Raspberry Pi Zero Pirate Radio Throwie | Make:

By David Scheltema and Tyler Winegarner
Time Required: 1–3 Hours 
Difficulty: Easy

Print this Project

Editor’s note: The Raspberry Pi’s broadcast frequency can range between 1Mhz and 250Mhz, which may interfere with government bands. We advise that you limit your transmissions to the standard FM band of 87.5MHz–108.0MHz (see Step 5) and always choose a frequency that’s not already in use, to avoid interference with licensed broadcasters.

Illustration by Jacob Thomas

What better way to celebrate the launch of the tiny, $5 Raspberry Pi Zero than to build a project. The Raspberry Pi Pirate Radio is one of our favorite builds here at Make:, so it was an obvious pick to port to the new board. In case you missed our first crack at Pirate Radio, try it building it while you wait for your Pi Zero to arrive. PiFM was originally written by Oliver Mattos and Oskar Weigl, and revised by Ryan Grassel.

Pirate Radio is an extremely simple build: Cut and solder one wire to the Pi. The software installation and configuration doesn’t take too long either. Here is how we shrunk down the Pirate Radio into into a Pirate Radio throwie.

TIP: For a cleaner FM signal, and to reduce any accidental broadcasts outside the FM band, build a simple bandpass filter for your Pirate Radio using just a few components

Steps

Step #1: Fashion an antenna

NextPrev

$5 Raspberry Pi Zero Pirate Radio Throwies

In order to get range out of your pirate radio you'll need to add a single piece of wire to your Pi to act as an antenna. Cut a length of wire about 4" long and strip the end bare.
Solder the bare end of the wire to pin 4 on the Pi.
Trim any excess wire so that it's not protruding too much from the solder joint.

David Scheltema

I love to tinker and write about electronics. My days are spent building projects and working as a Technical Editor for MAKE.

Tyler Winegarner

Video producer for Make:, also tinkerer, motorcyclist, gamer. Reads the comments. Uses tools, tells stories. Probably a human. Tweets @photoresistor

Nathan Corwin

first one to incite a bomb scare wins!
- rally2xs
  
  Hell, that shouldn’t be hard, this violates the single, remaining law that has replaced all others, “Don’t do anything unusual.” Should be good for an arrest as soon as you’re discovered.
  - Ancientharp
    
    That applies to photographers as well.
    - rally2xs
      
      Yep. More and more photographers getting arrested or at least hassled every day.
  - John Daniels
    
    I can’t see how they would ever track you down if you didn’t leave identifying evidence.
    - rally2xs
      
      Security cams practically blanket the country.
  - alrui
    
    And then sue like “clock boy”!
- Antron Argaiv
  
  Difficulty: not Boston (too easy)
- Sean Faulkner
  
  It’s just a clock.
kellydunn

If you combine this with a wifi distributed network, you can create a fm network that could rival that of major broadcasters. A small solar panel and battery would allow continuous broadcasting over a long range from a single injection point. This would perfectly for major roads and highways, specially if a directional antenna is used.
- Ryan Burns
  
  That’s clever, and totally feasible in high population areas like cities and along motorways, cool idea.
- Charlie
  
  Email us: nycmesh.net. We’re working on this exact thing if you would like to get involved. We are also collaborating with groups in India, Canada, California, Paraguay, Spain, and Germany.
Anthony Clifton

Yeah. I would recommend not encouraging people to throw a bomb-looking device onto random steel beams in public.
- Sean Faulkner
  
  Boston would love this after the Mooninite incident.
s_f

Too bad radio is dead.
- Jorma Julian Oikarinen
  
  Not really , at least here in Europe is used a lot.
  - DO-NOT-MESS_with_USa
    
    Radio (AM and FM) is becoming soooo clogged up with adverts many are just turning the radio off.
    More have gone USB and make there own playlists.
    BTW: In the Chicago area there’s 5 stations that used to play 5 different eras of Rock. I will flip through the stations and 3 or 4 stations are playing the same tune and adverts. UGGGGggggg
    
    Ya, commercials are killing the air waves and I can see why this device was sold.
- webgiant
  
  NPR has always been there for me, and I enjoy listening to it where ever I happen to be in the country. I too dislike every other kind of radio station, but don’t just say radio is dead because of commercial radio.
Jorma Julian Oikarinen

“The Raspberry Pi’s broadcast frequency can range between 1Mhz and 250Mhz” Ok then, 1mhz=1000khz (This is on the MW radio band) Can we turn the Pi into a MW radio transmitter ?
- Justin Nelson
  
  You’d need a much bigger antenna, and I bet power output isn’t flat across that range. Plus the SNR at those frequencies could swamp low-power devices.
  
