Confessions of a Pirate

[aurora]

Saw this posting in AmateurRadio.com and thought others would enjoy...

http://tinyurl.com/bkw4nt4

[desmoface]

Great read, thanks for sharing.

Steve

[ChrisSmolinski]

Thanks for posting the link, I stumbled on it a few days ago but forgot to mention it here.

It was a very interesting read, although I disagreed with the statement of activity levels being lower today. If anything they are much higher.

[weaksigs]

That was a great read and the comments following were also good for more memories.
My first pirate transmitter was a Knight Kit Phono oscillator. I built it up and started
with the normal 15 foot long wire hanging from the shower and lavatory window of a
trailer park where my parents lived for a short while. All the neighbors listened in around
The park and were quite happy to hear something they enjoyed transmitted by a bunch
of kids. By that time my buddies had joined me as DJ's! The transmitter worked fine but
did not come with a power transformer and hence no isoaltion  from the power line. I got
a great number of shocks while standing on the wet floor.

Everything was fine until I moved the transmitter (phono oscillator) to a different location
which had some woods in the back. There I tuned the transmitter into a 200 foot  long wire
and people from near the trailer court were hearing the signal and turned us in.

No FCC got involved but my early pirate days were over!! I was ordered to disassemble the kit
and I complied. You do comply when your only 14 years old!

Fun times but all over way too soon!

weaksigs