Turn your VCR into an RF or A/V Transmitter

This is pretty simple. Shove an aerial in the back of the ouput of a vcr. And tune your TV in. However this method looks terrible and only works at about 1 metre.

This doesn't stop anyone from sticking in a TV Amplifier.
That would be illegal but only semi-illegal because the frequency used by the VCR is for VCR's so the problem of your signal clouding someone elses directly plugged in VCR, is not really a problem.

You can even use the AV input of your VCR and the AV or RF output of another VCR to send DVD around your house :)

Step 1: Another View of the aerial

Comments

[harley_rly]

couldnt you use some rabbit ears to tranmit the signal too.

[Dr.Bill]

Anold TV antenna is actually a Yagi-Oda Transmitting Antenna. Just hook up your old TV antenna to your choice of transmitter and your on the air. My nextdoor neighbor in Chicago did this and transmitted porn to our house right off the RF OUT on his VCR. If he had connected an RF Antenna Amp to it, it would have been a better signal. but not by much.

[ILOSN]

yeah thatd work way better. didnt have 2 at the time though lol

[harley_rly]

actually, i tried it yesterday evening, and it wasnt really as good....it probably be better than the coat hanger, if you were to use a signal amplifier though

[extremegtafan]

I was messing around with a TV in my car. Unfortunately, since the stupid government went to digital just because of military uses (what?), I couldn't get any stations. As for pirate TV, I'm all for it. I don't have the creativity to come up with anything people would watch. If anyone does this near Sulphur, Oklahoma, just know at least one analog antennea is waiting for your broadcast!

[static]

Like it or not the trend towards digital, because digital allows for more users in the same amount of spectrum. In some area hams are going digital voluntary because they ran out of spectrum in many places. Pirate radio or TV is self defeating. The more people are aware of the stations, the greater likelihood the FCC will become aware of them. The FCC isn't about to allow the broadcast spectrum become a free for all.

[tcase3]

So everyone does no, I dont like it anymore than you do, but playing with the RF signals can get you a fine. You have to have a license to play with it, even if you are just playing around. FCC experimental license would be needed. Now I have heard of a loop-hole that you can transmit directly around your home, but, I dont know how true that is. Good luck, and be safe. ( course, I dont know how much they monitor that stuff either... )

[ColumbusGEEK]

It's called ingress. In the cable business it's called annoying. Your VCR is sending out a signal, just like the television company sends their broadcast over the air. It's not anywhere near as strong as them obviously. If you want to be technical about it, anything that has a RF output could do this. Be nice to your cable guy, don't do this. Use a piece of cable and save him 45 minutes of troubleshooting at your neighbors house trying to figure out why the neighbors pics are poor.

[The 4th Doctor]

could this really interfere with a neighbors when there using shielded coax I did this with a 2.5 watt rf amplifier and a big dipole and I just cant stretch it off of my suburban lot I really doubt it would interfere with neighbors

[binnie]

some vcrs have like 2 inputs one for male coaxial one for female. they are jsut connected your just putting the antenna as a transmitter and shit!! too laszy to tpe

[The 4th Doctor]

I used an rf amplifier the cable company dident take back when I switched to fios and got housewide service using a dipole

also you could get this thing
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=Wireless+UHF+Audio+Video+Transmitter
which has a 500 foot range but thats no fun is it

[huang.wencong]

whats this??? cant understand...... please explain.... thnx.

[PCvsMac]

Basically all this is a video signal that is been transferred wirelessly via an RF cable. The TV antenna picks up wireless radio signals, so naturally it picks up this signal too.

[junits15]

now all you need is a gigantic TV amp and an anoying nieghbor! XD

[Derin]

nice,and i spy trebuchet03's cord repair!

[infraredman21]

WOW I just tried this and it worked good I have my dvd / hd tv tuner hooked up to my VCR and it was cool I will be posting something soon so when I do I hope I get me a to-shirt haha.

[lemonie]

"and only works at about 1 metre" I guess this is why people use SCART cables? Can this signal be boosted? Is it possible to amplify this and transmit over a greater range? Pirate radio - pirate TV. We could be going somewhere with this, if it wereen't for cable, satelite, digital...?

[wi-fi astronomer]

I once did something similar, with a Mr. Microphone and two antenna signal boosters in series. On a good blank channel I had a signal going a few blocks. You could use an A/V modulator and the antenna boosters. With my FM rig, I used for the antenna a modification of a dipole for coax I saw in the ARRL Handbook. It fit in the corner of the room. I used to transmit records to my radio in the back yard while laying in the sun. Nothing like commercial-free album sides. (It was mid-1980s) For your "TV station" design a dipole for the channel you are about to use as you add the signal boosters to the modulator. I have in my collection a "frequency agile" modulator that Radio Shack discontinued. For UHF, you can make Yagis after the signal boosters. You MIGHT find one of those modulators on eBay.

[ILOSN]

Well thats the sort of idea I was hoping to provoke. :) Pirate Television.

[carbon]

Well, I'm going to have to look into this "pirate television" idea. :P

[Punkguyta]

Sigh, I know we're supposed to be nice in the comments and being my last account just got locked... But really, I think you'd be better off just connecting the tv/vcr normally. This could actually wreck you equipment, if you're shoving a coat hanger into it. Not too good...

[Punkguyta]

And how was I supposed to know that?

[ILOSN]

Your a dummy. This is merely a demonstration of the possibility of making your own home transmitter. Its not something you should actually do....

[Ushanka]

What do you do to broadcast sound?

[ILOSN]

it broadcasts the same rf signal a tv normally recieves. so thats video and sound.

[zorahunter]

this is pretty cool, i never thought about it before

[trebuchet03]

haha -- what a neat trick :P