CFAY the Pirate

[VE7ROX]

Wow, does that bring back memories. Yes, Jon, you hit the nail on the head. Good old Cariboo Hill Junior High and even Armstrong Avenue Elementary haha. I think Frank Stacy, Pluto and I go back as far as grade 2 if you can imagine that. Seems to me that around the grade 5 and 6 period there was a hobby show of sorts at Armstrong, and somebody (yourself) had set up something in the auditorium with radios, QSL cards and other radio station related items on some tables there. I had already been listening to weak stations in between the stronger local ones, and got quite intrigued by what I was hearing, both day, night, sunset and sunrise. I was surprised when I found out other people were doing it too, so I guess seeing what you had set up there really got the ball rolling.

Then one day Pluto said "Hey, there's this guy out in North Surrey (Whalley) that I met through IRCA - he and several others are running a radio station out there. Let's go check it out". So needless to say, we did that and I think
you know where it all went from there. The Burnaby DX Club, BDXC. Eldon told me he knows of Brian Elder's whereabouts and activities. So you knew of Frank Stacy's walkie-talkies. Yes, him and I used those a lot, as we lived only a quarter of a mile apart, so who needed a telephone? It may have been those things that got me started in amateur radio, as eventually John Basil Peters and I went down to the DOT (Department Of Transport) offices and got our licenses and callsigns. Not too many people heard myself or Frank with 100 milliwatts, but I eventually got transmitters that were a bit stronger and was then heard at somewhat greater distances. There is a site where you can look up callsigns, mine of course being VE7ROX http://www.qrz.com/callsign/VE7ROX

Yes, sure is nice that we can all keep in touch on a forum such as RadioWest. Kind of like a BDXC reunion. I am still living in Burnaby, haven't wandered away from the old home town. Most convenient in a lot of ways, I go out and visit Eldon and we go out on DXpeditions. We were on one just last Sunday (Jul 19/09) up on Thorne Hill, east of Haney and north east of Albion in Maple Ridge. One heck of a DX location, we were picking up stations (FM) that we had not heard before, such as the FM translator of KBRC AM 1430 in Mt.Vernon, WA, on FM 102.1. We picked up KZEL FM 96.1 Eugene, OR from that location at one time, and they were so thrilled about being heard in Canada that they sent us a whole whack of things besides just a QSL card, they sent posters, surveys, letter, etc. By the way, Eldon was using the Grundig G5 radio, and I was using the C Crane CC Radio. Guess what, the Grundig G5 was out-performing the CC Radio, and it was hearing stations that were simply not there on the CC Radio. Hmmmm. We also checked the AM band, and WWL AM 870 in New Orleans was being heard with a reasonable signal. Here is the radio in Eldon' hands: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4 ... 1734836072 WWL is not quite as easy to hear as back in the sixties, as I'm sure you know. Outside of the Vancouver area, however, things could be different.

So I will post more on here as new things come up, and take it from there. - ROX . . .

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi again everyone, Wow! Thats a long one VEROX, you almost get me beat!!! Very informative stuff ROX and Jon. Thanks for all the past history!!! Yes I*ve known these guys since l967 or so. Thats when I first got into DXing, had just started CFAY and had joined IRCA in the states, the first radio club I belonged to. It was really a good decision and boosted my dxing knowledge greatly! I got to know members like Jon Pearkins and it really helped with dx tips and radio reception of weaker stations etc... For some reason Burnaby seemed to have a lot of guys with a strong interest in radio whereas the Whalley (Surrey North) area was almost a big Zero in that department. The exception would be me and of course friends like Woodcarver who became interested in electronics and radio with CFAY etc... Anyway its great to see everyone looking back at it all on Radio West. Good memories for sure!!! Really good to hear from you Woodcarver (Frank London) and glad you liked VE7ROX's CFAY video photo production! He takes full credit for that one, I didn't even know he was doing that, came as a surprise to us too! We did like it though. Ann and I almost fell off our chairs laughing at a couple of points!!!

Yes Woodcarver you can email me and I can give you my cell phone numbers etc... I do have the two P.O. Box addresses as well that I previously listed in another post. I can also give you the Ontario address for when I'm back there. I spent all of 200l in Ontario near Cobourg. Great Dxing spot and I do like the lakefront of Cobourg, nice park near Lake Ontario. It does get hot in the summertime but not quite as muggy as Toronto!!!

For a low power beginners radio station we had some pretty talented guys at C-FAY back in l969. Woodcarver did a great job at selecting music for his program and had some good technical tips on the radio operation of CFAY l357khz. He was there at the beginning when we used the Lionel radio kit transmitter that only got out 50 feet or so, then we went to the Electronic Illustrated l965 tube model, my first radio project built from scratch, it worked with a longwire antenna as well as carrier current (transmitting through the power lines), about l00 milliwatts of power. Got out up to l mile away for local coverage. Since then I've found out (especially recently) about many Part l5 or l00 milliwatt AM stations in the USA that use state of the art low power AM transmitters and coil-loaded l0 foot antennas to get out l to 2 miles serving smaller towns and neighborhoods across the USA. They are not licensed but are legal at l00 milliwatts under Part l5 FCC rules. Carrier Current operations are the same. You could call these stations legal pirate stations in the USA!!! Anyway many of them have commercials etc.... I've heard lots of them on my wi-fi radios because some of them stream audio...

