“Hi welcome to McDonald’s! Don’t buy the such-and-such it’s a waste of money. Just order the cheaper burger with lettuce and sauce.”
“Did you know that salad has more calories than a Jr. Whopper?”
The possibilities are endless.
Note: Although it is extremely interesting and funny..please, please, please don’t actually do this. Just watch the video and learn about science. People who work fast food jobs have enough to deal with. They are people, too.
(Thanks, Brad!)
More From Consumerist
-
Yes, We Want Fries With That: Americans Get 11% Of Their Calories From Fast Food
-
Fast-Food Workers Reportedly Walked Off The Job Today During NYC Strike Over Wages
-
Chick Fil-A To Offer Kitchen Tours To Customers Who Ask
-
Which Fast Food Prices Have Increased The Most Over The Last Decade?
-
Would Chipotle Be The Same With Drive-Thru Windows?
@Chongo: thats fine… I changed it earlier and it just went through.
Business and consumers are, to a certain degree, in opposition. Business want to make money and only grudgingly provide value in return for that money. Consumers want value and only grudgingly pay for it. (This is a generalization, of course.)
No site that advocates for consumers will every truly be respected by businesses even if those business do occasionally “do the right thing” in the face of the widespread harsh publicity that a posting in Consumerist can bring–that isn’t respect it is grudging backtracking in the light of day. Thus your admonition that Consumerist should **only** post articles that earn the “respect” of business is antithetical to the editorial content of Consumerist. That you don’t recognize that paints you as rather myopic–but that is consistent with your other postings.
This works! Try it!
I’m sorry but that was too funny. This video made my day.
Everyone just chill out and have this milkshake that I made for you…
What, you wanted chocolate? Oops! Stupid radio pranksters….
I wonder if this would work on Best Buy employee headsets…
/looks for toaster
+58 for this not being really funny and unacceptable for the consumerist to post.
Toaster, what? You can get a timing crystal from any electronics warehouse, like Mouser:
[www.mouser.com]
They cost like $.50 to $1.50.
Not only is that a good way to get a citation and a fine from the FCC (assuming they actually did anything but auction off radio spectrum for money), but it’s a waste of a perfectly good toaster and CB.
Nor is this as simple as it sounds; taking a crystal out of a toaster and having the CB magically land on your local Taco Bell’s drive through frequency is extremely unlikely, and I’m pretty sure they left off the part about the RF test equipment you’d need to make it come out on-frequency.
And, if you’re really unlucky, perhaps your modified CB will interfere with the control tower at your local airport and cause a plane crash.
Yeah, because we need more of that kind of behavior.
What’s funny about losers fukin with innocent people buying lunch?
At this point, I’d be screaming “L’Eggo my Eggo” but some hooligan dismantled the friggin toaster! Can’t even order an Egg Mc Muffin because said hooligan will intercept the order! Seriously, this guy could actually have a career in training videos. While this prank may not have any major repercussions, some people go way too far, as evidenced in this prank at a McDonald’s that cost the company over $6.1 million dollars.
Transcript: [www.wjactv.com]
april foolery stories might be better when its actually run on April 1st, instead of today.
Good god, people… This is a joke. And I don’t mean the pranking of fast-food drive-throughs (although I do think that’s very funny). I mean the whole idea that you can modify a CB radio with a crystal and get it to transmit on fast-food frequencies is pure bullshit. I got halfway through the comments before I even saw one post where someone let on that they knew it was a joke, too. The Phone Losers guys got sick of being asked how they did this, so they made a bullshit video in the hopes that morons would believe it and try it. Ha ha! Joke’s on them! OK? So everyone un-bunch your panties and wash the sand out of your vaginas already. No fast-food restaurants will be harmed (or, uh, mildly inconvenienced) by this video.
Hold up, you don’t need to go all MacGuyver to pull this off. Anyone with an amplified microphone for a CB can do this. Just sit in the parking lot and let the hilarity ensue. You don’t even have to set the CB to any particular channel. Just key in and start talking.
OMG this is awesome! Thanks for making my day!
Everyone else lighten up! jeez!
That was a great post. Maybe all the complaining people will get fed up and leave… one could hope, right?
Did this with an old radio transceiver a while back (an ICOM aviation txmit/receive one). Most drive-thru frequencies are in and around 30MHZ (lots of the ones in Canada are on 31.400MHz), and work off low enough power that the signal doesn’t even leave the parking lot.
