NJ drones take over radio stations

The Truth About NJ's "Drone-Hijacked" Radio Stations: Debunking the Myth

As a 20+ year broadcast engineer, I'm here to explain why drones aren't actually taking over radio stations in New Jersey. The strange audio you've heard is likely due to a simple technical issue: mismatched sample rates in the digital audio chain.

I'll break down how sample rates work in broadcasting, why they're crucial, and how misconfigurations can lead to the eerie sounds people are mistaking for drone hijacks. We'll explore potential points of failure in the air chain and discuss how broadcast engineers can quickly identify and resolve these issues.

Learn why these alleged drone takeovers are limited to a single station and why it's more likely a weekend technical glitch than a supernatural occurrence. I'll share my professional insights on digital audio systems, automation software, and studio-to-transmitter links to help you understand the real story behind these mysterious broadcasts.

Join me for this deep dive into broadcast engineering and discover how simple technical issues can sometimes be mistaken for something far more sinister. Whether you're a fellow broadcast professional or just curious about how radio works, this video will give you a peek behind the curtain of the broadcast world.

#newjerseydrones #drone #broadcastengineeringissues #dji #broadcastengineering

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Drones in New Jersey, Radio Stations
01:05 - Strange Audio, Radio Station Issues
06:45 - Merry Christmas, Thank You for Watching

[Bryces_Imporium]

Hey Marcos, I really enjoyed you video on the anatomy of broadcast towers. I was wondering if you could do a deeper dive on tower climbing/maintenance, and possibly obstruction lighting? It’s always a good day when The Broadcast Engineer posts!

[wxfreak]

Thanks for the explanation. The drone hysteria is fertile ground for pranksters. It would be funny if the station was doing it on purpose, which I'm sure it isn't.

[andyg]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this.

[toddshook]

Sometime in the 1980s I did car towing and towed a car of a guy one night. He asked me what radio I listen: told KOLA 99.9 in Redlands. He ended up being engineer of station giving me a tour of the facility. It was amazing to see and first time seeing an automated radio station. Really cool for young kid like myself (I was in my mid 20s).

[Grim]

It's all fake. Speed up the audio in all the vids and you'll hear same exact clip being mixed in. Likelihood of all those people recording almost at exact same time is absurd.

[digitaladdiction]

Thank you for bringing up the sample rate issue. When I saw those clips I knew exactly what happened. The same issue even happened to us once because someone didn't pay attention while using TLC (Trim, Label, and Convert). Specifically with Christmas music. One CD had songs recorded in some crazy sample rate 22, 050 Hz. When you process and convert that to 44, 100 Hz the improper way it will cause some crazy artifacts. It was pretty funny though. lol

[juanlivingston]

The same result as if the space-time was manipulated to make the time 5 times slower so the radio signals was reduced in frequency. Of course if the frequency reduced 5x it would fall below the FM band, but it could be still receiving its 4th harmonic.

[jeffreykoerber]

Many years ago, I heard this happen (along with other anomalies) on the then University radio station where I work IT and I knew the GM, so was able to let him know. Now, I know that it was partially a sample rate issue. It was ultimately a failing hard drive in an array.

[Cherno-Tekknobyl]

i am 29 and i always loved watching in the night sky and just enjoy all the stars thinking about so much stuff from deeply personal to complete universe/existence stuff . . . and now we have even more distractions in life . . . smartphones and the need to always scroll, be connected etc.

then someone mentions online seeing weird stuff in the night sky - so even more people start gazing in the night sky to see if they too can find "ufo's" in their area and they'll see how much traffic goes on above us 24/7 . . . but for them it has to be an ufo or something like that because it glows and moves.

and i completely understand that the people feel threatened because from one big report on "weird drones doing weird things" just opens pandoras box. there will be many more drones of people who want to check out the drones with their own drone and people who think it's funny to escalate things through flying irradicaly or in closed air spaces on purpose. i mean if people even edit footage of the drones to add shots being fired on the drones, they would do amything for a chance to troll millions of people.

[WassimJelassi]

instead of talking why not just do it and show us. Personally, using computers from 30 years never heard that kind of distortion either on PC or Radio stations in 3 countries that I lived in, but I am open to any explanation with proof

[uploadJ]

Help me understand - why was my comment on a post below erased? Was it the mention of pie rates, or HF below ground? I would really like to understand what is happening? Was it just another random trim by the Y t al go that randomly trims 'ments?
It really doesn't help, when someone takes the time to make a comment - and it gets deep sixed... one wonders why even bother in the future, and it also engenders a lot of adverse thoughts on the subject too. Really, I'm trying to be positive here ... but coms on Y T get trimmed to where discussion is useless.

[hellknightmordred]

Could the drone cause a accidental interference possibly?

[kylec]

You've not presented any one specific mechanism, though. I believe it is narrowband interference on or near the pilot subcarriers used for synchronization. If the PLL in the receiver (which is used not just to decode, but to derive the rate for the DAC as well) uses a multiplier as a phase comparator, it could experience subharmonic lock. The buffer would overflow, causing frames to get periodically dropped, but there's smoothing that makes this difficult to hear (and we're not used to listening to slowed down audio, anyway). It makes sense, because the playback buffer is meant to handle a little bit of variable delay - it's just not designed for the PLL to lock to a sub-multiple. What do you think?

Not just one radio station, because I heard it in Chicago around the time these videos came out. Only lasted for a second or so, when I heard it.

[inthefreytoo]

With the all the “gas lighting” being done by the politicians, media, YouTube, etc., it may as well be October 30, 1938 and we’re all glued to the radio or running around like our hair was on fire looking for Aliens…. P.T. Barnum was right… Lions and Tigers and DRONES!! Oh, MY! Lions and Tigers and DRONES!! Oh, MY! Lions and Tigers and DRONES!! Oh, MY! Lions and Tigers and DRONES!! Oh, MY!

[arcticradio]

Don’t be silly it’s ALIENS 🤣🤣🤣

Great explanation many thanks 👍

Your channel is the best!

[RadioChief]

You should be quiet about this. Radio listenership has probably increased by all the people wanting to hear aliens.

[johnmoloney]

You never did explain what the height of the mast does or what the power kw/megawatts do,

[ThumperKJFK]

I had Clicked off this vlog before taking a watch. Because, You look not like I know you. and I thought it was another NUT cast. But when I was looking to see channels I subscribed to...Holy cow, That was you . anyway I find it very odd in this modern day and age of tech. There are adult people who do the War of the world thing and it's just darn right Nuts. Retired old school broadcast engineer from the 60's Heavy Iron day's of transmitters at that same AM station that was on the are that night. lol Dude I like the look. 👍

[InsideOfMyOwnMind]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! Just kidding.
Thanks for shedding light on this.

[Rocketman]

They should be outlawed. I put them in the same category as those RC operators who really believe they are pilots.