Is it possible to create a portable pirate radio?

Question

Now before anyone goes on about how it's illegal, don't.

I have no intention of creating a portable pirate radio for my own personal use. I'm writing a short story for one of my college classes and I wanted to make it about a guy who wanders around the remains of the United States after it was destroyed in several nuclear explosions all across the country.
So basically, he walks around the country looking for other survivors. Since he's all alone, he talks into a portable pirate radio in hopes of that someone will hear him and attempt to contact him.
I decided that talking into a self-made piece of junk portable pirate radio would be more endearing then writing a story about a guy who walks around using a laptop to post messages on a blog.
So... can anyone explain how to make a portable pirate radio? At least a pirate radio and then I'll think of some way to make it portable.

When I mean portable, I mean something my character can carry around in a back pack. Or with a strap over his shoulder like a duffle bag.

Answer 1

Jeffery makes an excellent point. Why not have your character find an undamaged Ham radio? It could be in a lead-shielded out-building he discovers at some survivalist's property during his wanderings. Unfortunately, the survivalist was running toward his shelter when the attack came and he didn't make it. Your hero could cleverly find a way into the bunker, where the portable Ham is stored complete with several fully charged batteries.

Now you've got your radio... and no plot hole!
-a guy named duh (who also writes)

Answer 2

This isn't a possiblility: It's been done before.

Pirate radio has been run out of trucks, vans, and boats. A notorious one from the 70's and 80's used to broadcast off a boat 2 miles off the coast of New York in International waters.

Of course, if there was a nuclear war, and the government collapsed, it wouldn't be "pirate" radio... it would just be radio.

Actually what you're looking for is either short wave or CB radio, which were standard means of communication before cell phones. CB radios are still used by truckers and would be a natural choice for your character (cheap, lightweight, portable).

The Internet/cell phones wouldn't work if the national infrastructure tanked after a nuclear war (both require infrastructure), but shortwave and CB radios would (along with police radios, which are fancy CBs)

Answer 3

Indeed it is. As I have heard it, many pirates do just that to keep a step or two ahead of the FCC.

You can check out http://www.blackcatsystems.com/radio/pirate.html or contact Lisa Nalbandian at Wisconsin Public Radio's Green Bay office. She wrote either a master's or doctoral thesis on the subject.

Answer 4

It is definitely possible using tubes instead of transistors. Transistors would be wiped out by a nearby nuclear warhead but tubes would still work. When I was in college, we had one of these in our dorm. It was capable of overriding the local 50,000 watt station for a distance of about 1/2 mile. When the Feds stormed into the dorm to shut it down, it did not occur to them to question the student walking out of the dorm with a suitcase. When they stormed the second dorm, they again ignored the (same) student leaving with the (same) suitcase. After the third attempt, they gave up. The station was shut down shortly thereafter due to the punishment if caught. For those who are curious, the college was Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Answer 5

Plausible story line, but most electronics would be rendered completely useless after a nuke war because the ElectroMagnetic Pulse would cause circuit meltdown with most electronics that were not stored underground.

The likelyhood that there would be radios or even power to power radios would be unlikely. Again, with most cars, the EMP would render them and all electronics in them unusable.

Study up on EMP and its implications on your story. You may be able to find a storyline AROUND the whole EMP....like maybe the midwest being largely untouched by war