Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
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bristolpirates
- tower block dreamin
- Posts: 342
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:21 pm
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SD-E1102
- Neckmin
- Posts: 148
- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:19 pm
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bristolpirates
- tower block dreamin
- Posts: 342
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:21 pm
Re: Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
Artcle about the guy behind this - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018 ... adio-scene
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oldskoollondon
- who u callin ne guy bruv
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 8:14 pm
Re: Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
That is quality.
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Albert H
- proppa neck!
- Posts: 2957
- Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:23 am
Re: Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
New York and the surrounding areas have had lots of FM pirates since the 1980s. Many of them are connected to churches and carry religious programming. Others are specific to one ethnicity or other, and few of them cover more than a few blocks. Transmitter powers of 20 - 40 Watts are most common. Many run stereo, often just playing the contents of an mp3 player, which is changed daily.
Links are rare. The guys I helped out in Crown Heights thought that a microwave link was rocket science. They've now used microwave straight from the studio to their sites for years, and have never had a studio raid. They've "lost" plenty of rigs to the "Feds", but are always back on in a few hours. They use Radio Free Berkeley 40 Watt rigs, built from kits, and are quite technically adept, but they're the exception.
The legal stations in New York (and the rest of the area) use insane amounts of power. 100kW isn't uncommon - just to cover Manhattan Island! This leads to all sorts of intermodulation and cross-modulation problems. One meeting I attended at the FCC some years ago suggested that every metropolitan station should reduce their power output by 10dB (ie: 1/10th of their current power). They'd get the same coverage, but the interference problems would be mitigated. All the small stations agreed that this would be a good idea - after all, it would reduce their power consumption - but the big boys all wanted to continue to blast their IBOC crap all over the band.
(IBOC is "In Band On Channel" digital broadcasting, which widens the bandwidth of an ordinary FM station to allow it to carry a digital version of their stereo programme). IBOC causes massive interference - even to the ordinary analogue FM service on the same transmitter, but the morons can't turn it off because they believe that it will "lose them listeners" and make them "uncompetitive". In reality, nobody has IBOC receivers. None of the big manufacturers make them any more, because the FCC demand huge "Intellectual Property" Fees from the receiver manufacturers!
An engineer who I'm friendly with in New Jersey (hi Sal!) believes that there are around 350 illegal broadcasters in the "Tri-State" area. Many are using the notorious Chinese sprog-boxes and most believe that they're untouchable because of their ethnic or religious content!
Links are rare. The guys I helped out in Crown Heights thought that a microwave link was rocket science. They've now used microwave straight from the studio to their sites for years, and have never had a studio raid. They've "lost" plenty of rigs to the "Feds", but are always back on in a few hours. They use Radio Free Berkeley 40 Watt rigs, built from kits, and are quite technically adept, but they're the exception.
The legal stations in New York (and the rest of the area) use insane amounts of power. 100kW isn't uncommon - just to cover Manhattan Island! This leads to all sorts of intermodulation and cross-modulation problems. One meeting I attended at the FCC some years ago suggested that every metropolitan station should reduce their power output by 10dB (ie: 1/10th of their current power). They'd get the same coverage, but the interference problems would be mitigated. All the small stations agreed that this would be a good idea - after all, it would reduce their power consumption - but the big boys all wanted to continue to blast their IBOC crap all over the band.
(IBOC is "In Band On Channel" digital broadcasting, which widens the bandwidth of an ordinary FM station to allow it to carry a digital version of their stereo programme). IBOC causes massive interference - even to the ordinary analogue FM service on the same transmitter, but the morons can't turn it off because they believe that it will "lose them listeners" and make them "uncompetitive". In reality, nobody has IBOC receivers. None of the big manufacturers make them any more, because the FCC demand huge "Intellectual Property" Fees from the receiver manufacturers!
An engineer who I'm friendly with in New Jersey (hi Sal!) believes that there are around 350 illegal broadcasters in the "Tri-State" area. Many are using the notorious Chinese sprog-boxes and most believe that they're untouchable because of their ethnic or religious content!
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
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bristolpirates
- tower block dreamin
- Posts: 342
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:21 pm
Re: Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
The guy is trying to expand this to other parts of NY now - https://gogetfunding.com/the-brooklyn-p ... sound-map/
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radionortheast
- proppa neck!
- Posts: 879
- Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:38 pm
Re: Brooklyn Pirate Radio Map
I still listen to this now, it was quite surprising they sounded a lot like pirates you'd get over in huddersfield 