40ft banner I made over freeway need advice

[Man from La Mancha]

I got about a 10,000 cars to see this today. What I want to do is take it around many freeways in the south bay area. People waved and honked at us standing beside the banner. My idea is this and it could work everywhere, I want to get an AM or FM transmitter that with range 2 miles and play a loop 2 minutes of the best Ron"s quotes and put a large sign to tell what frequency people to turn to. When we did rush hour there are 1,000's of slow moving people that might listen to this message. If a second vehicle is parked 1 mile down from me I think I can cover 2 miles, enough time for a 2 min message in slow traffic. In the San Jose area I should cover a 1/2 of million people over a week or more moving from one congested freeway overpass to another. Sort of a guerrilla type operation. What I want to know what is the best transmitter for the buck, should it be AM or FM? I don't care if it is over a watt I will be moving around or have several small transmitters linked by cell phones parallel to the freeway. Any electronic gurus out there?

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8408/1bridgepn7.jpg

[Syren123]

That's fantastic! LOL!
Take it to Watsonville and put it next to the Big Choke.

[Hook]

I am an electrical engineer. Go to ramseykits.com. They have good PLL synthesized AM and FM transmitters up to about a watt for less than $100.00. You have to solder them yourself, but the instructions are easy.

[DeadheadForPaul]

great idea and GREAT SIGN

[Man from La Mancha]

I am an electrical engineer. Go to ramseykits.com. They have good PLL synthesized AM and FM transmitters up to about a watt for less than $100.00. You have to solder them yourself, but the instructions are easy.
I don't know how to or have more than a volt meter to test my kits. Are those kits fool proof? What kind of antenna do you recommend?

[Hook]

Cheap $44 unit:
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM10C
High Qual $140 unit: (1 W)
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM25B

[Hook]

Just need a soldering iron and some solder. Very foolproof if you follow instructions carefully. They come with a telescoping antenna that screws into the top. Or you can make a better one, but I wouldn't recommend that for a first time project :)

[Matt Collins]

Will the FCC slam you for unlicensed broadcasting?

I don't know what the LPFM rules are these days (I should though - I'm a licensed ham radio operator ha ha) but that might be something to look into. On the other hand, since everyone with an iPod and satellite radio has a FM xmit in their car, perhaps the FCC won't care.

Just whatever you do, DON'T trample someone else's frequency in your area. THAT'S a quick ticket to a fine or jail time.

See this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPFM

[Matt Collins]

PS -

Is that you in a pirate hat?
:D

[Hook]

Not legal, but for a few hours unlikely to get caught. Even if he did get caught it would be some FCC folks telling him to shut it off. That is all they do the first warning. But Collins is right, don't xmit over some other station. That will get people angry fast. The better quality xmitter is much better to make sure you have the right frequency, since it is programmed digitally to the xmit frequency instead of tuning an inductor with a screwdriver.

[Man from La Mancha]

Will the FCC slam you for unlicensed broadcasting?

I don't know what the LPFM rules are these days (I should though - I'm a licensed ham radio operator ha ha) but that might be something to look into. On the other hand, since everyone with an iPod and satellite radio has a FM xmit in their car, perhaps the FCC won't care.

Just whatever you do, DON'T trample someone else's frequency in your area. THAT'S a quick ticket to a fine or jail time.

See this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPFM

Ageed would not want to compete with another frequency. But I'm only at various locations for 3-4 hr.

Hook what do you think of these?
http://www.veronica-kits.co.uk/5wkit.htm

http://www.veronica-kits.co.uk/1wkit.htm

[Hook]

I hadn't even thought of the pirate radio angle. :) very clever.

[BizmanUSA]

Watch out for the Feds! The FCC would just love to bust something like this!

Even if you get a wireless FM bodypack transmitter (with or without an extended antenna) they can pitch a fuss.

