Returning home from the Biggin Hill holiday camp, I decided to get some more practice driving as my test isn’t too far away now. We however got stuck in traffic as the masses returned from their bank holiday getaway. One has a lot of time to think when stuck in traffic and today was no exception.
I would guess that the majority of folk sitting in those traffic jams were listening to their radios of which there was a good chance they were tuned to Radio 1. What if I could block that signal and broadcast my own message to the rest of the traffic jam.
We got home and I wasted no time in putting plans into action. Pulling apart a past project I set to work. Theres always been an ongoing competition on the web to see what electronics people can fit into an Altoids tin, so finding an old tin myself decided to fit everything in it.
After about an hour of playing around and realising my soldering skills are rubbish I got there. I can basically mask any station in the FM range within 100 metres of me, which I find impressive.
It only just manages to shut and remain shut what with all the wires etc inside.
Admittedly it could do with a bit of organisation but thats not important at this minute, what is is the fact that it works. So next time you’re sat in a jam listening to your radio and this voice suddenly takes over raving about how much he hates being stuck in traffic, don’t be alarmed its just little old me!
12:03 pm on August 29th, 2007
That is sooooo cool, I want to play with it when I see you!!!
5:40 am on August 30th, 2007
Geeees,
This is very cool, I wonder if I could put something like this together for all the traveling I do on the local buses, it would sure beat the local Hindi vibes blasting out every available air vent in the bus, and a voice in the background would be fantastic! This would definitley creat alot of confusion on the bus if done well….mmmm..great idea Sir
7:21 pm on August 30th, 2007
hey,
Is the contents of the tin a secret or will you tell me how you do this. I know nothing about electronics or radios but i have 3 weeks with nothing to do and i think filling my time with projects like this would be better than facebook and gmtv.
Either way, well done.
-A
2:06 pm on August 31st, 2007
Hi Ash, thanks for dropping by.
Its a little difficult to tell you how its done in a little comments box like this. If you’re looking for projects like mine and many many more click on a couple of links in the right hand column of this blog.
http://www.makezine.com/blog is a great site update daily showing off things people have made.
http://www.instructables.com is a similar site but provides step by step instructions on how it the things were made.
These site are perfect if you’re looking at filling 3 weeks off work.
Good luck and let me know what you make.