AM TX Hobby or Ham Radio

[flintstone mop]

This was interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GCdsTm9Owg&NR=1

[K1JJ]

Very cool.

900W plate modulated triple 813's by quad 811A's.  Looks like a Greek BC transmitter as we saw in another thread.

I liked the song, "A Summer Place" playing as test music.

These guys have so much fun.

T

[K5IIA]

he needs to watch that finger. that made me nervous. hahaah

[W3GMS]

What are ther rules for BC transmission over there?  They are either very different or he has a nice pirate station!
Joe, W3GMS

[KD0HUX]

he needs to watch that finger. that made me nervous. hahaah

    I ADGREE 

[k4kyv]

Maybe the plate supply was turned off while he was poking around inside the rig.  That's one of the reasons I believe in killing the HV when the transmitter goes to stand-by.

I understand the Greek government is bankrupt, so maybe they don't have the funds to support something as trivial as enforcing radio laws against hobby radio pirates.

From some of the reports circulating recently, we may soon enjoy the same privilege.

[W1AEX]

Nice find Fred! I like how he brings the filaments up softly. That should make those tubes hang in there for a long time!

[K5WLF]

It looked to me like the "poking finger" was before the 'high tension' was enabled. I got the impression the filaments were hot when he was pointing at the various components, and then he hit the HV breaker and proceeded with the music.

[w3jn]

What are ther rules for BC transmission over there?  They are either very different or he has a nice pirate station!
Joe, W3GMS

Pirate radio is a pretty popular hobby here.  I hear them in slopbucket below 80 and 40 as well.

Many of those AM transmitters have wonderful audio.  They engage in QSOs, shoot music back and forth, and just plain broadcast.

I'm sure that soome of these are illegal in one way or another, but there are autonomous areas in Greece where the government cannot enter unless invited - universities, some Greek Orthodox sites (Mt. Athos is one), etc.

[Opcom]

I'd love to do that on the SWBC band but got to obey the law!

[KC2ZFA]

it's all illegal but nobody cares anymore because the airwaves were deregulated
in the mid-80's in a way that makes it hard to define why this is really illegal.

Up until the mid-80's there were DF trucks that would take to the Athens
streets once in a blue moon when the Athens airport tower reported music
interfering with their operations. Back then the main airport was in an Athens
suburb, very close to the city center, and right next to the USAF base in
Hellenikon. Moving the airport away from Athens eliminated the last reason
to go after the hobbyists.

People used to pass word around that this was happening by "coded" messages
using the pin-outs of various transmitting tubes !

There was also a time up to the early 80's when there were hundreds of such
hobbyists on the broadcast FM band. If you built your transmitter correctly you
could call cq and simultaneously  scan 88-108 for a reply and had a "telephone"
conversation. If more replies were noticed you could all set your FM radios so
that you had a "party-line" kind of conversation.

All this piracy was the result of the airwaves being strictly the province of
the government and the military. And back in those days there were only two
TV channels (which, in retrospect, was not a bad thing if one takes into
account the trash that followed the deregulation).

Peter