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Pirate TV station in SF?

T

Tom_Desmond

Guest
I was recently reading an article regarding a pirate television station that is apparently operating on channel 13 in the San Francisco area. Has anyone actually received this station, and if so, what is it like? How is the reception?

And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other current unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North America?
 
> I was recently reading an article regarding a pirate
> television station that is apparently operating on channel
> 13 in the San Francisco area. Has anyone actually received
> this station, and if so, what is it like? How is the
> reception?
>
> And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other current
> unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North
> America?
>
Wish I could see it, they're the only US TV outlet running the new Doctor Who, according to other things I've read.

Their rather sparse website is at http://www.piratecattv.com/.

As for others, apparently there's one in the Colorado mountain town of Evergreen (this may actually be on cable, although they do run 3 pirate FMs). http://www.egrn937fm.com/index.html

Only ones I've ever heard of. I've always wanted to build one myself, not so much for any regular broadcasting, but just as a technical test.
 
> > I was recently reading an article regarding a pirate
> > television station that is apparently operating on channel
>
> > 13 in the San Francisco area. Has anyone actually
> received
> > this station, and if so, what is it like? How is the
> > reception?
> >
> > And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other current
> > unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North
> > America?
> >
> Wish I could see it, they're the only US TV outlet running
> the new Doctor Who, according to other things I've read.
>
> Their rather sparse website is at
> http://www.piratecattv.com/.
>
> As for others, apparently there's one in the Colorado
> mountain town of Evergreen (this may actually be on cable,
> although they do run 3 pirate FMs).
> http://www.egrn937fm.com/index.html
>
> Only ones I've ever heard of. I've always wanted to build
> one myself, not so much for any regular broadcasting, but
> just as a technical test.
>


I'm surprised that there aren't more of them out there, I mean every VCR has an RF output, not that hard for a techie to reconfigure those things.

(I will refrain from giving more info than that)
 
> > > I was recently reading an article regarding a pirate
> > > television station that is apparently operating on
> channel
> >
> > > 13 in the San Francisco area. Has anyone actually
> > received
> > > this station, and if so, what is it like? How is the
> > > reception?
> > >
> > > And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other
> current
> > > unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North
>
> > > America?
> > >
> > Wish I could see it, they're the only US TV outlet running
>
> > the new Doctor Who, according to other things I've read.
> >
> > Their rather sparse website is at
> > http://www.piratecattv.com/.
> >
> > As for others, apparently there's one in the Colorado
> > mountain town of Evergreen (this may actually be on cable,
>
> > although they do run 3 pirate FMs).
> > http://www.egrn937fm.com/index.html
> >
> > Only ones I've ever heard of. I've always wanted to build
>
> > one myself, not so much for any regular broadcasting, but
> > just as a technical test.
> >
>
>
> I'm surprised that there aren't more of them out there, I
> mean every VCR has an RF output, not that hard for a techie
> to reconfigure those things.
>
> (I will refrain from giving more info than that)


There are plenty all over Europe, actually. It's only in the US that they are so rare.

It would actually be far easier to broadcast TV than it is AM. What is odd is that these are on VHF. The cunning thing to do, since everyone in the US these days has cable, would be to broadcast on an unused local cable channel similar to what legitimate Ham-TV does w/ 55-56-57. Tell people how to use a splitter to feed the cable and some rabbit-ears together into their TV and you'd be in business.
 
> It would actually be far easier to broadcast TV than it is
> AM. What is odd is that these are on VHF. The cunning
> thing to do, since everyone in the US these days has cable,
> would be to broadcast on an unused local cable channel
> similar to what legitimate Ham-TV does w/ 55-56-57. Tell
> people how to use a splitter to feed the cable and some
> rabbit-ears together into their TV and you'd be in business.

It can be done legally, but only on certain channels, and at power levels a bit lower than that allowed on the FM band:

A field strength of 200 uV/m at 3 meters, or about 12 nanowatts ERP, is allowed, and only on the following frequencies (only channels who fall totally within these segments are shown):
216-240 MHz (Cable channels 23-26)
285-322 MHz (Cable channels 35-40)
335.4-399.9 MHz (Cable channels 43-52)
410-470 MHz (Cable channels 56-65)

No operation other than spurious emissions are permitted on other freqencies between 216 and 470 MHz. I believe that most of the spectrum between 225 and 410 MHz is used by the military and radio astronomy (I don't have a copy of FCC rule 2.106 handy).

The 70 cm Ham band (420-450 MHz) corresponds to channels 57-61, with ham-tv being on the lower end usually. I don't recommend using 450-470 MHz since that is the public service band (read: the cops use it), among other services.

Of course you could experiment with the 1990's-vintage VCR rabbits, which operate on 902-928 MHz. You're allowed 50 mV/m at 3 meters (about 500 mW ERP output) there. Viewers would need a converter of course.
 
