Pirate TV

With the digital switch over that is going on, would this leave UHF and VHF open for a pirate television transmission? Is it possible? Would it be illegal?

If so, I think TV just might be cool again.

reply to post by Frankenchrist


Actually with no television stations pumping out the usual analog signal.. it would be even easier to trace and triangulate where a "pirate" signal would be coming from.

If you were pumping out a small signal that did not cover a large distance, say a mile or so, it would he harder to locate, but what would be the point of such a small area?

It would be a "cool" idea.. but honestly analog signals will more than likely be policed more in the future than they are now.

Is it possible?.. absolutely and not hard with the right equipment.

Is it legal?... umm no.


[edit on 22-2-2009 by TwiTcHomatic]

First, lets understand where the digital signals will be transmitting at.

All stations, except for stations that transmit on the VHF-L band (Ch 2 through 6), will transmit on their current analog channel assignments. Only stations transmitting on the VHF-L band will relocate to a new channel.

The digital transistion will not make it any easier, or harder for pirate tv to be located. It will remain the same. A digital tv signal occupies the same bandwidth (6Mhz) as the old analog signal does.

The only difference is the modulation used. Digital signals use the 8VSB moduation technique, analog uses the SSB/sub-carrier technique.

There are so called "pirate" digital transmitter kits and full assembled units out on the market, and have been for the last several years.

Pirate broadcasting has been around for a very long time, and will no doubt continue well into the future. There is always that need for alternative media outlet when big corporate owned radio just dont cut it..which IMO is about 99 percent of the time.

Some pirate operations actually abide by the technical aspects of the FCC rules, even some exceeding commercial licensed station specifications. Most also offer competative programs, to which IMO is the most reason why commercial stations complain, because someone is pulling their audience and is not licensed to operate, its just basically their feathers get ruffled so they cry like a baby.

With internet streaming however, pirate radio does not have its full glory as it used to. Unless you got a good HF rig to transmit on the shortwave frequencies, and no one wants to listen to a good tune on static filled frequencies in mono that fades in and out due to atmospheric skip, many of the pirate station operators have turned to the interent, both radio and video.

It will be interesting to see where it goes next after digital FM and AM come about.

(RFBurns is a 20+ year broadcast engineer...and once ran his own little pirate thing....SHHHHHHH dont tell anyone!! )

Cheers!!!!