Desert Crossing Radio

From HFUnderground

Desert Crossing Radio

Desert Crossing Radio was a mobile pirate station operated annually between 1999 and 2003 by hackers travelling from Los Angeles to the Defcon conference in Las Vegas as part of the DefCon Caravan. Transmitting on 104.7MHz FM (typically at around 20 watts), it played requests from people travelling in the caravan in addition to providing them with updates regarding the caravan's progress across the Mojave desert. Reception was generally quite good, though an abortive experiment with broadcasting in stereo in 2003 resulted in a switch back to mono half-an-hour before the caravan's departure.

Although mainly intended for operation while the caravan was mobile, it wasn't uncommon for it to transmit occasionally while at the conference. During the remainder of the year, it could be heard on an equally sporadic schedule around the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. The programming can most adequately be described as eclectic: musically everything from classical to punk rock was played with the odd drunken rant thrown in for variety when the station was non-mobile.

External links

• Defcon
• Desert Crossing Radio Information Page (from archive.org)
• DefCon Caravan Main Page (from archive.org)
• Desert Crossing Radio request thread on the Defcon Forums