Next article needs to be about the ways that can be used to get on PA systems (Wal-Mart’s is very, very easy to get on) =)
I thought this article was quite funny. Back when I worked @ Home Depot in the early 90′s, I knew how to hijack the store’s intercom system from an outside telephone line. I only did it once, because once you know it was did the hijinks luster wore off. Anywho,
to any who thought this was offensive, “Lighten up, FRANCIS!”
OMG This is AWESOME.
BIG THUMBS UP!!!
my kids did a play a few years ago at a playhouse next to a fast food joint. somehow, the frequency of the drive-thru service got mixed in with the playhouse’s sound system, so when belle’s father was about to leave her in the beast’s castle, we got to hear someone order a burger and fries. i got a kick out of it. half the fun of community theater is seeing what actually happens vs. what’s supposed to happen.
Wow, a lot of people have zero sence of humor today, oh well, I find it funny. Actually I would like to do this, it sounds almost as fun as a cell phone jammer.
My husband says this is not possible for no less than two reasons:
1). Fast food systems broadcast in FM & CBs broadcast in AM. Just changing a chip doesn’t change AM to FM.
2). Drive-thrus require something called PL tones, which CB’s don’t have and this wouldn’t give them.
Nice that they use a photo of the Hong Kong skyline as a backdrop… considering it’s one of the few cities in the world that has NO drive-thrus.
Kat: my bad. damned bronchitis.
Ha! This is genius!
Good job for posting this, consumerist. It’s great.
This should be on Gizmodo, not consumerist. Other than that, I was entertained.
When I was about 7 years old, I got some really shitty service at a McD’s counter. It was cheap burger night, and I wanted some more burgers! I stood in line forever, got to the front, and the cashier completely ignored me because I was a child, despite my protestations. I got fed up, told my dad, and we left. Before driving away, dad tuned his Ham radio to the drive-thru frequency and said some rude things. After feeling so embarassed and disenfranchised, that certainly cheered me up.
Whether this particular hack works or not, the point in posting it is that consumers are pissed off. We’ve been continually trodden upon by the companies we buy from, and we are mad as hell. People let their anger get the better of them and do stupid (and/or illegal) things because they feel that they have no other options. We should use this as an opportunity to take a deep breath, count to 10 and think of more productive ways to show that we are fed up with being disregarded.
Where’s the original video?
@Me: np. Hope you feel better – bronchitis SUCKS.
@marsneedsrabbits: @Mike_: Mike and Mars, absolutely correct. In most areas of the US (all of the fast food systems that I am familiar with), a CB will not work. First of all, Mars is correct — in a more “secure” system, it requires a PL tone (a subaudible tone used to open up the squelch of a radio receiver). Second, CBs do transmit in AM and most of these systems use FM. Third, CB is at about 26 MHz (HF) and most fast-food systems use UHF or VHF (150MHz or 450MHz ranges).
And I know someone who has done this, it was waaay back when we were in high school (we are both ham radio operators). It can be done with most VHF or UHF ham radio transcievers (most are easily modifiable for out-of-band transmit, presumably for those hams who participate in Civil Air Patrol or Military Afiliate Radio System, both use frequencies not assigned to ham radio operators.
It should be noted that a ham radio transciever such modified is also capable on operating on some of the older (pre-trunking) police and fire radio systems and also most business band frequencies… Messing with police and fire is something that is NOT recommended.
In fact, the crime demonstrated in this Consumerist article is a federal crime, FCC fines for unlicensed radio transmission can top $10,000. And yes, most times these people are tracked down, ham radio operators do the tracking. And fox hunting is fun!
Look here: [www.arrl.org]
This is very funny, very illegal, and has been done by some “unprofessional” ham radio operators I used to associate with. As a licensed amateur radio operator, even having a radio that can transmt “out of band” into these frequencies can get your license revoked. Not something I would do, but really funny when I heard my former fellow hams do it. I still laugh at how mad some people get when you really give it back to them.
Christ, can some commenters lighten up? It’s a funny prank, and it does make my day, but do we really have to complain over ONE goddamn post just because it’s a bad idea to try?
Sites have the full authority on what to post and what not to post. Lighten up, damnit.