One I discovered recently and taped (airchecks) of is WPAU l640 Paulding, OHIO (thats a small town of 3000 people in Western OHIO southwest of Defiance). They also operate another low power AM in Ottawa, OHIO. They broadcast all the local baseball games, local commercials, some oldies music, even some organ instrumentals and local weather etc.. Sounds just like a local licensed AM station in a small market. However WPAU l640 runs about l00 milliwatts and streams on the net.. Paulding does not have any licensed AM or FM licensed stations but Defiance (about 50 miles away) does as do many other small towns in OHIO. I visited quite a few in l978 including the ones in Napoleon and Defiance, OHIO. Did not visit Paulding but we did get south of there to Celina, OHIO. I was visiting a radio and record collector friend in Toledo who was and still is into radio heavily. Frank Merrill is his name, he lives in Macomb, Illinois now. Oh actually that might have been the summer of l975!!! Anyway we almost got caught in a tornado in southwest OHIO near the town of Van Wert. Good thing Frank was used to these things and was able to make the interstate. Heard all sorts of tornado warnings on the radio and was a bit concerned to say the least. Must say that Frank's driving ability was very good in that heavy rainstorm complete with hail and tornadoes to the southwest of us! Some of the other low power Part l5 stations broadcast very old radio shows and old nostalgia music from the 20s and 30s... A few are owned by retired USA broadcasters not just teenagers or younger people! Most are operated pretty professionally these days. One in Conyers, Georgia is like this.

Anyway to all who helped operate C-FAY at the beginning and in the late 60s/early 70s a big THANK YOU, it was much appreciated!!! Jon did a good job on his music selection and programming as well. I also want to thank RadioFan for the dedication in the music department at CFAY and the great music charts he printed for us. I still have them RadioFan. Both RadioFan and Pluto did pretty creative radio shows on C Fay too. We tried to play some music that none of the local top 40 stations aired. It helped that we were on the mailing list of several USA record companies like Elektra and Duke Peacock Records. I remember a pretty funny contest we had in which PLUTO walked nearby streets with a red radio/record player combo. (it was a small portable one) and we announced it over the air. If you went up to him and mentioned CFAY or his air-name which was Mike Allen you would win some free records!!! In another contest we got a phone call from a girl named Pam who lived on the NE. side of Whalley (about a mile away) and she won some free records. Several of the C-FAY djs delivered the prize to her in person! Imagine that home delivery to a contest winner!!! You don't get that anymore on radio stations, do you? Of course Jim (VE7ROX) and I were always trying different technical things to extend the range of the station without boosting power too much. We started out at less than l00 milliwatts, went to that level and eventually got up to 5 and 8 watts on AM. That would have been in l969.

Aside from CFAY there were several other RW members that operated low power am stations and did a pretty good job of it in l969 and the early l970s. I still have some of the CKKK l040 charts Dan! I do remember hearing Fifteen Hundred Radio and I believe l630 AM from East Burnaby about l970 in Whalley as well. Crash Williams (Brian) with his "Musical Fiasco and Drinking Party" was quite unique and very creative. Doug Miller (anotherdog radio west member) also did a good country flashback show on Cfay back in l969! Doug and Brian had the courage to do the all-night show right till dawn! I say courage because as Woodcarver said there was not inside heating in the station building. Overnights in the early spring and winter were pretty cold and damp! Although we eventually did get a couple of portable electric heaters in late l969 or l970. So there you have a few more historical bits of CFAY l360/l357KHZ. Oh one more thing it was Brian 'Crash" Williams who was the offiicial verification signer for distant radio reception reports. He kindly let us use his Yale Street address in Vancouver for mail correspondance, which we were really grateful for, Thanks Brian!!! That was way before I had any P.O. Boxes like now. If the internet for radio program streaming had existed in the l970 its possible that CFAY might have eventually gotten into that if the cost was not too much! We were on a limited budget back in those days!!!








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[skyvalleyradio]

Eldon, VE7ROX & the CFAY crew: whose ready for a DX test on 87.7 FM after CHEK-TV pulls the plug?

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Sky Valley and everyone, I had not seen much from you recently, so it's good to see you back again. Yes that's quite an idea, doing a test on 87.7 MHz. once CHEK TV leaves the airwaves. VE7ROX are you listening????? Anyway, I'm sure we will give it some thought. If you read my posting today under the thread FM DX alert you'll see my comment about CFSI coming in the strongest yet on Sunday night at Thorne Hill, Maple Ridge. It was good hearing it that strong, like a local station, even with CFML in the same general direction. CJUJ FM is a cousin to the CFAY of yesterday, which is operated by VE7ROX. We were trying for signals on 89.1, hoping to hear CJJZ Saltspring from Thorne Hill ( a really hot DX location that we hadn't been at for 25 years). What we heard on Sunday night was a repeater or FM translator from Mt. Vernon, WA, of KAWZ or KEFX (Cause and Effect), two religious FM broadcasters operated by Calvary Chapel, with a lot of gospel music programming. That 89.1 FM from Mt. Vernon is only about l0 watts so it was amazing hearing it on Thorne Hill. It was weak but listenable. Could not hear anything else on 89.1 . We were DXing there on Sunday Night from about 9 PM to midnight. Was CJJZ on-air, and is it operated 24/7??? By the way Sky Valley, I really like your CJJZ website, love to hear the station, do you stream on the internet? So far I haven't been able to find it on any of my WiFi radios. They use the Reciva and Vweb portal lists. Both lists can access well over 12000 radio stations worldwide, including a lot from Canada and the USA. That includes Internet Only stations.

Oh, I made one mistake about 89.1 - ROX had brought the FM transmitter along,and associated computer studio equipment (for an audio feed), and fired it up at the top of Thorne Hill. It was running one quarter of a watt stereo, and CJUJ was getting out about a mile radius. Didn't do the range check beyond that. ROX was sending a lot of CJUJ FM 89.1 station ID's, with lots of surf music playing. He had it operating mobile, from the vehicle, and it was on for about 1 and a half hours. We phoned Dan who lives near downtown Maple Fridge, and he tried for it on his GE Superadio. He was about 5 or 6 miles west of Thorne Hil. He later told me he didn't hear it. So CJUJ was the other station on 89.1 that night, besides the repeater out of Mt. Vernon, WA.

