Gentlemen may cry 'Peace, peace!' but there IS no peace

[Newfoundland DXer]

Bram Stoker once joked about "25 stations and 4 transmitters" regarding how the pirate scene actually worked. He's not far from the truth,IMO.

I actually try to distinguish between actual stations and what I call "novelty stations" in my own personal log list.  

For Europe, it is easy.  Yes, there are novelty shows for certain holidays, but they are rare.  Also, some stations change names for "enforcement" reasons.  And some stations adopt different names for holidays (particularly Christmas).  Only two or three regularly use different names (one seems to have 3 names, one for each of his musical styles).  But, overall, it is a lot easier to keep track of than this side of the Atlantic.

Over here, it is a bit of a mess.  There are many "seasonal" shows that I know come from one guy, because I recognize his voice (and particularly his pirate "arrrr" ... he does it well ) whenever I hear it.  There were the multicolored Rhino shows that obviously were connected.  And the Blowing League occassionally try to make an impression with a bunch of new names.  But overall, who knows how many actual txs are on the air

But it is all fun , unless, as Chris mentioned,, they use those identities for other purposes

Cheers, Terry

[Pigmeat]

LOL.

I use a Grenade transmitter. The thing with Grenade's is they all make a distinctive noise on air when you cut the power,and the sound made is individual to every Grenade. At one time I could tell if and who  was running the program by the sound their Grenade made at sign-off.

One of the odder era's of pirating I got involved in was just after 9/11. Except for me and another stateside pirate, hardly any one was running programming on regular basis? For 3-4 months,if either of us decided to pass on transmitting the same weekend,there would be nothing on. I was making up stations right and left to fill the void.

I think we both worked harder on putting out programming in those few months than either of us did at our regular jobs?

[Newfoundland DXer]

I use a Grenade transmitter. The thing with Grenade's is they all make a distinctive noise on air when you cut the power,and the sound made is individual to every Grenade. At one time I could tell if and who  was running the program by the sound their Grenade made at sign-off.

Ususally a grenade signal comes in pretty weak up here, but that is a very useful tip.  I will try to listen for that.

One of the odder era's of pirating I got involved in was just after 9/11. Except for me and another stateside pirate, hardly any one was running programming on regular basis? For 3-4 months,if either of us decided to pass on transmitting the same weekend,there would be nothing on. I was making up stations right and left to fill the void.

I think we both worked harder on putting out programming in those few months than either of us did at our regular jobs?

I remember reading an old post on frn a few years ago, about a guy who had to tape the station name above the mic so he would remember who he was supposed to be that night.  Maybe it was you. ;-)

This post got me thinking about the differences between the 2 pirate communities. As a comparison between Europe and NA, here are my QSL totals.  The Europe number I am pretty sure of (might be off by a couple), but the NA number is somewhat a guess.  I suspect that I have grossly underestimated the number of relays in NA.

NA                     Actual stations:    24      Novelty shows/relays:  32
Europe   (sw)   Actual stations:  161       Novelty shows/relays:  10

The difference is interesting.

Cheers, Terry