Comments on: Bootleg Radio

By: nanook

nanook — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 20:30:30 +0000

In reply to Hubert Miller. I do not remember the model number of the transmitter but do remember that it used an 829B as it's final. When Jeff first started transmitting with it, it was capable of only narrow band FM. I modified it to be wideband. It also had a burned out grid resistor so only one side of the final was being driven. The antenna was a welding rod stuffed in the antenna jack. Even with that setup I received it at my house on the top of Maple Leaf hill in Seattle on my Sony Earth Orbiter radio. It achieved full quieting but the S meter did not even read. After fixing the grid circuit, I also built a half-wave dipole antenna with a coaxial balun to feed it, put that up on his roof. Now instead of not reading on my S-meter, it pegged it. Things went well until this retard at high school wanted to be part of the station. To discourage him we told him it was in Auburn. He got upset and reported it to the FCC who tracked it all the way from Auburn to Bothell. The engineer that visited Jeff smashed the 829B final tube, and that was it. But it scared him enough that he did not resume.

By: nanook

nanook — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 02:35:03 +0000

In reply to upman613. Yes, WFUN / KLK over at Dolans house. At first we were just 10Khz off in frequencies, 1200 Khz and 1210 Khz.

By: upman613

upman613 — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 15:51:55 +0000

Was watching re-run of the movie Pirate Radio which reminded me of my small part of the crew that first ran WFUN and later KLK. Your comment about local record distributors was spot on. I do remember going with “Gorilla George” to pick up albums to stock our broadcast “library”. With spare parts from their Dad’s business, they built a local legend among the neighborhood kids. I never realized that there was a much larger group with the same intent. Your story mention KFUN, my memory was that we ran it as WFUN until finding call letters starting with “W” were located east of the Mississippi. It was then re-named KLK. I did have some bumper stickers for the longest time, but after moving the ‘hundredth time, some keepsakes get left behind.

As we all reached reached High School, some of the guys spent their years investing time KNHC, I took one class, but I lost touch with all except for the occasional chance meeting. Reading your article, brought back a flood of memories so thank you.

By: nanook

nanook — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 00:46:55 +0000

In reply to Hubert Miller. KLK did not solicit advertisers that I am aware of. They were mostly on 1210 Khz. I ran KFUN on 1200 Khz mostly although we did experiment with carrier current on 660 Khz. Neither of us used 880 Khz to the best of my knowledge. I really appreciate the call you gave me, it was fun remembering those times. I also miss Wolfman Jack and XERB which we spoke of. Radio today is SO bland. I think KNDD had a good thing going when Lazlo was program directory, with the life performances at the KNDD Beach House and all, but it is crap now like all the other crap.

By: Hubert Miller

Hubert Miller — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 22:31:06 +0000

I went to Edmonds High in 1964-1965 and one of the guys had a station, KEHR
( Edmonds Heights Radio ) on 880 until threats convinced him to end it. Later, around 1980-82 – I don’t remember exactly – some guys bought the old Seattle Marine Operator transmitter, KOW2, 2522 kHz, and converted it to 880 and carrier
current transmission with controlled carrier modulation to beat the rules. I used to listen to them every day – I heard that some local broadcaster complained to the FCC, maybe after KLK started soliciting advertisers. I also heard the Bothell FM operation, in fact I called in one night, and they were amazed someone in Seattle could hear them. Someone told me they were using a WW2 surplus AN/TRC-1 transmitter, which was wideband FM. I also heard that some threats convinced them to close down. Nanook, you should write me and maybe we’ll talk and share some stories and compare notes on those stations. I think we both have good pieces of the story. You are maybe too young to remember this, but KJR 950 in the classic rock days used to give a shout out to extraterrestrials to answer bac their call; then KJR would shut down the transmitter to listen for answers. This DID get spoofed – they DID get a message – but it was not actually
from outer space. The story was recounted, I think, in Electric Radio magazine but I was told by one of the participants the story is not quite accurate – I had been thinking of years of doing an interview with this fellow – I see him once a year – now that i’m retired I really should do that. As well as an interview with the guys who went aboard the Gen. Meigs ship, on the rocks near Neah Bay, before the Navy blew it to pieces. Some o’ these yarns deserve ( maybe! ) to be preserved!

By: Nanook

Nanook — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:09:00 +0000

The 12AX7 tube, not so much an issue with it being an audio tube, at AM frequencies, the capacitances really aren't a problem, the issue would be more one of power, maybe you could get a few hundred milliwatts.

Even though we ran fairly high power transmitters for years, I avoided trouble with the FCC for the majority of that time I think largely because our operation was very clean. We went to great lengths to attentuate harmonics, prevent splatter, make sure our transmitter was stable and on frequency and operating on a frequency that would not interfere with licensed services.

Nearly all of my friends got visits from the FCC and nearly all of them had technical issues that did result in interference.

I suspect had we been political we would have drawn more government interests but at that time in my life I really hadn't developed much in the way of political interests.

By: Gabe W. Beasley

Gabe W. Beasley — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Hey, awesome story. I am a photographer in Oregon check out my G-Rated blog about nature and travel.
(gabebeas.blogspot.com)
--feel free to add me as a link and if you tell me how I will add you on my end.

I ran a crude homemade bootleg station once but it only got out a few blocks.

--Have fun

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:48:00 +0000

AWESOME story, great gear. I built a bootleg station myself on several occasions. My primary station ran at about 780-1200kc and was powerful enough to be heard well several miles away. I operated it nearly constantly playing mostly music using 8-tracks I got from a local thrift store! They play constantly. I built it as a simple one tube VFO
that used the common 12AX7 tube and a 200VDC plate voltage. I know this tube was not built for RF but it works well enough if you want to run a low power station that will not make too much "noise". Lots of harmonics, my antenna was deliberately short. I used a center loaded wire only about 12ft
long and completely inside my radio room. To avoid detection my next model up had to be shut down as it devastated most of the TV and radio transmissions in my condo even when I used no antenna and covered the unit with grounded foil!

I want to build a new one at some point, working on harmonic problems. I start from scratch and low budget. Sorry I can't give out my name or URL but, thanks for the great story.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:09:00 +0000

Thanks, That was a great read