The rules could have changed over the years - Anyone out there with a HAM or Class 1 Radio/TV broadcast license to advise? :confused:

But it would be real cool . . . make sure you post the frequency & not too close to any other station nearby

Good Luck :D

RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm RPm

BizmanUSA

[Man from La Mancha]

PS -

Is that you in a pirate hat?
:D


Thats my freind in a 3 corner 1700's hat.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/2814/dontf5.jpg

[Hook]

That is a lot of power for $50. I only have experience with the Ramsey kit, so I can't really speak for the other. The othe one doesn't look like it has a case or antenna, so you would have to figure out that. Also, above 1 watt or so, you have to match the impedence of your antenna carefully or you will burn out the transmitter. I think for what you are trying to do you should keep it simple and foolproof. 1 watt will easily xmit crystal clear over 1 mile radius. But if you really want to blast people, the second kit is the way to go. Just remember the higher the power, the easier it is to interfere and get caught.

[Man from La Mancha]

That is a lot of power for $50. I only have experience with the Ramsey kit, so I can't really speak for the other. The othe one doesn't look like it has a case or antenna, so you would have to figure out that. Also, above 1 watt or so, you have to match the impedence of your antenna carefully or you will burn out the transmitter. I think for what you are trying to do you should keep it simple and foolproof. 1 watt will easily xmit crystal clear over 1 mile radius. But if you really want to blast people, the second kit is the way to go. Just remember the higher the power, the easier it is to interfere and get caught.


Thanks

,

[Hook]

BTW I have a ham license too. And you never heard any of this advice from me...

[Ninja Homer]

It's against FCC regulations, but frankly, I can't think of a better reason for breaking their regulations.

I don't know what it would take for the FCC to catch you, but consider this:

You'll be telling them in a giant banner that you are running a pirate radio station.
You'll be telling them what frequency it's on.
They'll figure out what times you're broadcasting.
I'm pretty sure Ron Paul wants to get rid of the FCC, so they may have extra incentive to shut you down.


I suggest you look into voice messaging services. I know there are some that will allow you to have a long message on them. You put the phone number on the banner, people call it from their cell phones while stuck in traffic, and they can listen to Ron Paul for 15 minutes or however long. They could also leave a message after they listen, and give contact info if they want more info or whatever. Get a toll-free number, and the same service could be used all over the country, and you could split the cost with various groups. I don't know the name for this specific type of phone service, but I know it exists!

[Hook]

Oh yeah, don't use cell phones to carry your audio or it will sound like hell. Just get a $24.00 mp3 flash player and make a huge mp3 file that has an hour of your looping message. If you encode at 96kb or 64kb/s it will easily be good enough for voice.
Let me know how it works out.

[Hook]

Unlikely the FCC will even notice for 3 hours once a week in different locations each time

[Man from La Mancha]

Great ideas maybe both would work

,

[Razmear]

If you want to take this radio idea to the next level, seeing how you are near the coast, you could go out to sea 2 miles (I think it's 2 miles, someone correct me) into international waters, and use a high power transmitter and hit the whole coastal area. Then you will be a true radio pirate and the FCC can't do anything about it.

eb

[Man from La Mancha]

If you want to take this radio idea to the next level, seeing how you are near the coast, you could go out to sea 2 miles (I think it's 2 miles, someone correct me) into international waters, and use a high power transmitter and hit the whole coastal area. Then you will be a true radio pirate and the FCC can't do anything about it.

eb


I would like to know more about this coastal thing.

This brings me to a far out idea. Could multiple low powered radio transmitters or cell phones or what ever connection can be made between individuals to hooked up to personal computers to act as servers to recreate an independent INTERNET and have high encryption, even if it consumes 30% and make something that is immune to shut down or wire tapping? Terabit storage is rapidly coming.

.

[Ninja Homer]

I suggest you look into voice messaging services. I know there are some that will allow you to have a long message on them. You put the phone number on the banner, people call it from their cell phones while stuck in traffic, and they can listen to Ron Paul for 15 minutes or however long. They could also leave a message after they listen, and give contact info if they want more info or whatever. Get a toll-free number, and the same service could be used all over the country, and you could split the cost with various groups. I don't know the name for this specific type of phone service, but I know it exists!

Just an FYI, I expanded on my idea here (http://ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=11903). I thought it needed its own thread.

[Razmear]

After some quick research, it seems that 3 miles is the safe zone. That is how far out cruise ships have to travel from the coast to be considered in international waters for gambling cruises. Verify this before broadcasting.
I'd love to see some Ron Paul pirate radio stations hitting New York, LA, and maybe even the Great Lakes cities.

Regarding your cell phone variation of a Fido-Net, I really don't know if it would work or not.