By the way SKY VALLEY, I have a large brown envelope with some CFAY historical memorabilia, and other radio related items, that I am going to send to you. VE7ROX got me your address from the amateur radio list, but I was holding off mailing it till I get a confirmation of your mailing address. If you want to send me the mailing address by e-mail through RadioWest, that would be great. I'll send the envelope right away. Also SKY VALLEY, did you ever try coming out to the North Surrey area or New West, to listen for CFAY 1360 or 1357 back in 1969 or 1970? We were not on-air 24 Hours, or even l8 Hours daily, but were on a lot weekends and from 4 or 5 PM to 4 or 5 AM quite often, certainly practically every weekend. CFAY had regular DX tests on Sunday and Monday mornings, especially when KMO Tacoma went off-air for equipment maintenance. On one such date, a DX friend and member of the IRCA (Bruce Portzer), heard CFAY 1357 in Seattle, WA, while we operated with about only 8 watts! Brian "Crash" Williams verified the DX report he sent to us. I believe he still has the verification letter and considers it one of his best DX catches. Jon knows more about this.

Of all the CFAY staff from 1967 to say the early 1970s I really thought that one of them would probably start or buy a licensed radio station in the future. RadioFan, Pluto and Jon P. certainly could operate a radio station well in my opinion. They probably could do a better job than some of the large radio corporations that seem to care only about the bottom line! I do realize that the bottom line (profit margin) is important but not at the expense of ruining radio creativity and reducing the quality of radio station staff. Also the enthusiasm and fun in radio seems to be lost by large radio corporations that own stations. One thing about CFAY, even though it may have been a beginners rinky dink radio station, we had a lot of enthusiasm and fun at it! Of course as you get older and have worked at various radio stations, some people can get a bit burned out in the radio profession. You aren't quite as enthusiastic as when you are young!!! One thing I really like in Canada is the relatively new developmental 5 watt licenses that the CRTC started in the early 2000s. Those are for 5 Watt Development License Radio stations on the AM and FM Band in Canada. We have several in B.C. including CFCH Chase, CHLS Lillooet and CJMP Powell River, there are others as well. One for Hornby Island, CHFR, still isn't on-air yet. Anyway, of all the ones licensed so far, they are all on the FM Band. It was for AM too but none licensed yet at 5 Watts AM. If time and finances permit, I may just apply in the near future for a 5 watt AM station, and CFAY might come to life again!!! That's a big IF, but who knows what the near future may hold!

One other question Sky Valley, how long did you work at KYAC 1460 Kirkland/Seattle, WA? I really liked listening to KYAC in the early l970s, enjoyed all the R and B music which we didn't hear much up here in Greater Vancouver. CFAY did play some from the Duke-Peacock label including Bobby Bland, Little Carl Carleton and O.V. Wright among others. If I remember correctly the Little Carl Carleton songs used to drive PLUTO crazy when we played them!!! I think I still have some in my record collection. Dan Sys, Cool Bill (he was only about l2 years old!) and I visited KYAC in the downtown Seattle about 1970 or so. I also have some old music charts from KYAC in my collection. I later listened to them on 1250 AM. Great station!!! There was a really nice poster that Pluto made about CFAY, I think it went up in one of the local record stores in Greater Vancouver, back in 1968 or 1969. He has a real talent for artwork!!! Anyway, take care, look forward to hearing from you Sky Valley by e-mail. You can use either of my P.O. Boxes too, but of course that's slower.

[skyvalleyradio]

Eldon - I'm up to my ass dealing with CFSI start-up working loooong days and will reply here on the weekend to your enquiries. Yes, Sky Valley Radio is 24/7 on 89.1 but using a vertical 1/2 wave ground-plane and is situated just over a ridge between us and the mainland. Its on a high elevation and for a DX test will need to hook up the 10 el yagi and point it your way...more dialogue on the weekend. Yes Sky Valley Radio streams on the 'Net and you need to email me direct via my website link and I'll give you a free username/password to log on and hear it. Be patient!

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Sky Valley and everyone, Yes I do understand what its like to be busy and up to you so and so with.......ha! Certainly can imagine what it must be like trying to get a more uniform signal over Saltspring for CFSI. I enjoyed listening to it up on Thorne Hill with such a strong signal. Will look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime take your time and much success to you with the project.

On CFAY we did have a couple of regular tape shows that were broadcast every two or three weeks via reel to reel tape! I corresponded and tapesponded with three or four Part l5 broadcasters from the USA. Namely KBOS l040 AM Pasadena (George Junak's station, known as Scott Hull on-air), Lew White (WBGR ll70 Trenton) and Dave Schmidt from WMOT 640 West Chester, Pennsylvania, there was also Jim Hamilton from KCDL l040 Akron, Ohio. These were all Part l5 AM stations that used low power l00 milliwatt to 500 milliwatt (half-watt) operations. We exchanged tape shows regularly back in l968 to l970. They did shows for CFAY and I did shows for their stations via reel tape exchange, yes it was by snail mail but it seemed a bit faster in those days, I know postage was sure much lower then!!! I still have a couple of the shows on reel to reel tape. By the way Lew White is on a couple of New Jersey radio stations still, George Junak operates California Aircheck which has a great selection of radio station airchecks going way back that they sell. Having these guys on via tape kind of provided a USA sound alternative to the rest of us at CFAY in Canada. Thanks for your informative e-mail Woodcarver,received recently! Its amazing how certain songs or music selections stand out from years ago that we broadcast. One song that I stil like and rarely have heard on the radio over the years is "I Feel Love Coming On" by Lori Hampton. It came out about l968 and we played it a lot on CFAY back then. RadioFan still remembers it well too. Great song!!! Take care, all the best to you!

