Customer Reviews

Pirate Radio and Video: Experimental Transmitter Projects (Electronic Circuit Investigator)

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Sorry, but if you want to broadcast for more than a few feet, this book is not for you. This book is a collection of low-powered simple circuits, backed with high-powered marketing. The back cover states, "Now that the FCC has changed the laws governing pirate radio and video stations...." While there is now a low-power FM service, for which a type-accepted transmitter and license are still required, there have been no "changes" governing pirate broadcasting. It's still illegal (and fun). And there is nothing in this book that is going to save you "thousands of dollars" over commercial equipment, while giving you the same power and performance. These statements are clearly misleading and get your hopes up (and your wallets out) for something this book is not. It's unfortunate that the author, who is probably capable of doing so, did not write a book to match the promised content.

A very provocative title, but inside there is little that the serious pirate operator would be interested in - European pirates would laugh at the circuits presented. This might be of interest to hobbyists and experimenters in nations with more liberal radio laws.

The book starts with an introduction to radio theory. As is usual in this type of publication, this is done poorly but don't let that put you off. After this shaky start there is a reasonable discussion of practical oscillator, amplifier and modulator design.

VHF FM transmitters are then introduced starting with simple wireless microphone circuits and moving gradually to mono transmitters with an output measured in hundreds of milliwatts, up to a couple of watts, for the FM broadcast band. There is an interesting circuit for a stereo transmitter but this is not recommended for beginners as construction would present several difficulties and, more importantly, it needs a complete redesign. In its presented form it will not work as it is supposed to.

AM transmitters for the MF broadcast band have a chapter to themselves. There are a few circuits with outputs of less than a watt using semiconductors and valves (US - "tubes").

There is one chapter devoted to using simple FM "wireless microphone" circuits as alarms and annunciators. You can find more interesting material on the Internet.

The final section of the book presents some very rubbishy circuits and some very interesting ones - an earth loop transmitter, an induction communication session and some low-power HF (shortwave) transmitters. There are also circuits for field strength meters and power supplies.

There is a common production issue here that affects many similar books - diagrams are scrappy and look as though they have been produced by a graphic artist with little experience in technical illustration.

One serious issue is that despite the fact that the publisher is European and this is sold on a global market, the only coverage is a brief (too brief) précis of US law. In some nations unlicensed radio operation may bring severe penalties including prison terms, in other places provision is made for experimenters to operate without government interference. You are advised to check out your local regulations.

This book has tons of information, quite technical, not only for learning how to build, but to become familiar with how electronics involved in RF and broadcasting work, to help with insight into troubleshooting problems. Recommended!

This book is well-written and it gave me all the details I needed to set up my own pirate radio broadcasting station. The equipment required is cheap but the fun is big!