Do-It-Yourself Radio & TV

"It's fun sharing information. That's why people publish minicomics, form Internet mailing lists, and produce electronic zines. If there's a way to report something interesting, enterprising folks have figured out how to do it, and do it cheaply."

So far, so good, Jared Pore*. He warns that making your own transmitters is risky, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking for pirate radio stations. Or not, if you're keeping it small and local and aren't interfering with legal stations.

Enough of the legal warnings**, onto the links for resources! Sadly, within the last 25 years, a few things have changed. So first, I'll note that digital switchover (DSO) or analog switch-off (ASO) has changed the reach of TV transmission, and it's almost 5 years since the effective date of the 2006 Geneva Agreement. That's the bad news. The good news is that FM radio hasn't gone anywhere, and the miniaturization of equipment has allowed reduced power systems (QRP) to flourish. The list of QRP resources for kits, bits, and supplies is lengthy in 2020, more than the three direct points of contact listed in 1995. But where are those now?

Ramsey Kits called it quits in 2016, and Panaxis Company was bought by Progressive Concepts in 2007 (PDF). Mycal is still online (and the source of that retro FCC van graphic), but as a snapshot of personal views on FCC and the law, frozen in 1995. I'm not sure if it's an accurate view of current and past Usenet, but Google Groups has a window into alt.radio.pirate and rec.radio, and both look pretty quiet.The two FTPs (dg-rtp.dg.com and crl.com) are long gone. dg.com is now owned by Dollar General, and CRL looks to be owned by Charles River Labs. Archive.org captured some early days of both sites: Data General (1996) and CRL Network Services (1997), but no archives of the FTP contents. Digging around further, you can find archived discussions of the Ramsey archives from Data General, and Radio Free Berkeley. 

Digging around, you can also find that "The ACE" was The Association of Clandestine (radio) Enthusiasts, mentioned by Gareth Branwyn in a short online article titled "People's Radio." Free Radio Cafe, still rocking the flaming title GIF, notes that ACE lasted from 1982-2005. FRC transitioned to new social networks where ACE did not, though it looks like Free Radio Weekly stopped in early 2018, and the last activity on their forums was in 2019. 

One bright spot is that Radio Free (Berkeley) is still around and selling kits, but for educational purposes only, of course. And if you can find a VCR (the last one was set to be made in July 2016), you can still turn it into an RF or A/V Transmitter. Or you can distribute your voice and videos world-wide for free, on Soundcloud (founded Aug. 2007), Mixcloud (f. 2008), YouTube (f. Feb. 2005) and Vimeo (f. Nov. 2004).

* Jared Pore's work has been buried in modern Search Engine Optimization, but dig far enough, and you'll find traces of the oldweb lurking around. Zine Wiki has a short but positive page on Jared, and has more information than I was able to find anywhere else. 

** I shouldn't be flippant. Don't piss off your local authorities.