  If you want to try, though, you could modify an amplifier like this: http://www.qsl.net/k5bcq/Kits/Kits.html (scroll down)
  
  and play around with it on the 160m amateur band (assuming, of course, that you have the appropriate license). That’s at 1600Khz-2000Khz. While there is a low-power device regulation for the FM broadcast band, I don’t think there is a similar regulation for the AM broadcast band.
- yetanothermike
  
  It would be putting out a frequency- modulated (FM) signal on a band set aside for amplitude-modulated (AM) broadcasts. Depending on how wide a signal this thing put out, this could potentially interfere with other broadcasts, and invite a call from “Uncle Charlie” ( aka the FCC).
  On the other hand, the first generation of cordless home phones ( not cell phones) put out half of their signal ‘just above’ the AM broadcast band, at 1700 Khz. That band had since been expanded to 1710Khz, and the phones booted to 900Mhz and 2.4 Ghz. The other half of the signal was broadcast on the 49Mhz band. Both halves used frequency modulation.
kimme

Du kan tilogmed drive på med piratradio med en Raspberry Pi.
Vedeyn

I recently made one of these with a raspberry pi a+ and I am getting some very high pitched background noise in my transmission. Any idea what could cause this?
- brontide
  
  It’s a horrible design and should not be used without a RF band filter?
- Bob Nagley
  
  This is clock noise bleed through from the R-Pi. This is NOT a transmitter… only a novelty item.
Leif Burrow

“We advise that you limit your transmissions to the standard FM band of 87.5MHz–108.0MHz”

I don’t get it. You seem to be interested in keeping things legal or at least not causing interference. That is a good thing. But… The Raspberry Pi is not deigned for radio transmission. It isn’t outputing a nice clean sine-wave on one specific frequency. It’s a sqare wave. That means, if you are transmitting on one frequency then you are also transmitting on every odd multiple of that frequency.

So.. say you found that in your area, in the FM Broadcast band 100MHz was a good, open frequency and you chose it. Great. Now you are transmitting on 300MHz, 500MHz, 700MHz, 900MHz, etc… You are interfering with military, police/fire, cellphones and babymonitors among others. The only thing that is likely to save you from getting noticed and prosecuted is the fact that the power level is so low.

On the other hand… if you add some shielding and a lowpass filter you might have a useful device. I wish more of these articles discussed actually doing that!
- Peter Hanely
  
  Indeed. An output filter between the PI and antenna is advisable for cleaner output.
- Keith Hammond
  
  You’re right, it’s a noisy transmission but quite low power, just a few hundred feet of range. To clean up the FM signal, we recommend readers build a simple bandpass filter, like this one by Mike Tranchemontagne:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuxNGWcftc8
  or this one by Paul Hollings:
  https://www.aareff.com/images/raspbery-pirate-filter-cir.png
  
  Which one do you all like best? Or how would you do it? Love to hear your ideas.
Antron Argaiv

This is a Very Bad Idea. These transmitters generate a lot of spurious frequencies, in addition to the primary frequency. The output is “dirty” — *totally* unfiltered. Adding even a lowpass filter on the output would improve the design. A bandpass filter around your desired frequency of operation would be even better. An example is here: http://electronics-diy.com/electronic_schematic.php?id=803

The real problem, however, is that the FCC (or your country’s radio frequency regulator) is going to take an interest if these start showing up. They do not appreciate random interfering transmitters being scattered about, because sooner or later, one will interfere with a licensed or public safety user. The consequences will not be pleasant.
Fat Ali

This would allow a potential radio dead-spot hijack. Put in a tunnel where regular reception is lost it could take over from the silence. Anyone keen on telling everyone to vote for Donald Trump?
- J Hoffman
  
  Only those who are getting paid to…
Carl Gundel

What we need is an easy to program interface to Wifi. Then the rasperians can invent the Pipacket Radio replacement for the internet. An independent mesh network which can serve as the beginning of one or more alternate internets.
Geoff Gariepy

What a terrible, stupid, asinine idea.

