[liberationtech] Creating a Pirate FM Radio

[Sky (Jim Schuyler)]

I'd like to suggest a resource you can check out by emailing Yahel Ben-David (founder of http://airjaldi.com/ in India) who has set up multiple "local" FM micro stations for big (multi-thousand people) events where not only the speaker but simultaneous translation was available. My personal opinion is that FM is superior because the quality is good and it is intentionally short-range, whereas AM may have less fidelity and a longer range but more potential to interfere with commercial AM broadcast stations. This kind of setup is commonly used in many countries, including here in the US, because it's lightweight and portable, and minimally intrusive on local airwaves.

Yahel said-

The top of my achievements in this space was to transmit 8 simultaneous translation channels (8 languages) for the Kalachakra...
We had English and original Tibetan transmitted over very large distance to allow people to stay in their tents/hotels and tune-in...
The other languages more localized to the venue (huge venue about 200,00 [sic] people) ... or even to smaller areas where groups of listeners based on language would be concentrated.

We bought crates of low-cost FM receivers with headphones...etc...
I'll be happy to share experiences...

Walid - I will send you Yahel's email address directly.

[Sky]

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On Mar 7, 2011, at 11:00 AM, Walid Al-Saqaf wrote:

> Great stuff. Thanks indeed. Lots to read and lots to consider.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Walid
> 
> -----------------
> 
> Walid Al-Saqaf
> Founder & Administrator
> alkasir for mapping and circumventing cyber censorship
> https://alkasir.com
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Steven Clift <clift at e-democracy.org> wrote:
> On a related note, the Hmong community uses "telephone radios" where
> folks dial-in via telephone to a radio program:
> 
> http://www.radiohmong.com/about.htm
> 
> I think some of them use teleconferencing services, but costs might be
> low in the US because:
> http://teleconference.greymouse.com.au/blog/whats-catch-free-conference-calling-services
> 
> On are related note, have you looked at this Drupal VOIP module ...
> you could theoretically provide on-demand audio programming via
> telephones as well:
> http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2011/03/drupal-now-accessible-via-any-phone063.html
> http://drupal.org/project/voipdrupal
> 
> 
> In terms of hacking cheap equipment:
> 
> http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/fm-transmitter-hack-108371/
> 
> 
> Which leads to ...
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Crane-FMT-Digital-Transmitter-Adapter/dp/B0000E6I1N
> 
> Also spotted:
> http://www.amazon.com/Fail-Safe-Range-Professional-Transmitter-Antenna/dp/B003VZOUX4/ref=pd_sim_e_5
> 
> Also, a few Google hits:
> http://hackaday.com/2010/09/25/a-simple-fm-transmitter/
> 
> http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/hk/default.asp?page=amfm
> 
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