[skyvalleyradio]

Hi Eldon - I'll answer some of your questions in bits n bites:

"We were trying for signals on 89.1, hoping to hear CJJZ Saltspring from Thorne Hill ( a really hot DX location that we hadn't been at for 25 years). What we heard on Sunday night was a repeater or FM translator from Mt. Vernon, WA, of KAWZ or KEFX (Cause and Effect), two religious FM broadcasters operated by Calvary Chapel, with a lot of gospel music programming. That 89.1 FM from Mt. Vernon is only about l0 watts so it was amazing hearing it on Thorne Hill. It was weak but listenable. Could not hear anything else on 89.1 . We were DXing there on Sunday Night from about 9 PM to midnight. Was CJJZ on-air, and is it operated 24/7??? By the way Sky Valley, I really like your CJJZ website, love to hear the station, do you stream on the internet? So far I haven't been able to find it on any of my WiFi radios. They use the Reciva and Vweb portal lists. Both lists can access well over 12000 radio stations worldwide, including a lot from Canada and the USA. That includes Internet Only stations."

The 89.1 from the Skagit Valley comes in over here too in some locales. However, I seem to be getting better coverage on 89.1 than I did for the many years I was on 88.1 before CBC R1 took that over. I had a tougher time on 88.1 dealing with at least 3 different religious translators as the 1.2 watt signal bit the dust about 1/4 mile closer in our "favoured" signal direction. You won't hear the CJJZ calls just yet - the main station IDs still emphasize "Sky Valley Radio - The Jazz Cafe" . Now that I know Shaw Cable has a music service by that name, I was hoping to kick in the 'CJJZ' calls and "C-Jazz 89-1 Sky Valley Radio" imaging this summer but just don't see that happening given how busy I currently am. I doubt any of the WiFi radios will find Sky Valley Radio which is a truly independant station. I still have a 'teaser' stream on Live 365 but that is merely a gimmick to attract listeners. If its possible to manually enter an address, the "Listen" link below is the URL for the stream and I can give you a username/password once you email me. I try to keep the Program Schedule page updated too. However, my days of doing live shows on SVR may soon be coming to a halt as there is mounting pressure on me to host both an all-Jamaican music show and bring a taste of Sky Valley Radio's jazz/soul/lounge format to Salt Spring listeners via CFSI which will soon be ready for launch.

[skyvalleyradio]

Mr CFAY sez:

"By the way SKY VALLEY, I have a large brown envelope with some CFAY historical memorabilia, and other radio related items, that I am going to send to you. VE7ROX got me your address from the amateur radio list, but I was holding off mailing it till I get a confirmation of your mailing address. If you want to send me the mailing address by e-mail through RadioWest, that would be great. I'll send the envelope right away. Also SKY VALLEY, did you ever try coming out to the North Surrey area or New West, to listen for CFAY 1360 or 1357 back in 1969 or 1970? We were not on-air 24 Hours, or even l8 Hours daily, but were on a lot weekends and from 4 or 5 PM to 4 or 5 AM quite often, certainly practically every weekend. CFAY had regular DX tests on Sunday and Monday mornings, especially when KMO Tacoma went off-air for equipment maintenance. On one such date, a DX friend and member of the IRCA (Bruce Portzer), heard CFAY 1357 in Seattle, WA, while we operated with about only 8 watts! Brian "Crash" Williams verified the DX report he sent to us. I believe he still has the verification letter and considers it one of his best DX catches. Jon knows more about this."

Much appreciated. I'll contact you via our mailboxes here. While I don't have the extensive historical collection that radiofan, Gord Lansdell, Brian Walks The Emporer of Oliver: Top Dog, Dan Sys & others, I do collect a few goodies about broadcasting history. I promise if I find an extra 'TNFM' bumper sticker, I'll send it. I'll tell the TNFM story some day. I grew up "on the wrong side of the railroad tracks" in Kerrisdale/Dunbar Heights and learned about CFAY from a nearby ham I befriended as a boy. I beleive he knew Brian Williams somehow. He told me to try and listen for CFAY on Sunday evenings. He had installed a long-wire antenna for me from our house to the clothesline pole bordering the back alley. WIth my trusty ol' Stromberg-Carlson military AM/HF receiver I tried in vain to hear CFAY. I even tried to zero-beat 1375 using the BFO but no luck. Night-time signals below 3 mHz can travel long distances with low wattage given the right conditions. Hams using 160 meters (1800 kc/s) have often communicated long distances with puny power, and not-so efficient antennas. The only pirate I ever picked up in Kerrisdale was "Radio Point Roberts" on 650 during the summer of 1966 with what could best be described as all-surf Top 40 & oldies!!. I heard it a number of weekends that summer with the signal best around 9pm sunset. It disappeared after that.

[skyvalleyradio]

The King of Surrey radio sez:

"One thing I really like in Canada is the relatively new developmental 5 watt licenses that the CRTC started in the early 2000s. Those are for 5 Watt Development License Radio stations on the AM and FM Band in Canada. We have several in B.C. including CFCH Chase, CHLS Lillooet and CJMP Powell River, there are others as well. One for Hornby Island, CHFR, still isn't on-air yet. Anyway, of all the ones licensed so far, they are all on the FM Band. It was for AM too but none licensed yet at 5 Watts AM. If time and finances permit, I may just apply in the near future for a 5 watt AM station, and CFAY might come to life again!!! That's a big IF, but who knows what the near future may hold!"

