Technology: Pump Up The Volume

Anyone remember that Christian Slater flick from the early '90s as fondly as I do? For those who aren't familiar with it, go watch it. You won't be sorry, if you can get past the obviously dated fashion sense of the early '90s. In the movie, Slater played an awkward but smart kid, Mark Hunter, from the eastern US, moved unceremoniously to the suburbs of Arizona. His dad bought him a shortwave radio kit, so he could keep in touch with his friends back home. Instead, Mark uses it to start a pirate radio station, and under the guise of Hard Harry, he lets loose all sorts of mayhem at his high school, and a constant barrage of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows.

It all seemed like so much fun. What a way to reach out and be heard by so many people. Sure, social networking sights such as Twitter and Facebook do a great job of that, but it just doesn't have the same charm as sitting in your dimly lit bedroom with a home-built radio station does.

"Ham radio", another term for amateur radio, is intended solely to be the licensed and private use of designated radio bands, for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication. Amateur radio, like other regulated radio services, operates under rules that limit the maximum power and the technical and operational characteristics of transmissions. Amateur radio stations are issued with a designated call sign to allow identification of stations. The power of amateur radio equipment is restricted, and operators must not cause interference to other authorized radio users. They may not broadcast to or communicate with the public with their equipment. They are only allowed to communicate with other licensed operators. National regulations governing amateur radio use are coordinated under international agreements since radio frequency transmissions can cross multiple national boundaries. But where is the fun in that?

So how would you go about building your own "pirate" radio station? You could head down to your local electronics shop and buy a heap of semi-expensive equipment and a stack of Leonard Cohen records, or you can go the high-tech route, and go with online streaming options, such as Nulsoft's SHOUTcast, or NCH's BroadWave among others. Still, you will generally need a few things to get your show happening, such as a microphone, a mixer maybe, some audio editing software and a pretty decent computer. If you want to be legit in any way, you should also shell out a couple of bucks for licensing if needed (depending on the streaming service you go with). A few bucks here and there might mean the difference between some awesome radio, or a night in jail. All this should generally be cheaper than a day at Radio Shack, but you'll be set for a long time either way.

Go, make some Radio Gaga, some Radio Googoo, and shoot me your station addresses!