If you have a neighbor that's playing their music too loudly, you can get them back by hijacking their speakers with a little DIY project.


Some people are more than a little inconsiderate, and when a friendly note or call to your landlord doesn't solve the problem, sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands. Evil genius and electrical guru junkyardmessiah over at Reddit came up with this DIY solution:

In deference to XKCD the real way to cause problems with her system is pretty simple. You need a Cheap CB radio, A linear amp, and a bottom loaded CB antenna (easier to build a ground plane for it). See if you can get a good guess where she has her [speakers] set up and get your antenna close as you can to it. You should be able to talk to her THROUGH her stereo system. The amplifier sections are not shielded in these plastic ready made toys and the resulting AM signal will impact it. In my case I ran a continuous 6khz tone from a signal generator which was more than enough to blow it up good. ENJOY!


Essentially, with a few tools, you can transmit your voice, play an annoying tone, or even blast your own music through their speakers—even if their speakers are turned off. If you're truly evil, you could probably blow out their speakers too, but that could have repercussions. Different states have different legal issues pertaining to these types of devices, too, so check with your area's laws—if such things concern you—before you start plotting. There's also this organization called the FCC that will probably have a thing or two to say about your transmission, too, so it may be wise to think of this as more of a very interesting proof-of-concept rather than an actual prank you should pull off.

This post details a bit more of what goes into the project, while this post uses a slightly different method to get to the same end.

Is it expensive? Yes—the materials can cost up to a hundred dollars or more. But is it pure, cackle-inducing, totally-worth-it evil? Most certainly. The instructions aren't as straightforward as we'd like, but if you have a bit of electronics experience, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how it actuallyw orks. Hit the link to read the original post over at Reddit.

I Feel Bad For This Guy... | Reddit

This post is part of our Evil Week series at Lifehacker, where we look at the dark side of getting things done. Knowing evil means knowing how to beat it, so you can use your sinister powers for good. Want more? Check out our evil week tag page.


Photo remixed from Eirik Solheim.