Transfer a Video Via FM Radio

In old times and even now, radio stations used to transmit secret morse code messages.

If the government pulls out the Internet cable, morse code file transfer can save you.

Ok, maybe not the best way to do it, but it's possible.

In this project, I transferred a small video via morse code.

I took a 9 sec long video and compressed it to 68.5 KB

Then, I imported that video into the Hex editor.

I used HxD Hex editor.

It’s better to use Base64 code. I'll explain the details at the end.

After that, I pasted the code into “WordPad” and added “WmvWmvWmvWmvWmvWmv” line at the top.

That will help us to identify where code starts and ends.

Then, I imported the code into “WinMorse” and converted to a “.wav file.

Then, I played it with my car’s MP3 Player/Fm Transmitter.

I connected the radio to my old laptop and used “CwGet” to decode the morse code. I could have just played the file in the computer, but I wanted to emulate radio stations effect. That’s why I used FM Transmitter.

When morse code was decoded, I selected the code between “WmvWmvWmvWmvWmvWmv” and pasted it back into the Hex editor.

After that, I saved it as a video file.

Did it work?

Yes. I had a small technical problem. From 9 sec video, I only transferred half of it. I think my FM transmitter let me down. All procedure took 28 H :)

Somebody on Youtube mentioned that it would have been much more effective to use base64 code instead of the HEX. I tried it before choosing HeX. The reason I did not go with the base64 code, was because of my old computer and the “=” symbol that base64 uses. My old computer’s sound card introduced some noise. That noise was decoded as letters. Because Base64 is using mostly letters, I thought I’ll go with the HEX code as it would be easier to spot an error. Hex code has space between symbols, base64 does not. After the comment, I decided to give it a try on my new computer. It did not introduce any noise and “=” symbol was not a problem.

Base64 should give much faster results.