First you’re throwing devices that look like bombs onto places that might be hard to retrieve them from. Next you’re causing interference on multiple bands of the radio service.

What’s next? The Make article on how to build an IED?
- Aaron Lager
  
  Bombs only look like that in the movies, or if you’re a Texas school principle…stop the scare mongering!
  Now the talk of RFI and bad quality transmissions are real.
  - Stuart Withers
    
    Something doesn’t have to look like a real bomb to get in trouble. It just has to look like peoples’ preconceived notions of bombs.
    - Aaron Lager
      
      By that definition, ANY circuit board is a bomb to the uneducated (Sadly it seems like most of the US falls into this category nowadays). Let’s use our brains people! Maybe I’m biased because I AM educated, I DO use my brain, and I design and program circuit boards for a living! RADIOS ARE NOT BOMBS!
Bob Nagley

IMPORTANT: A resonant quarter wave wire antenna for the FM band is about 30 inches long. Use 30 inches. For any frequency you set it to, use this formula for the wire length: 234 / Freq. in MHZ = length in feet . Ideally, you would add a second wire to the ground on the board and spread the two wires opposite each other. Use two wires of the above calculated length.
- Andyj
  
  No Bob. the Pi is not supposed to drive a 37 ohm quarter wave load. (Assuming a flat ground plane). Half wave may be better.
mvadu

You can avoid running it as a root by changing the /dev/mem to /dev/gpiomem
Alvaro

I can’t get it to work with the Raspberry Pi 2. Is the pin different?
Steve

Anyone know how to make this work with a raspberry pi 2?
- Don Pettit
  
  https://github.com/markondej/fm_transmitter
S_in_USA

ALL this chat about it looking like a bomb….
PEOPLE PLEASE! GOT TO STOP ALL THIS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KRAP, IT’S MAKING EVERYONE NUTS!!!!
===> PC is another form of government BRAINWASHING. <===
.
Go back to being yourselves, THAT'S AMERICAN, BE AMERICAN again.
.
Next thing you know some kid will do a science project on how a kitchen blender works and they will think it's a bomb due to its shape.
SHEEEEEEEEEEEESH
.
Octavio Pescina

This in North Korea could do wonders!
Axel Roest

The article says solder to ‘pin 4’ (+5V), but the photo clearly shows it is soldered to pin 7 (GPIO4).

Please use the standard numbering of pins on these type of connectors, to prevent confusion to less experienced tinkerers and prevent blowing up GPIO ports.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/
Luis Montenegro Ferrel

Greetings,
I need help! I am following the recipe above and using my raspberry pi 2 model B, but for some reason my pi can not broadcast the signal still – which I am using a basic fm radio and I just get static only. I followed every step on flashing the sd card with a new Raspian OS, and updated all possible updates, and the PiFm file, sound.wav, etc – but still no broadcasting. For my area, I am using a vacant fm frequency 99.1, and also 89.7 and none of these are seem to work. I do think that perhaps it has to do with the antenna is not placed on the correct GPIO pin for my model. The above instructions call for the gpio pin number 4, how ever on my model B, that pin as on pin 8. Does anyone have any suggestions.Thanks.
- Don Pettit
  
  There are some differences in the pi 2. This works on the 2
  https://github.com/markondej/fm_transmitter
  - Luis Montenegro Ferrel
    
    Hi Don,
    Thank you for the link! I looked it over, but did not find any steps on installing this in the Rasbian terminal. Is there any documentation on this? Thanks on any feed back!
    Luis Ferrel
Ken Stephens

How about streaming internet radio using the Zero:
1. Install lynx using sudo apt-get lynx
2. Issue:
~$/usr/bin/lynx -accept_all_cookies -dump http://stream-tx1.redioparadise.com/mp3-128 | /usr/bin/mpg123 -4 -s -Z – | /home/pi/pifm/pifm – 88.7

Of course your may choose another streaming URL and frequency.

