I was reading in another topic about how radio stations are gonna all eventually transmit digitally and thus making all our radios with the analouge set up useless and in need of a digital tuner converter. (Or something rather close to that......)

My whole mind had a brain storm:

So is it safe to assume that one will be able to set up a pirate radio station using the then "outdated" analouge signal still? Will the FCC come down on you? I ask this because I think back to how in the UK in the early to later 90's Pirate Radio was in high numbers with the techno/breakbeat/jungle/drum and bass sound being relativly fresh. Dj/producers would cut fresh "dubplates" run to the stations and play the latest sound/records. The creativity during this era has yet to been matched in my opinion. With the underground fan base the music today wold have never survived. (Although that might be too dramatic of a thought.)

In conclusion, imagine the sounds one could pump out a boombox in major cities if the government (FCC) wouldnt even give a fudge about analouge signals transmitting thru these "outdated" airwaves. Underground music would see spike in raw creativity once again. Censorship would cease to exist due to "no pressure" from the FCC, assuming they wouldnt even waste thier resorces on finding the perpetrators and organizations.

(I hope this thread comes off with input with people with knowledge in the unforseen future of radio waves.)

About pirate radio stations: We have webradios now. Its much easier to set up a server and broadcast in the internet than to build an analog radio transmitter. And you will have listeners worldwide. There are lots of pirate webradios who transmit illegal. And I would say, there´s one station for every taste of music.

In germany digital radio failed in the last years. They tried to establish it, but sold not much of them. Which radiostation want to buy a frequency on digital radio if no one listens to it? Small webradio devices - independent from computers with their own wlan access - sell much better than digital radio recievers. But they are just good for your home. On the road analog radio is still number one in my eyes.

Like i wrote before somewhere.
Digital radio is no problem.Just buy a FM transmitter ( CCrane.com) or something else.
I do this several years now. Internet-radio device line out is hooked up to the ccrane thingy.

Well, Inter Net radio is good and all, but its missing my point just a little bit. Im in NYC with over 7 Million people with access to a radio, home stereo, car radio etc etc...and a FM station would fit better because this way the listener wouldn't have to sit by a computer to catch the show. (However for the worldwide listener one can easily set up a Internet station at the same time.) I'm thinking on a more renegade/guerilla level. I know the FM broadcasting gear is expensive but I'm in touch with so many local well known DJ's and producers that finace and talent wouldn't be much of a problem.

I see your point, but you cant have a transmitter at your home, that can be recieved in every part of your town. If its that strong, it can be detected easyly and it isn´t mobile. Its better to have a mobile transitter, which can be moved to different places.
We had a pirate-dj-station in berlin for some years, twenFM. They did it this way to not get in conflict with the police. They streamed some hours every evening from different places. It was strong enough to be recieved in the neighbourhood but not in the whole town.
In march 2005 the police came and took all of their broadcasting equipment. It´s rumoured, that they will need no more than 20min to locate a pirate station and if they want to close it...

I kind of understand the illegality of it all. I'm just wondering if FM stations will be up for grabs when the signal goes to digital in the future.

It's a fun idea in my head. COULD be a reality if I really forced the issues. Straight up goodness if it were to come to light.

quote:

Originally posted by drmz:
It´s rumoured, that they will need no more than 20min to locate a pirate station and if they want to close it...

I don't know how the situation is in Germany
but in the netherlands are measuring stations all over the country. A few seconds after you switch on a transmitter , it's spotted on the screen. I guess they have the same equipment in Germany too.
It would be cool if after the switchover to digital radio , the FM band becomes empty.
I don't think that will be the case.
It would be nice to fire up the gear i have stashed away again though

In the UK I cant see that happening unfortunately, at the end of the day they'll still want 1000's of pounds in licence fees and other paraphenalia and still make it so heavily restrictive and stifled that it won't be worth it, or feasible in most cases. I hope I'm wrong, as it would be nice if they allowed a whole bunch of new low powered community stations broadcasting at, say, 25watts or so covering a radius of maybe 8-10 miles, and lightened up on the fees and red tape.

I believe the entire point of moving the current radio "airwaves" to digital is to allow for more efficient use, as well as to make the gov't more cashola. The abandoned frequencies will be auctioned off eventually for other uses.

Well if i can bid on a NYC only frequency I will rounding up all the investors I can find for sure to see if its a legitimate idea. Something to the tune of a W-NYU, of W-KCR (New York University, and Columbia radio respectivly.)