On the surface the 5 watt developmental license from the CRTC looks like a good deal with easy requirements for equipment investment and construction detail. I've examined all the ins & outs of this license and it's the same ol' horseshit with total overkill for paperwork, equipment required to satisfy Industry-Canada rules, "logger tapes" (files?) CANCON music reporting etc etc etc. My fantasy is that if VHF TV channels become obsolete here in Canada as in the U.S. consideration might be given to expanding the FM band down to 76 mHz as in Japan. Almost every Japanese-built radio receiver - from portables right up to home theatre systems usually have an internal switch that will expand tuning down to 76 mHz. If that were the case, it's time to lobby the feds for 3 or 4 mHz devoted to unlicensed hobby broadcastsers with a max output of 5 watts and directional antennas only. Ha! That'll never happen but it's fun to dream about! As I mentioned, 87.7 and 87.9 should be soon available for some fun & games!

[skyvalleyradio]

Eldon asked:

"Sky Valley, how long did you work at KYAC 1460 Kirkland/Seattle, WA? I really liked listening to KYAC in the early l970s, enjoyed all the R and B music which we didn't hear much up here in Greater Vancouver. CFAY did play some from the Duke-Peacock label including Bobby Bland, Little Carl Carleton and O.V. Wright among others. If I remember correctly the Little Carl Carleton songs used to drive PLUTO crazy when we played them!!! I think I still have some in my record collection. Dan Sys, Cool Bill (he was only about l2 years old!) and I visited KYAC in the downtown Seattle about 1970 or so. I also have some old music charts from KYAC in my collection. I later listened to them on 1250 AM. Great station!!!"

Great station indeed! KYAC was one of the highlights of my entire life! I worked there in '74, '75 & part of '76 until the station was sold by the elderly owners and the FM format on 96.5 changed & I was fired by the new owners. I worked weekdays from 4pm - midnight and got the job because of my ham license and FCC "first phone" ticket. KYAC-AM signed off at sunset and had been fined by the FCC for not powering down at sunset and not having qualified operators shutting off the transmitter and doing the engineering logs. I assisted the chief engineer they had just hired and the FCC cooled their heels after that. KYAC 1460 & FM 96.5 simulcasted from 6 am-sunset with the R&B/blues/gospel format and after sunset 96.5 played jazz to 6am. I played jazz on FM 8 - midnight ensuring there was a long LP cut when I had to tend to turning off the AM transmitter May-August sunset. One time I got back to the FM studio to discover a Stan Getz LP had a stuck groove!!! AGGGHH!!! No telling how long that had been happening and the bloody phone was ringing off the wall! In '76 KYAC- AM & FM were sold to a new owners and the engineer and I went with it. First order of business was converting the STL antennas and setting up the newly bought 1250 transmitter plant from previous owner KTW. After installing the quadrophonic signal encoder and installing new studio gear for the FM, the jazz format and calls were dumped and 96.5 played a mish-mash of every format - except all the LPs were quadrophonic!!! I was fired and lost my "green card' and got out of radio for awhile. 96.5 sounded awful and was sold within the year to Pat O'Day wjho launched the legendary KYYX. I assume the downtown studio you guys visited were the old digs on 3rd & W Harrison? KIXI AM/FM was also in that building. KYAC had a record collection that only DJ ZigZag (Bill Reiter) & I could truly appreciate and the place just oozed of F U N K !!

[skyvalleyradio]

jon has asked me about the 5 watt developmental license so I'll try and answer his question for all to see. As stated above, this class of license isn't as restriction-free as one might think. It IS a feasible license for a small group wishing to broadcast that have enough financial resources to get through the costly engineering studies for the license submission, equipment investment - some of which is overkill but nonetheless required by Industry Canada. The cost of some audio equipment, including a mixer, the transmitter, antenna, transmission line, tower, a few computers and some automation software can be done for around $7,000 - $10,000 and I'm talking a quality operation here. I figure my investment in Sky Valley Radio runs around $14,000 total and I've spent years building up to this point. Follow the link below and look at the pics of my studio and you'll see! As with any other license there is lots of paperwork and the same issues listener-supported campus/community broadcasters face. The 5 watt developmental license is too overwhelming for an individual or a couple of people wishing to launch a hobby station which is too bad. I'm a big believer in "micro-broadcasting" with 5 watts or less and envision thousands of tiny neighbourhood/community stations serving small pockets of listeners with unique programming and community bulletins/announcements.. Italy and New Zealand both have or have had in the past, a class of hobby license for 3 watt or less broadcasters. Italy in particular has had hundreds of micro-power stations both licensed and unlicensed for many years with few problems so it IS feasible to have such a license if there was actually AM or FM spectrum available. IMO, I think that once digital TV is prominent and most of the low-band VHF channels have vanished, that 87.7 & 87.9 should be available for hobby micro-broadcasting

[jon]

A local religious broadcaster in Northern Alberta openly advertises that getting low powered FM licenses in smaller communities is relatively easy. Doing a little digging, this appears to be different than the Development Licenses that skyvalleyradio is talking about.

I got interested after this week's Regional FM DX openings, and likely reception of their Slave Lake station here in Edmonton. On April 6, 2006, they applied for 50 watts on 107.5 MHz from a 147 metre height. On July 7th of the same year, the CRTC approved their other two April applications for 50 watts each, but only authorized 26.8 watts in Slave Lake, likely because of the 147 metre transmitting height.

CIAM provides a "package of services" to local communities that want their own station, both help with getting the license, then a cookie-cutter style of programming where local stations network from CIAM and provide their own local content. Even a web site, using a subdomain of the ciamradio.com site.