Enjoy
hal

Creative use of raspi but too many ignorant budding Tesla wanna be’s could interfere with public safety coms. Few experimenters are RF engineers or even technically competent Amateur Radio Operators. Comments about use of low pass filters are positive but how many hobbiests have the test gear and knowledge to design and test appropriate RF filters. And then there is the law. Imagine these devices programmed to deliberatly jam coms. Add an amplifier stage and create a throwie RF jammer.
Ive been a pirate, a welder, chemist, and moonshiner, and designer, and know the FCC very well. Have fun. My soldering iron is now cold,
- DO-NOT-MESS_with_USa
  
  The old adage “give an inch, take a mile” is renewed.
  Give an electro-nave a sine-wave, impending doom from womb
  to tomb.
der coo

as known pi zero have no audio input port
so what about mod this lib to make the output of pi zero device sound on fm radio ??
Justin Clark

I have a question, when I create the pirateRadio.sh and try to copy paste it in to the .sh file, it will not let me, or even let me save. What do I do???
wayne reses

Not that I’m advocating breaking the law (well maybe just a little,) let me relate the following story. When I was a kid in grade school (I’m 51 now) my parents set me up with a CB rig with an antenna on a fifty foot tower. Back then, you had to study and then take a proficiency test to get your operating certificate and call sign. Same thing for marine VHF radio. The FCC would send you a NAL (Notice of Apparent Liability) is you engaged in transgressions like not using your call sign, using it incorrectly, or, God forbid, operating with a linear amplifier, every CBers holy grail.
Today, you can tell the world on the empty airwaves to go fuck itself. The FCC is a mere shell of its former self when it comes to aberrant signals. So don’t worry about the FCC police breaking down your door. Install that transmitter. Have some fun. Just don’t mention my name. Wayne #wreses .
- Ken08534
  
  “When I was a kid in grade school (I’m 51 now) my parents set me up with a
  CB rig with an antenna on a fifty foot tower. Back then, you had to
  study and then take a proficiency test to get your operating certificate
  and call sign.”
  
  No, you didn’t.
  
  There was NEVER an examination of any kind to secure an FCC license for operation on 27 MHz CB band.
Zeke

Hey Make, I need some help with the raspberry pi 3 model. I can’t get this to work on the pi 3 for some reason I’m running raspbian 2016.03 . Any ideas as to why it won’t broadcast? My command in running is. Sudo ./pifm sound.wav 108.0 also tried 89.1 and 98.0 no luck.
Johnathan

The thing is that the Raspberry Pi Zero has been almost as elusive as vaporware for a while, it came out in late November and stock sold out early. I look all the time and can only find second hand units or kits for something like $25 bucks, add a battery holder, batteries, and USB cable and it comes out to something more like a “$35 Pirate Radio Throwie”…
Larry_T

What a childish (not to say illegal) piece of crap. That’s just what a bunch of immature “script kiddie” level spoiled brats would do. Make has certainly degenerated over the years.
- James Craig
  
  Actually, here in the US, as long as the signal strength is low, it’s perfectly legal. If not, those little devices that let you play your iPod across the FM radio in your car would be illegal.
  
  I have a friend who is planning to set up something like this at a big event that will allow them to have daily announcements that people can listen to via radio without the intrusiveness of a PA system.
Donovan Goodwin

Got one working with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. I used the PiFm Rds(https://github.com/ChristopheJacquet/PiFmRds) library I used this command sox -t wav /home/pi/Music_Wav/* -treble +7 -repeat 50 -t wav - | sudo ./pi_fm_rds -freq 88.5 -audio - -ps "Donovan's Radio Station" -rt "Have fun this is just for us young people:)" and it works flawlessly. I only have one gripe, and that would be that it only accepts Wav music files so you will need to convert your whole audio library over or use an external music player and usb audio card.
Edgar

I did an antenna with copper wire and followed the tutorial, but it doesn’t works. Please help!
Alex T

