From aldershot way, early 90's I think? Anyone remember this station? Were they any good? Just interested how the pirate scene was like in this neck of the woods, having moved out this way from london.

Any pirates in hampshire/surrey these days?

Great in their day, had loads of good local talent and all the latest tunes.

...Used to listen to them when I lived in Byfleet nr Woking, first heard them in early '93 and could hear them every weekend up until around the Summer '93.
Seemed to only occasionally hear them for the next few years and think the last time I heard them was around 1995 but they were clashing badly with Girls FM 106.8 which was on the same frequency at that time.

My first pirate radio debut Radioactive started out in late 1991 on 101.8 fm. Run by a collective called 'the shy boyz' and broadcasted from bedrooms. Bedsits etc around Camberley. Aldershot. Farnborough. The station had a massive following when it first started out in 91/92. It was on all the time. It used to broadcast from the Rhythm station club in Aldershot, so you would hear djs like Ellis Dee and Ratpack being transmitted over the airwaves!!!
A total brilliant station. Well underated. Still got some great tapes from that era.
One last thing. They are still going but online only tho. I used to play on there again when they came back a few years ago.

Where did they TX from? as there arent really any high places round these parts

Originally they ran straight. Dti never bothered until Classic fm started wiping out 101.8 in our area, so it moved to 103.4 and started interfering with radio Berkshire. I remember summer 93 we got a visit whilst broadcasting from a 4 storey set of flats on the A30 in Camberley. Later on that year it came back on 107fm and the transmitter was on the Hogs back for a little bit. Then was moved to the siren at Broadmoor hospital!!!!

Haha that siren is still there i think, drove past it the other day. Didnt know phone masts were up on hogs back those years

They weren't cellphone masts back then unless there was an analogue lurking up there with the TX masts. There's plenty of high points with power around there plus you can see right the way over London.

It was on 107FM when I first heard it, signal was reasonable but not solid. Where as I could receive the BBC Guildford stations and 96.4 without my aerial plugged in from my location.

When I first heard Kane FM around 94 time I understand that was up on the Hog's Back and that was coming over really strong with all 5 signal lights up on my tuner.

You lot are totally testing my brains tonight! Lol. Right if I remember rightly, in 1993 the transmitter was powered via a lamp post with an ariel up a tree! I also remember something about a barn being used at some point.
Kane fm yeah Im sure they were getting power from traffic lights or something.
This must be making the London stations crack up with laughter. Absolutely no tower blocks in this area.
Another thing, back in the 90's there were 5 pirates in our area. Radioactive / Energy fm / Kane fm / Freestyle fm / Peak fm. We all got on and use to rotate sometimes amongst stations. Peace and love and all that

Also to point out. Most of these various stations were either running straight or using band 1 links. But I do remember Radioactive using microwave in the Broadmoor siren era.

djmysterykanefm wrote: Another thing, back in the 90's there were 5 pirates in our area. Radioactive / Energy fm / Kane fm / Freestyle fm / Peak fm. We all got on and use to rotate sometimes amongst stations. Peace and love and all that

Do you remember Sense 103.4 from Woking?

Oh god yeah I do now. Id forgotten about that. Wow. Memory jogger.

Haha thought you would, when you mentioned FreeStyle I immediately though of them.

Only one you mentioned I haven't heard of is Peak FM.

Peak fm was fairly small to be fair. It was about when Radioactive and Energy fm were off air for a bit in around 1997. They used to broadcast from a place called Frimley Green, just outside Camberley. Only on a Friday and Saturday night. Another one with ariels up trees, rigs running off car batteries etc.

Another station that was totally bizarre was something that used to pop up now and again was called 'Warrior fm' which would come on air midweek for about a couple of hours, music policy was stuff like Chas n Dave, Cliff Richard, NWA (I kid you not) and some really bad djing with records on the wrong speed. The dj used to do impressions of celebratie guests!!!!! Sound quality was terrible. Obviously a young kid with a 1 watt transmitter that got out about a mile or two. It was very very odd to listen to.
I did record it a couple of times as Id never heard anything like it (and prob never will til the day I die) lol

djmysterykanefm wrote:You lot are totally testing my brains tonight! Lol. Right if I remember rightly, in 1993 the transmitter was powered via a lamp post with an ariel up a tree! I also remember something about a barn being used at some point.
Kane fm yeah Im sure they were getting power from traffic lights or something.
This must be making the London stations crack up with laughter. Absolutely no tower blocks in this area.
Another thing, back in the 90's there were 5 pirates in our area. Radioactive / Energy fm / Kane fm / Freestyle fm / Peak fm. We all got on and use to rotate sometimes amongst stations. Peace and love and all that

lot to be learnt from this saftey in numbers, together we are stronger it could help save pirating, respect each other your in the same game. theres no competition to be had now you have 20 listeners each, have fun peace

nice stories

Cool very interesting to see how it was done, using limited sources! Im sure there was another pirate called red eye from round here aswell? Not heard of peak fm, was it all the same lot running these stations then?

Mr mystery, are u in farnborough aswell? Fancy another crack at it? Haha

Red Eye were in Surrey, about 10 miles or so to the north east of you.

It was all different people running things. I ran and started 'Energy fm' for the first 5 years until the usual grief from the girlfriend took over etc. But it kept running by other djs and in the end I had nothing to do with it!
All the pirates down this end never ran adverts and was all done simply for getting on air and playing music. There was never any one certain guvnor so to speak.

Sorry mr Beale. Im on legal radio now, I dont wanna screw that up. As much as I do miss the pirate buzz. But I know alot has changed since the 90's

Hello hoping you lot will read this. Shearminator here I lived in blackwater near Camberley all my life until recently in 2018 I moved to Basingstoke. Radio active was indeed a big station in the local area's back in the 90s. I'm still in touch with sible, and recently in touch with DJ riddler and Paul DJ renegade. Have spent last 20 years with MC magic too. Active, Energy sinster Bracknell were fab back then. As the years passed new stations came and went. Creative fm, 2 hot fm, release radio. You will be pleased to know digital radio now is banging. Release radio, pointblank radio London, unity and centreforce all have legal licences so check them! Kane FM also used to be a Guildford pirate they jumped on a legal frequently modulation airwave before DAB got more excitement.

Peace you can catch my profile on mixcloud or SoundCloud


Shearminator

djmysterykanefm wrote: ↑Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:16 am It was all different people running things. I ran and started 'Energy fm' for the first 5 years until the usual grief from the girlfriend took over etc. But it kept running by other djs and in the end I had nothing to do with it!
All the pirates down this end never ran adverts and was all done simply for getting on air and playing music. There was never any one certain guvnor so to speak.

Sorry mr Beale. Im on legal radio now, I dont wanna screw that up. As much as I do miss the pirate buzz. But I know alot has changed since the 90's

The Farnborough vampire crew said they had all the old transmitter? They used it a few times on 87.8 weekends about 26 years ago. They know you well jack. They live in totlen Farnborough