What I'm not sure of is whether the religious content makes it easier or harder to get approval from the CRTC. Likely easier given my impression that the CRTC lumps religious and ethnic broadcasting together in their minds and regulations.

Anyway, their information on "how to build your own radio station" is here:
http://ciam.ciamradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=92

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Thanks for all the information and answering my questions Sky Valley. Yes I really enjoyed listening to KYAC back in the late 60s and l970s, I even got the station verified by letter from the station's chief engineer (Ron Putnam I think, I know his first name was Ron anyway). I don't have the verifications and QSLS out here, they are all out at my Ontario address. Thanks for the info about KYAC, found that most interesting Also will look forward to hearing you on CFSI when the regular schedule begins. I can get CFSI in Langley, quite good in places but of course the best spot so far has to be Thorne Hill, Maple Ridge, not that far from here.

Interesting stuff about CIAM FM in Northern Alberta Jon. We got their website about 2 years ago and there was a lot of information on it. I didn't really look that closely at the radio station package info. I'm thinking it might be easier to get a license with their info since a lot of it has to do with rebroadcasting the CIAM signal. They do have quite a few relay transmitters on FM, and are probably trying to increase coverage. They would be motivating local small towns and rural communities in Northern Alberta to provide some local programming, and the rest coming from CIAM. However, it might be interesting to check out the info they provide about this, in more detail! Thanks for providing it Jon!

I am amazed at how much low power Part l5 radio stations are exploding across the USA! The license free l00 milliwatt AM and even FM movement in the USA is alive and well. Unlike Canada with our 5 watt developmental license option for both AM and FM bands the USA does not have this yet. They do have that low power fm license for l0 watt and l00 watt stations that went into effect 5 or 6 years ago. Its only for the FM band in the states though! If you want to apply for an AM license (540 to l700 KHZ.) the lowest power you can apply for in the USA is 250 watts, they used to allow l00 watts day. but don't think they do anymore. Yes some daytimers and others do drop to low power overnight, something like l0 watts or 30 watts in some cases. However the main daytime power of any AM station in the U.S.A. must be at least 250 watts. Alaska (not being in the lower states) might be an exception to this rule. Anyway there have been a lot petitions and discussion to the FCC in recent years (and currently) about providing a license for a low power AM service in the USA with powers under l00 watts fulltime, I get the impression it would be similar to their low power Fm service. However at this point the FCC has not passed such a policy, they may soon though. In the meantime Part l5 AM stations are really booming across the USA, some of them have even been commercially successful in some smaller markets apparently. I just recently became aware of WPAU l640 on my wi-fi radio, they operate 24/7 and stream on the net as well. Fairly nice website too. They also operate another Part l5 station in Ottawa, Ohio. WPAU is in Paulding, OHIO and yes they run commercials too.

There are several good websites in the USA for all this Part l5 activity. Wikipedia has a very good article on Low Power Broadcasting (AM, FM and TV). The site I like which gives a list of some of the stations across the USA operating on Part l5 is http://part15.us/ . There is also a lot of technical information on antennas to use (legally you are only allowed a l0 foot antenna to operate with on AM under Part l5) and transmitters for l00 milliwatts that give maximum results. The RANGEMASTER made in the USA by a small company in Cary, North Carolina is the state-of-the-art unit for l00 milliwatt broadcasting and can easily get out l mile to 2 miles if you are in an average location. I would imagine that with a good AM radio (like the Grundig G5) and a good loop antenna, you could extend it further. As you probably know, on AM, high noise environments could reduce this. I find all this very informative and a lot of it is really helpful if you want to set up a Part l5 station. Wish we had all this when CFAY started out in l967 or 66. It was really tough finding out about improving the signal and getting any information about low power AM broadcasting back in those days, especially in Surrey! Fortunately I got to know some budding technical wizards in Burnaby like VE7ROX and John Peters. Also found out about good parts stores in Vancouver like Ham Shack Electronics on Granville Street and Rendell-Paret Electronics on 4th Avenue. I spent much of my allowance buying parts etc. from these stores to build up CFAY. When Radio Shack came to Canada in the early 70s, that helped also. I also made quite a few trips to Bellingham to visit Lafayette and Radio Shack in the USA for catalogs and parts. RadioFan probably well remembers that Lafayette Electronics store in Bellingham!

Yes the 5 watt developmental license from the CRTC certainly requires you to do your homework, and yes, it's set up for a community station on a low power basis. I've got all the info and applications about it. I was really impressed when the CRTC finally came out with that one in the early 2000s. I've attended quite a few CRTC Hearings over the years in Western Canada, some of it was quite boring. (CABLE and TV Renewals etc.). However, the technical and coverage map info as well as proposed programming for new radio stations interested me a lot. I have talked to CRTC people over the years in Vancouver and in Ottawa-Hull in person, my experience was they were quite helpful and sent me a lot in the mail about policies, applying for stations etc... I did not find the D.O.C. or Industry Canada in Vancouver as helpful or friendly. In fact, I got far more accurate and better information from the DOC and Industry Canada in Ottawa hqs.. Some community stations and low power FM have started out on a pretty small scale. One such station (I call it Canada's first licensed pirate station) is CKOL FM in Campbellford, ONTARIO. They operate at 500 watts now but started at less than 50 watts in the early l990s. I visited the station in l995 and they were located in an old house with what looked like a yagi tv antenna for the FM transmitting antenna. The whole operation and programming (kind of free form local) reminded me of a pirate station. Campbellford is a small town of 4000 people in Eastern Ontario. CKOL just recently got a website and it's quite good, they got a repeater station in Madoc, ON recently as well. It was started in the early l990s as I said by one guy "Dave Lockwood" as a summer only radio station. Later got the license for full-time operation.