Couldnt get pifm to work on my piZero so used this https://github.com/markondej/fm_transmitter instead which works.
George Mcteamfortwo

For some reason my Song loops every second, can someone help
SaltyChips

does the pi zero work with the old pi radio image from the old radio project?
Anthony Sontag

I followed the guide, but I can’t get it it to run on boot. It runs from command line perfectly and I receive it on my radio. I have the latest version of raspbian (Jessie 4.4) and a Pi Zero version 1.3.
robert strahan

so im having and issue Ive done everything by the book. but my pi zero will not start the pifm on boot what im i doing wrong. it works fine if i type in everything to launch the song to a station. ive mad the pirateRadio.sh file and i have had to add lsb tags to get it to make it threw the update rc.d process and still will not launch on boot
- David Brandon
  
  Has anyone found a solution to this?
johnmichael2

Sorry, but this is a pretty dumb and potentially dangerous idea. There is already way too much clutter in the radio spectrum. Unfortunately, the frequency range of the ‘throwie’ covers police, fire and EMS bands, aircraft bands and amateur radio bands as well as the commercial broadcast bands mentioned. In the wrong place and wrong time emissions from the device could result in a danger to life and property.

And, without the band pass filter, there is significant spurious radiation.
TheJanky

I tried this build out on an unused frequency and am very surprised at the results. Yes, it’s noisy, but it works. My main point of contention was with the startup script code itself—is there any way that Make could enable codeblocks so indenting, etc., could be seen and understood?

I ended up looking at this web page’s site source, where the properly-indented code showed up in all its glory.
David Brandon

I was able to redo the entire project and get it to start broadcasting on boot but then it crashes and all i get is a looping sound on my radio. what am i doing wrong?
Nut Ing

Hi, one year ago i made this fm transmitter, but since then, im not able to make it run on boot. Can anyone help me please?
Thanks
Karl Knaller

It works for me, but after an reboot it will play just a summing sound. like “buuuuuuuuu”. i need to reinstall the programm to get it working.
Jovan Janevski

Any good commercial FM radio bandpass filter modules for the pi 3?
Jackson Thompson

Is there a way to use the raspberry pi zero w for this project so that I can stream music to it over Bluetooth instead of a folder on the pi?
Max Mick

Please help! when i enter the command to change the directory of mpg123, I get a bunch of gibberish similar to if you open an encrypted file in notepad!
Fumei Zhongsheng

I’ve seen this question asked a few times already and I see that it hasn’t been answered yet, but I figure I’d bump the subject to see if maybe someone has found a solution.
I’m having troubles getting it to play upon boot. I’ve tried to both copy/past the script in step seven and type the script as it’s shown in the pictures. When I type the update-rc.d command I get a message saying I’m missing the LSB tags and overrides.
I’ve then tried to add “###BEGIN INIT INFO” and ‘###End init info” to the begining and end of the script. When I type the update-rc.d command after that I then get this message:
insserv: Script pirateRadio.sh is broken: incomplete LSB comment.
insserv: missing `Provides:’ entry: please add.
insserv: missing `Required-Start:’ entry: please add even if empty.
insserv: missing `Required-Stop:’ entry: please add even if empty.
insserv: missing `Default-Start:’ entry: please add even if empty.
insserv: missing `Default-Stop:’ entry: please add even if empty.

Can anyone help me with a solution?

Make: and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. | Privacy | Terms

Get the Magazine

Make: is the voice of the Maker Movement, empowering, inspiring, and connecting Makers worldwide to tinker and hack. Subscribe to Make Magazine Today!

Sign up for the Make: Newsletter

Stay inspired, keep making.

Light Up the Room With These LED Earrings

Near-Field Fingernails

Supersize Your Noggin with a Lens and Cardboard Box

Raspberry Pi Plex Server

An Interview with The Paper Airplane Guy, John Collins

April’s Ultimate Shop Workbench

Maker Pro News: Makers Will Run the Factories of the Future

Drawbots and other Retro Robots

Bay Area

Berlin

Bodenese

Barcelona

Maker Faires Around the World

Make: Projects

$5 Raspberry Pi Zero Pirate Radio Throwies

Parts

Tools