At the time of broadcast, a Federal Communications Commission engineer theorized that the broadcasters tapped into Home Box Office and other networks to acquire programming, and that the transmissions probably originated from the area surrounding Syracuse University because Lucky 7 came in strongest near the campus. Subsequent speculation is that Lucky 7 was the brainchild of students from the Newhouse School of Communications with the assistance of nearby SUNY Morrisville journalism program students, who used equipment normally available for closed circuit broadcasts on channel 7 on the University's cable system, and transmitted the over-air signal using a standard VHF reception antenna.[5]
A contemporary article in The Daily Orange, the Syracuse University student newspaper, reported that Lucky 7 accomplished the broadcasts by "attaching an RF modulator to a videotape recorder and intensifying the [...] signal with an old guitar amplifier". The report also noted that the transmissions "reportedly came from the Thornden Park area," and that "anywhere from two to 25 people were involved in the project". The article quoted one of the programmers as saying they were going "way underground," adding "It started as an experiment. It backfired enormously [...] We got nervous when we saw it was making a big splash."[4]