't on tower blocks how the hell do you get power to them ? Just a general interest tbh
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teckniqs
- proppa neck!
- Posts: 3179
- Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:37 am
Re: Power to your rigs
From the same places that their equipment already there does. 
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Albert H
- proppa neck!
- Posts: 2777
- Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:23 am
Re: Power to your rigs
I've used all sorts of supplies for rigs.
One tree site I used had a nearby lamp post: a couple of yellow jackets, a bit of digging on a weekday morning (so as not to draw too much attention), a couple of carefully lifted pavement flagstones, 25m of steel-wire armoured twin, an extra fuse holder in the lamp column and an outdoor "garden" power socket in a hollow tree, and we had mains power to a tree site! We even put resin base seal in the lamp column to replace the stuff we had to chip out to get our cable through, so the "extra" cable would look legitimate!
The rig mains lead was run down another tree (where the rig was in the lower branches) and buried for about 10m until it emerged in our hollow tree where the power was. We were raided several times there, but the DTI chaps just unscrewed the mains lead from a terminal block and didn't bother to try and find the source of the power!
We also used car batteries, caravan / marine batteries, back-up batteries that were changed out of burglar alarms as part of their routine maintenance.....
One site I set up in the USA used a "leisure" battery (the type they use in RVs) with a wind turbine and solar panels to charge it up. The main rig ran about 40 Watts, and was activated each evening at 6pm. It was turned off again at 6am, and there was sufficient power gained from the turbine and the solar cells together to re-charge the batteries each day. It was a "fit and forget" installation, and was used every day for almost four years. The equipment was eventually recovered, and the pirate shut down, because the station got a licence!
One tree site I used had a nearby lamp post: a couple of yellow jackets, a bit of digging on a weekday morning (so as not to draw too much attention), a couple of carefully lifted pavement flagstones, 25m of steel-wire armoured twin, an extra fuse holder in the lamp column and an outdoor "garden" power socket in a hollow tree, and we had mains power to a tree site! We even put resin base seal in the lamp column to replace the stuff we had to chip out to get our cable through, so the "extra" cable would look legitimate!
The rig mains lead was run down another tree (where the rig was in the lower branches) and buried for about 10m until it emerged in our hollow tree where the power was. We were raided several times there, but the DTI chaps just unscrewed the mains lead from a terminal block and didn't bother to try and find the source of the power!
We also used car batteries, caravan / marine batteries, back-up batteries that were changed out of burglar alarms as part of their routine maintenance.....
One site I set up in the USA used a "leisure" battery (the type they use in RVs) with a wind turbine and solar panels to charge it up. The main rig ran about 40 Watts, and was activated each evening at 6pm. It was turned off again at 6am, and there was sufficient power gained from the turbine and the solar cells together to re-charge the batteries each day. It was a "fit and forget" installation, and was used every day for almost four years. The equipment was eventually recovered, and the pirate shut down, because the station got a licence!
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
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Bigh123
- who u callin ne guy bruv
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:02 pm
Re: Power to your rigs
Tekniqs I thought as much but I couldn't just see it being as easy as all the places I've seen having plug sockets lol .
Albert h that's some seriously clever engineering with that tree !
Albert h that's some seriously clever engineering with that tree !
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Bigh123
- who u callin ne guy bruv
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:02 pm
Re: Power to your rigs
I mean I've read of rigs up pylons and mobile phone masts etc just didn't think there would be power points there . I know tower blocks the answers obvious was just intrigued over how to power up other less obvious sites
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HAZARDFMradio
- tower block dreamin
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2014 11:24 pm
Re: Power to your rigs
Most time we get lucky and are power sockets just waiting to be used and other times miles of cable and bita digging is involved 
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Albert H
- proppa neck!
- Posts: 2777
- Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:23 am
Re: Power to your rigs
I remember having to get into one of those "bulkhead"-type security lamps up a South London block. I couldn't believe that there wasn't any accessible power on the roof! I had to run a cable down a drainpipe, along a wall, and then into the back of this "security" lamp. I had to wire it up live too!
The Caretaker arrived just as I was putting the glass cover back on to the lamp casing and asked the usual: "Wotcher doin' 'ere, then?".
I politely explained that I was repairing the lamp and providing it with a new supply on behalf of the "Peabody Estates". He told me that it wasn't a "Peabody" building. I did my best to look surprised, and muttered something about being given the "wrong address", picked up my toolbox and left very quickly!
Luckily, I'd left the gear powered up!
The Caretaker arrived just as I was putting the glass cover back on to the lamp casing and asked the usual: "Wotcher doin' 'ere, then?".
I politely explained that I was repairing the lamp and providing it with a new supply on behalf of the "Peabody Estates". He told me that it wasn't a "Peabody" building. I did my best to look surprised, and muttered something about being given the "wrong address", picked up my toolbox and left very quickly!
Luckily, I'd left the gear powered up!
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
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Bigh123
- who u callin ne guy bruv
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:02 pm
Re: Power to your rigs
Cheers for the responses guys . I've been fascinated by pirate radio since I first tuned in to Don fm at the age of 11 many moons ago . Always wondered just how it was done . Then a bit of knowledge from as to where rigs get put links etc etc just had me questioning how the hell they all get powered up lol .