Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Public Pirate Radio

 A radio station without a DJ
  (+1)
(+1) 		  [vote for,
against]

Hook a server up to a small FM transmitter in your neighborhood. Write a system that allows anyone (or maybe just [authorized?] people within the listening area) to send an MP3 file over the net to the transmitter.

MP3 files would be queued and played in order over the station. The software could be as dumb as "play the next file" or smart as in "recognize this is the same song as the one you played 10 minutes ago" and/or "play certain files from certain senders at certain times", allowing people to create their own scheduled shows.

If you wanted to be legitimate about it, you could have a trusted chain of users that examine files to make sure nothing nasty gets over the air.

Or you could just hide the whole thing on a telephone pole (transmit files via meshed 802.11) and forget about it, until the feds find it and rip it down.

—koz, Sep 19 2003

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       802.11 only has a range of 50m so using this protocol for transmitting files for broadcast is not much use [unless its a very local station]   

       otherwise, +
—jonthegeologist, Sep 19 2003
   

       I was talking about a way to get data into the transmitter unit if it's purposely hidden somewhere where the FCC (BACC if you're a brit) can't easily find it. In the USA it's still not entirely legal to run a low-power FM station without a license, so it might be advantageous to operate the transmitter somewhere else than your home.   

       802.11b, by the way, has been transmitted over 48,000 meters using custom antennae with no problems.
—koz, Sep 19 2003
   

       If it wasn't "pirate" and you had a real fcc license, I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work, except people maybe afraid to upload songs, because you'd be paying the music business to play them and the music business will sue people for uploading music.
—mr2560, Sep 19 2003
   

       Well, since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day....ARRRRRRGGGGHH!
—koz, Sep 19 2003
   


 

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