QST “How’s DX?” and The Daily DX Editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR, said that someone in southern Europe has been pirating several call signs on CW. These include VU2TS — a call sign issued to a ham in Karnataka State in India, the ITU Headquarters club station call sign 4U1ITU (at a time when 4U1ITU was using 4U1WRC), and 5H3PM, now called out as a pirated call sign on QRZ.com.

“The pirate has now recently switched over to 5H3MG, again CW only,” McClenny said this week. “I have confirmed with Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) that both 5H3 call signs are not currently registered call signs. The signals are clearly coming from southern Europe.”

McClenny said the pirate’s typical operating pattern can be seen using DX Summit (click “Refresh spots”). A recent search showed 5H3MG spotted on 40, 30, 20, 17, and 15 meters. He pointed out that QSL cards for 4U1ITU can only legitimately be handled by the club; there is no QSL manager.