As I said previously the 5 watt developmental license for an AM station in Canada sounds very interesting to me. If you pick a smaller market it may not be that difficult to put a good community brief together with lots of local support, it does require time and finances however to do it right! Yes Sky Valley getting the technical facilities approved by Industry Canada would certainly require some financial muscle too! (That is on the transmitting end). I'm thinking loaded vertical antennas with the minimal ground system for 5 watts on AM. Nobody has applied for a 5 watt developmental license in Canada yet even though the policy is for both AM and FM. There must be at least 30 FM stations across Canada that the CRTC has licensed in the last 7 years or so. Some have boosted up in power at their renewal which the CRTC encourages you to do. I*m curious about CHFR Hornby Island, B.C., that was licensed as a 5 watter 3 or 4 years ago and still isn't on-air yet??? I saw their website a few years ago and it showed construction of the station building from scratch out in a forest area. They sounded quite enthusiastic about the station, anyone know whats happening with them, the website doesn't seem updated for quite awhile now! Anyway good hearing from you all. Had a doozy of a thunderstorm tonight complete with lightning bolts, hope that didn't damage anyone's transmitter site. CKWX ll30 went on and off a few times when it started , we thought they were hit and off-air at one point, but they came back in a couple minutes. Take care and watch those lightning bolts this summer!!! 73s.....
T

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Everyone,
Since it is a nice quiet morning here I have been browsing the Radio West Archives and really enjoying some of the past topics!!!! Don't get a chance to do that very often but have some time this morning so thought I would!! Also post a few more comments about them than usual!

First off I just came across the CFAY The Pirate Topic from 2009 that had a lot of information about our Part 15 and later Pirate AM station of about 8 Watts in North Surrey, B.C. from about summer 1966 to the early 70s. We actually moved off the AM Band and went to 92.l FM using a Jana Mono FM transmitter to start out with about 1974. This was because the second home location in North Surrey was on a hillside where the AM transmitting was much poorer in ground conductivity than the original home location in a more wet location near the Whalley Ball Park (which is now the B.C. Lions Park). By the way for any Radio West members who want to know the exact location of CFAY it was across from the Ball Park at 10684-135th STreet in North Surrey. That area is now light industrial and has deteriorated a lot compared to when we lived there and had CFAY on-the-air. The house and property have been long gone since the mid-70s. We moved to the East Whalley location on the hillside in 1972 and that was CFAY Location Number two where we later went to FM. The second location by the way had much better studio equipment and it was heated but again it was originally a large Tool Shed in the backyard, that location the house is still there and I did dxing on FM on that hillside with good results in the summer. It was at 10653- 137 A Street for any historical buffs who care to look at that location for CFAY's North Surreys FM 92.1 site. Of course now 92.1 is occupied by CBC Victoria but not back then in the 70s!!!! We basically were a Part 15 Station on FM when we switched to FM and did not operate with higher power on FM so the pirate status was only on AM 1360 or 1357 khz. at 8 watts. By the way about 1970 at the old 135th Street location several radio friends came up from the Los Angeles area. One of them Dale Evans operated a 1000 Watt Pirate Station in the 1960s and 1970s in Duarte, California called KDHS on 840 khz., this guy was some technical wizard and he constructed us a 500 watt AM transmitter in about three days while visiting in the summer of 1970. He used a lot of the parts I had including some 811A Tubes and 807/1625 Tubes. He constructed it on an old heavy duty and large used radio chassis! We had a lot of surplus parts back in the 1970s that I had gotten from some of the surplus electronic stores in Vancouver among other sources.

We did not operate too much with that transmitter because it made the lights flicker in the ole backyard studio building, also I did not want to push my luck with that high power. Dale Evans wanted to do live broadcasting at the Whalley Ball Park of local baseball games because at KDHS in Duarte-LA thats what they did along with the oldies music format on 840. Apparently Los Angeles had a lot of pirate AM and Fm stations back in the 60s, 70s and even 80s. Probably still quite a few down there today as well! Well we did do a couple baseball game remotes from the ballpark but I let Dale Handle that with his friend Don, I was not brave enough to go over to the Ballpark and start interviewing little league coaches etc. Especially since I did not think they ever heard about CFAY at the time. By the way the couple of high power test broadcasts we did do with Dale's homebrew transmitter he built in three days or so in the summer of 1970 were short, maybe only an hour or two and then we went back to 5 or 8 watts and no flickering light bulbs!!! Dale and Don visited us for about a week. After they left I foolishly tore the transmitter apart for other radio projects. Should have kept it as a nostalgic collectors item!!!! He did a very good job of constructing it with shielding etc.

By the way for you historians out there CFAY originally signed on in June 1966 from 10684-135th Street in North Surrey (Whalley) after testing and the original transmitter as previously mentioned earlier in this topic was a Lionel Radio electronics Kit (same company that made the Trains). I got it for my birthday in 1966 and it was my first radio kit. You could make simple transistor radios, a morse code transmitter but most important a short range AM broadcast transmitter that used 2 or 3 transistors. It was all built on a nice looking grey plastic console. I still have the radio construction manual for the kit somewhere. The microphone was a large green plastic cased one, pretty funky looking to say the least!!!! Anyway I was in school at the time and could not do a lot with regular broadcasting with it till near summer holidays and June 1966. We had problems with the range of it, the power output of it was way below 100 milliwatts, probably 10 to 50 milliwatts and we chose 670 khz. which was a basic coil controlled oscillator, no crystal on that baby!!!! Pretty basic circuit but all transistor solid state, I think it used germanium transistors in fact. Wish I still had it but that Lionel kit console is long gone unfortunately! We got out only about 10 feet originally and after experimentation with a broom handle on the roof of the old backyard shed building got it working out to the ballpark about about 100 to 200 feet range. Original programs were music, 45 top 40 rock hits like "Cool Jerk" by the Capitols, Beach Boy and Beatle songs etc.. I think we threw in some really obscure records too that never made top 40 hit status! Cool Bill, Frank London and myself The Real Eel were on the air in late June 1966. Later on in 1967 to 1970 a lot more people came on-board and we used several other much better transmitters including a carrier current one I constructed out of the Electronics Illustrated project. They worked well.