[Electrostatic]

I would like to know more about this coastal thing.

This brings me to a far out idea. Could multiple low powered radio transmitters or cell phones or what ever connection can be made between individuals to hooked up to personal computers to act as servers to recreate an independent INTERNET and have high encryption, even if it consumes 30% and make something that is immune to shut down or wire tapping? Terabit storage is rapidly coming.

.

Yes, but the FCC would kick your butt... And the bandwidth would be rather low unless you had very good equipment... (lots of dropped packets and more dropped packets the faster you try to transmit...)

Oh, and even if they can't "listen in" because it's encrypted, they can jam you really easy.

As for doing it Legally, with high fidelity equipment that can transmit high bandwidth, check out ClearWire.

http://www.clearwire.com/

The nice thing about services like ClearWire is that it will help keep the internet free without the need for "net neutrality" laws... As long as one company can get a backbone connection in a populated area, it can ensure everyone in said area can get an open connection, without the need to figure out pesky local zoning laws and without have to lay billions in cabling.

[Man from La Mancha]

Yes, but the FCC would kick your butt... And the bandwidth would be rather low unless you had very good equipment... (lots of dropped packets and more dropped packets the faster you try to transmit...)

Oh, and even if they can't "listen in" because it's encrypted, they can jam you really easy.

As for doing it Legally, with high fidelity equipment that can transmit high bandwidth, check out ClearWire.

http://www.clearwire.com/

The nice thing about services like ClearWire is that it will help keep the internet free without the need for "net neutrality" laws... As long as one company can get a backbone connection in a populated area, it can ensure everyone in said area can get an open connection, without the need to figure out pesky local zoning laws and without have to lay billions in cabling.

As you pointed out radio signals cam be jammed and the internet can be shut off but what of these ideas?

What about laser or microwave or personal fiber optics or coper wire wire using dart (digital analog receive and transmit) technology between a peoples net?

.

[Electrostatic]

As you pointed out radio signals cam be jammed and the internet can be shut off but what of these ideas?

What about laser or microwave or personal fiber optics or coper wire wire using dart (digital analog receive and transmit) technology between a peoples net?

.

Those would work better... Fiber and copper in neighborhoods, and lasers between them... One thing about lasers though is bad weather drops.. Maybe we could "invade" some storm sewers? :p

[Man from La Mancha]

Those would work better... Fiber and copper in neighborhoods, and lasers between them... One thing about lasers though is bad weather drops.. Maybe we could "invade" some storm sewers? :p

I like it. I've seen the toilet sewer systems:D

[Electrostatic]

Ive actually thought about this a lot before... (100's of hours)
Another one is highly targeted (using full parabolic, shielded, small, well aimed) transmitters and recievers that can jump about a mile while being incredibly hard to detect and jam...

[Man from La Mancha]

Ive actually thought about this a lot before... (100's of hours)
Another one is highly targeted (using full parabolic, shielded, small, well aimed) transmitters and recievers that can jump about a mile while being incredibly hard to detect and jam...

These are good ideas considering how people are hooked on the net and would hate to seei it disappear. What about EMP protection?

[Electrostatic]

EMP protection is a hard one, seeing as radio is controlled EMP in itself, however you can minimalize the dangers by making the system well shielded (multiple grounded faraday cages, etc) and only allowing access to wavelengths through one long, narrow, parabolic (aimed) entry point...

[Razmear]

I'm still not sure what your trying to build here, but your forgetting about CB radios, which would certainly be better than cell phones in an emergency.
A digital signal can be sent over a CB frequency which means it can be encrypted, range can be in the hundreds of miles depending on skip and side channels, and repeaters are easy to configure.
This would only work as an 'announce system' as only one signal could go out per frequency, or two channels could be used to have a full duplex communication.
Could it be jammed, yes, but if your goal is an announce or alert system, a digital message could be transmitted in a few seconds and quickly relayed before anyone would have time to jam it.
Same thing would also work over Ham, with much greater distance.

eb

[Razmear]

EMP protection is a hard one, seeing as radio is controlled EMP in itself, however you can minimalize the dangers by making the system well shielded (multiple grounded faraday cages, etc) and only allowing access to wavelengths through one long, narrow, parabolic (aimed) entry point...