That brings back memories. I'm no techie, but as a child, I hooked a CB radio antenna to the RF output on an old Beta VCR and could broadcast on channel 3 around the house (we have a local on channel 4). I got one of those antenna boosters and hooked it to the system once, which marginally improved the signal, but didn't send it any farther that I could tell.

> > > I was recently reading an article regarding a pirate
> > > television station that is apparently operating on
> channel
> >
> > > 13 in the San Francisco area. Has anyone actually
> > received
> > > this station, and if so, what is it like? How is the
> > > reception?
> > >
> > > And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other
> current
> > > unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North
>
> > > America?
> > >
> > Wish I could see it, they're the only US TV outlet running
>
> > the new Doctor Who, according to other things I've read.
> >
> > Their rather sparse website is at
> > http://www.piratecattv.com/.
> >
> > As for others, apparently there's one in the Colorado
> > mountain town of Evergreen (this may actually be on cable,
>
> > although they do run 3 pirate FMs).
> > http://www.egrn937fm.com/index.html
> >
> > Only ones I've ever heard of. I've always wanted to build
>
> > one myself, not so much for any regular broadcasting, but
> > just as a technical test.
> >
>
>
> I'm surprised that there aren't more of them out there, I
> mean every VCR has an RF output, not that hard for a techie
> to reconfigure those things.
>
> (I will refrain from giving more info than that)
>
 
> Only ones I've ever heard of. I've always wanted to build
> one myself, not so much for any regular broadcasting, but
> just as a technical test.

The closest I've ever gotten to doing this was many years ago when I hooked the output of my VCR's RF modulator up to the antenna at my parents' house. That allowed the VCR playback to be viewed on any television in their house -- and possibly a couple of our neighbors could have been surprised to find something on channel 3, as well.

It doesn't look like it would be a very difficult thing to do at all, to put a small neighborhood pirate station on the air. I suspect that the reason we don't see much of this in the U.S. is that the prevalence of cable and satellite television means that in many areas most viewers would never see the pirate broadcasts.
 
I remember in the late 70s I had Atari Pong, it wasn't much but when I hooked it up a certain way it would broadcast my game of Pong as far as my next door neighbors house

<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
The people who run this station in Canada do not use the term "Pirate"...but they are operating WITHOUT a CRTC licence. Make of it what you will.

Here's the link: www.srtv.ca Their name is Star Ray TV. <P ID="signature">______________
"If you never say NO, How much is your YES worth?"
</P>
 
> I remember in the late 70s I had Atari Pong, it wasn't much
> but when I hooked it up a certain way it would broadcast my
> game of Pong as far as my next door neighbors house
>

I used to do the same thing with my 2600 as a kid. Don't know what kind of range it really had, although I could see it on multiple TVs in the same room.

I wonder if it's possible with the Japanese Famicom(NES). IIRC, they operate on the same UHF frequencies as the VCR antennas discussed above.
 
> And for that matter, is anyone aware of any other current
> unlicensed pirate television stations operating in North
> America?

Yes. I operate one every so often, usually when there's something on the WB (digital-only) that others in the house want to see (I hook the digital tuner into the transmitter). I used to operate on channel 24 until an LPTV moved there, then went to 25 which suffered interference from a digital, then to 23 which suffered from interference from an analog. Now I'm on channel 14 which kinda sucks being that there's a full-powered local on channel 15. I can't get the hum to go away from channel 15's video signal leaking into the audio on 14.

I've got one of those cheap "Video Senders" you see on eBay for $30. It only goes from 14-30 though, and all those channels are used pretty much (analogs on 15, 21, 23, 24, 27, digitals on 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26, 30, bleed from analogs affects 14, 16, 26, and 28, bleed from digital 30 kills 29, and my digital-only WB is on 20, so putting the station on 19 kills 20). It's ADVERTISED as going up to 31 (which would be clear) but in reality it only gets to 30.

I'm not concerned about getting caught since it's only got a range of about 500 feet, which doesn't even make it to the end of my driveway.

Aside from that, there's something in DC that's right below channel 14. I remember catching it on my Watchman TV while riding through one time. It came BEFORE WFDC, so I know it had to be below 14. All it had was a test pattern though.

- Trip<P ID="signature">______________
Visit my website, www.rabbitears.info! It's eventually going to be your one resource for television info! Digital television, histories, and technical information for the entire USA from one source!</P>
 
> Aside from that, there's something in DC that's right below
> channel 14. I remember catching it on my Watchman TV while
> riding through one time. It came BEFORE WFDC, so I know it
> had to be below 14. All it had was a test pattern though.

You were seeing amateur TV, which operates (licensed) in the 420-450 MHz range, just below 14 at 470-476 MHz. Some amateur TV is "slow-scan," which is narrow bandwidth and requires a converter to view on an ordinary TV set; some is "fast-scan," which is basically full-fledged NTSC video.

There's more on this downthread...

s<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2005 NOW AVAILABLE! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
 
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