The reason I named the radio station CFAY was simply because that name came to me while walking to school in the spring of 1966. It just came by inspiration while thinking of radio station call letters and stations I had been dxing or listening to. I knew about C-FUN and CKLG and had already like CKLG's format better than CFUN but I think the C-FUN call letters made me think of C-FAY or somehow inspired me. At that time I knew nothing about CFAX Victoria ever applying for an FM station in 1962 with those call letters that never made it on the air!!!! I wasn't even interested in radio listening till about Jan. 1966!!!! However this is kind of funny, I wrote to CFAX Victoria about 1969 or so. I think I wrote to them for a coverage map because in North Surrey reception was weaker than the other Victoria AM stations. Anyway they sent me about 50 bumper stickers with big CFAX call letters on them. Sorry I don't think I have any left Dan, long gone years ago!!!! Anyhow the funny part is I used my ingenuity and cut a lot of the stickers at one end to make CFAY out of them and we gave some away with that, so we actually converted the CFAX stickers for CFAY use!!! DXer Bruce Portzer in Seattle got one from me in about 1969 and he commented in a nice letter, "Boy that took some old fashioned American ingenuity!". Got a kick out of that one! Bruce still has the verification letter of hearing CFAY from the 10684-135th Street location in June 1969 on a Monday Morning reception, at that point we were still on 1357 khz. but later we moved to 1360 khz. with a Jan Crystal. The old 1357 khz. crystal came originally from Ham Shack Electronics in Vancouver but eventually gave out on the 6v6/6L6 Transmitter so we replaced it with the 1360 khz. one. By the way we were operating at about 8 watts on that early June Monday Morning about 1 AM or so when Bruce heard us in Seattle, Washington. Brian Crash Williams who passed away a few years ago sent the verification letter to Bruce. Brian did a show on CFAY back in 1969 called the Crash Williams Musical Fiasco and Drinking Party, he was quite a talented radio entertainer too!!!! Brian was also a great dxer on the AM band and gave me some great dxing tips back in those days.

So theres a bit of an update on CFAY. As far as pirate stations in Ontario. Especially on the AM Band I know Toronto had several Greek Pirate stations, one operating on 1630 AM for quite a few years. I think the present day licensed CHTO 1690 might have had its beginning that way. I have not really heard many pirate stations in Toronto over the years in all my different visits here over the past 30 years or more but suspect there probably have been quite a few particularly on FM. In the Cobourg area I know of no pirate stations operating. A few years ago there was an FM Pirate in Ottawa operating from some nightclub with some questionable practices but have not really heard of that many pirate stations in Ontario. The ones that stand out are those Greek ones in Toronto and yes I did hear one of them on 1630 AM back in the 1980s several times. There were probably others too. I know that I visited Asas Do Atlantico which is a Portuguese Closed Circuit radio station in Toronto that sent the programming by audio lines in certain neighborhoods there and by Cablevision. They were thinking of using low power AM or FM but I don't know if they ever did do that. They were not the Portuguese station that got the FM license quite a few years ago in Toronto (CIRV) that was their competition. In fact they had some pretty colorful things to say about them when I visited them back in 1980!!!! At that time CIRV FM was not licensed yet or had even applied to the CRTC for a license.

Anyway its getting late and I have to get some shut eye. Take care everyone and for those active broadcasters out there "The Best of Broadcasting to you all!"

73s From Eldon

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Everyone,
Just thought I would put an additional comment about CFAY updating this topic. About early 2009 we put together a website in tribute to CFAY and ve7ROX put in a lot of work on it with lots of information I gave him. Its sort of a site for radio buffs and prospective broadcasters to Part 15 and LPFM information but has a lot of other stuff on it including some pretty funny cat photos and dog photos at the bottom. In the near future we will be operating on a regular basis on Part 15 on the AM Band and possibly the FM Band from Langley Township using some very high quality Part 15 transmitters that are FCC and IC approved. At the moment the site is basically a tribute site and information about other stations and links. So that gives you an update about CFAY.

By the way myself, Frank London (Fred) and Cool Bill ((Bill Ashby) were the original on-air broadcasters at CFAY way back in June 1966 with that little ole Lionel Transmitter and radio kit. We operated that way all through the summer of 1966. If you look at the original 2009 July postings about CFAY History you will see that Woodcarver (Fred) mentioned having some or one reel tape of broadcasts of CFAY back in 1967 or 68. Well I unfortunately do not and I don't think others like ve7ROX, RadioFan or even Jon do. It would be great to have original tape copy of someones programs. The only ones I have left on reel are some other Part 15 exchange programs from Part 15 US broadcaster way back then in Akron, Ohio and Pasadena, California on 3 inch tape reels. We did exchange music dj shows and I sent some down to them as well. I don't know if George Junak still has any of those tape shows I did for his KBOS 1040 in Pasadena but that would be interesting if he does. I have not corresponded with him since about 1978 or so. I wish we had taped more of our programming on reel and kept it for the future back in 1967 to 1970. Well you never know with all the radio stuff I have I might just stumble across a small tape reel one of these days from CFAY's past!!!

All the best from Eldon.