Use tubes instead of transistors and EMP is not an issue.

eb

[Man from La Mancha]

EMP protection is a hard one, seeing as radio is controlled EMP in itself, however you can minimalize the dangers by making the system well shielded (multiple grounded faraday cages, etc) and only allowing access to wavelengths through one long, narrow, parabolic (aimed) entry point...

I really like those ideas. Can an electro mechanical source like using Morse code work? So the fragile computer circuits that would get fried be avoided?

[cac1963]

Oh man I love this thread. Commenting just so I can subscribe and keep track of any developments/deployments. This is exactly the kind of activity I'm counting on to provide more alternatives to telecom monopolies.

[Man from La Mancha]

MUST HAVE ALTERNATIVES or just a switch were gone

[Man from La Mancha]

Use tubes instead of transistors and EMP is not an issue.

eb
Excellent, I think some of the Soviet aircraft use tubes for this reason

[Razmear]

Excellent, I think some of the Soviet aircraft use tubes for this reason

As does Air Force One. (or at least it used to)

eb

[Electrostatic]

So, use tubes for your amp (As per Razmears suggestion), and something like this as your collector... (I just whipped this one up...)

http://incp.us/img/Antenna.png

[constituent]

take a tip from alex jones and get a bull horn, or a pa and bolt it down to your trunk. "crank it up f*ers!"

[BIG_J]

Hook et al just a suggestion.

Hook - If he donates the money to get the Radio; maybe he can ship it to you and you could set it up for him; and you could ship it to him when finished? You seem like you are an expert in this!

[rpf2008]

Excellent work

[Matt Collins]

If you want to take this radio idea to the next level, seeing how you are near the coast, you could go out to sea 2 miles (I think it's 2 miles, someone correct me) into international waters, and use a high power transmitter and hit the whole coastal area. Then you will be a true radio pirate and the FCC can't do anything about it. Not exactly.

Ever hear of the ITU?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunication_Union

I would be more than willing to bet that treaties signed have made ANY interfering/unauthorized transmission onto a nation's mainland illegal even if originating from "International Waters". If you don't think the US Coast Guard won't hesitate to pick you up, you are wrong.


If you want to discuss a broadcasting idea with some ham radio operators who are a bit more savvy than myself, try these two places:
http://www.qrz.com/ib-bin/ikonboard.cgi
http://www.eham.net/forums/

[Hook]

There are already lots of user-created city-wide intranets using off the shelf WLan cards with parabolic antennas. I actually used to have a wireless link between my house and a friends 7 miles across the valley using linksys APs from CompUSA and some $50.00 parabolic antennas. I could get about 5 Megs through it.

Also see the following amature optical links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA
http://www.free-space-optics.org/

[Matt Collins]

There are already lots of user-created city-wide intranets using off the shelf WLan cards with parabolic antennas. I actually used to have a wireless link between my house and a friends 7 miles across the valley using linksys APs from CompUSA and some $50.00 parabolic antennas. I could get about 5 Megs through it.Wow... that's impressive.

I like the Pringles "Cantenna" although I've never used onehttp://www.binarywolf.com/249/pages/bwpringlescantenna.htm

[Man from La Mancha]

There are already lots of user-created city-wide intranets using off the shelf WLan cards with parabolic antennas. I actually used to have a wireless link between my house and a friends 7 miles across the valley using linksys APs from CompUSA and some $50.00 parabolic antennas. I could get about 5 Megs through it.

Also see the following amature optical links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA
http://www.free-space-optics.org/


Wow I didn't know that. Do you think with enough memory that if 100's or 1000's of people did this they could produce a system as robust as the net we have today with search engines and data storage like google?

.

[Gir]

Will the FCC slam you for unlicensed broadcasting?

I don't know what the LPFM rules are these days (I should though - I'm a licensed ham radio operator ha ha) but that might be something to look into. On the other hand, since everyone with an iPod and satellite radio has a FM xmit in their car, perhaps the FCC won't care.

Just whatever you do, DON'T trample someone else's frequency in your area. THAT'S a quick ticket to a fine or jail time.

See this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPFM

IMHO, this is a bad idea. They've been really hard on pirate broadcasters in the past. You might be able to apply for a special temporary license or go the LPFM route, but it's not a good idea to broadcast without any authorization.