sid220 / pifm

PiFM

A complete radio station for the Raspberry Pi

Features

• Web interface for management
• Get music from FTP
• Automated news reports
• Play MP3 files with no extra hassle

Installation

1. Install the latest version of Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi
2. Close the repo: sudo apt install git && git clone https://github.com/Sid220/PiFM.git
3. Run the installation script: cd PiFM && python3 install.py
4. In the music directory you choose, put your music files (preferably MP3 or WAV, but other formats likely work)

You can then start the radio with python3 start.py. The Web UI is accessible from http://<your-pi-ip>:8000. Click songs to add them to the queue, and click songs in the queue to remove them.

Screenshots

Customise News Reports

By default, PiFM runs an automated news report every other hour. It begins with a musical intro, then an automated reading of latest headlines from the BBC RSS feed, and finally the latest video on the BBC's YouTube channel.

Using conf.json you can customise which parts you wish to include, and change the RSS feeds and YouTube channel. For example if you want to read from the CNN RSS feed instead of the BBC's and to not include the YouTube or intro portions, change the config like this:

...
  "news": {
    "enabled": true,
    "bbc": false,
    "intro": {
      "enabled": false,
      "file": "assets/News Theme Headline.mp3"
    },
    "rss": {
      "enabled": true,
      "url": "http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition.rss",
      "max_headlines": 5
    },
    "youtube": {
      "enabled": false,
      "channel": "UC16niRr50-MSBwiO3YDb3RA"
    },
    "interval": 2
  }
...

It is a good idea to disable bbc in conf.json like above if you do this, which impacts some dialogue to make it more generic.

For more advanced customisation, you should edit the news.py file.

Config documentation

Key	Type	Description
freq	float	The frequency to broadcast at
ui	object	The UI configuration
ui.enabled	bool	Whether to enable the UI
ui.port	int	The port to run the UI on, default 8000
music_dir	string	The directory to look for music in, locally unless FTP enabled
slogan	object	The slogan configuration
slogan.enabled	bool	Whether to enable the slogan after each song
slogan.files	array[string]	The audio files to play as slogans
ftp	object	The FTP configuration
ftp.enabled	bool	Whether to enable FTP
ftp.host	string	The FTP host
ftp.port	int	The FTP port
ftp.user	string	The FTP username
ftp.pass	string	The FTP password
news	object	The news configuration
news.enabled	bool	Whether to enable news reports
news.bbc	bool	Whether to use the BBC preset (impacts some dialogue)
news.interval	int	The interval between news reports in hours
news.intro	object	The intro configuration
news.intro.enabled	bool	Whether to enable the intro
news.intro.file	string	The audio file to play as the intro
news.rss	object	The RSS configuration
news.rss.enabled	bool	Whether to enable the RSS feed
news.rss.url	string	The URL of the RSS feed
news.rss.max_headlines	int	The maximum number of headlines to read
news.youtube	object	The YouTube configuration
news.youtube.enabled	bool	Whether to enable the YouTube portion
news.youtube.channel	string	The YouTube channel id to read from. THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS THE HANDLE!

Notes

• On the Raspberry Pi 4, GPIO21 is used for broadcasting (PIN 40 on GPIO header)
• On other boards, GPIO4 is used for broadcasting (PIN 7 on GPIO header)
• Frequencies above 93 MHz are known to be problomatic on the Raspberry Pi 4
• Leaving the Web UI open for a long time can decrease audio quality
• Other ALSA loopback devices may interfere with PiFM, so it is recommended to remove them

Disclaimer

In most countries, transmitting radio waves without a state-issued licence specific to the transmission modalities (frequency, power, bandwidth, etc.) is illegal.

Therefore, always connect a shielded transmission line from the Raspberry Pi directly to a radio receiver, so as not to emit radio waves. Never use an antenna.

Even if you are a licensed amateur radio operator, using PiFM to transmit radio waves on ham frequencies without any filtering between the Raspberry Pi and an antenna is probably illegal as bandwidth requirements are likely not met.

I could not be held liable for any misuse of your own Raspberry Pi. Any experiment is made under your own responsibility.

From fm_transmitter (the backend of this project):

Legal note

Please keep in mind that transmitting on certain frequencies without special permissions may be illegal in your country.