CFAY the Pirate

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

[quote="Pluto"]....

Welcome Eldon ... Glad to have you aboard, Matey !

I was born to rock the boat

Took a couple of days but I am on RadioWest now. - Mr.CFAY . . .

[VE7ROX]

wow, how about that. Welcome aboard Mr.CFAY. I am a newbie here also. Great to know we can communicate this way now, in the dialog BoX - RoX . . .

[radiofan]

Unlike Mr. CFUN, Mr. CFAY actually has a first name. Welcome aboard RadioWest.ca !

Wasn't Mr. ROX also involved in building transmitters for some of the other local pirates in the 1969 - 1971 era?

There was CFRS 1040 in the Little Mountain area of Vancouver. Maybe Dan Sys can fill us in on some of the details. I actually picked that one up in the Marpole area (70th & Marine) in 1970.

In 1971. wasn't there a CFHR [Fifteen Hundred Radio] in East Burnaby? I recall hearing "A Country Boy Named Willy" by Spring on that one while crossing the Pattullo Bridge.
Pluto may want to fill in some of the details on that one.

[skyvalleyradio]

ARRRGGHHH!!!! Welcome me fellow mateys with the eye-patch & 'skull-n-crossbones' !! I remember a big ad in the Georgia Straight approx '68 or '69 heralding "Radio Free Vancouver" 650 kc/s which was supposed to operate from a ship anchored in English Bay with 250 watts. They even announced the date they would start and it was supposed to be a Monday evening. The publicity was also noted in the Sun & Province and when the date & time came about...no Radio Free Vancouver. It was either all a hoax or the publicity scared the operators away. In any event, there's still plenty of pirate activity all throughout our province, particularly in sparsely-populated rural areas. Availability of Internet and satelite programming make it easy to find sources for such operations. Although Salt Spring's soon-to-be-launched CFSI 107.9 is claiming to be the islands first and only radio station, many old-timers here know who the REAL first broadcaster was! Yo ho ho a bottle of Jamaican 150 overproof and a baggie of BC's finest ya landlubbers!

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Hi Everyone, Tis me the chief pirate and bottle washer of radio CFAY, CFLA FM Langley and CJCU all in the Fraser Valley area of B.c. None are currently active except perhaps CJCU 88.9 or 89.1 Mission which was taken over by Tom L.. Incidentally Tom ordered state-of-the art equipment from Progressive Concepts in Streamwood, Illinois after the initial equipment we used which was low power Ramsey l watt and l00 milliwatt transmitters.

By the way CFAY in Surrey went to 1360 khz. in l970 after the 1357 khz. crystal from Ham Shack Electronics stopped working. We ordered crystals from Jan Crystals in Florida and they worked very well. Sometime in 1970 or early 1971 I also bought a CBC LPRT from Ham Shack Electronics for around fifty dollars. It needed cleaning but worked very well with all the manuals and circuit diagrams from the CBC. Apparently it had been in use at CBRF 860 Fernie BC years before. I have pictures of it but sold it in 1994 to a antique radio collector from Vancouver. I wish I had not done that now. I sold it for about 300 dollars. I also have built a lot of radio equipment since 1969. That includes radio station mixer boards, color organs, strobe lights and many ferrite loop antennas. We built a couple of huge l2 foot triangle air-core loop antennas for am dxing in the late l970s and early l980s. So anyway that gives you a little bit of background info. about my activities.

Yes a lot of people did help out at CFAY over the years. Several other am pirates existed over the early years. That does include 1040 AM vancouver, I still have CKKK 1040 surveys Dan. Also, Pluto does know something about a CFHR on 1490 in East Burnaby, so does VE7ROX. Have really enjoyed all the pleasant memories and nice comments about radio and CFAY. Thanks for the welcome guys. I really enjoy all the CRTC info. Dan Sys compiles on Radio West. Great job done!!!! Also very sorry to hear about Brian Williams passing at Royal Columbian Hospital recently. He was a great guy, excellent dxer and really creative on-air host. He called the CFAY 1357 AM program in 1969 the Crash Williams Musical Fiasco and Drinking party! Jon described a lot of the CFAY activities very accurately. Thanks Jon! I*ve enjoyed all your info. about radio as well! I was bit slow and reluctant at getting into computer and internet until I discovered low power radio station websites in 2006. From that point onward it was like a bomb went off and I got real interested in computers and the internet!!! Before that time I was basically timelocked in radio technology without computer or internet use! Radiofan knows all about the Surrey timelock mentality!

The first CFAY 670 transmitter was a Lionel radio kit from Sears in the states that I put together in l967 summer. It only had 2 transistors and about 50 milliwatts maximum, coil frequency control. We used 670 AM. Second transmitter was my first real home-brew electronic project using l2ax7 and l2au7 tubes using a special ordered JW Miller Coil. It used carrier current and could operat on-air with a longwire too. I got the project from a l965 electronics Iluustrated issue (July I think, still have the magazine).. That operated at l00 Milliwatts but got out well over the power lines in the Whalley area of Surrey, about a mile. It said in the article nearby transformers would stop the signal but they did not seem to do that. Radiofan and Pluto will probably remember that one. The transmitter Jon remembers was actually our third one that Jim and John Peters had converted from the Ham Bands. It used a 6v6 or 6L6 tube and was crystal controlled. We moved to l357 KHZ in the early part of l968 from 670 khz. in l967 with the carrier current l00 milliwatt transmitter I had built! So take care everyone, thanks for the welcome a nd comments. 73s! Eldon . . .

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

A few extra comments about early CFAY history in the Whalley Wonderland! Actually the Lionel radio kit was ordered in the spring of l966 from Sears Roebuck Calender in the USA. There were several projects in this little kit package including a very very low power am transmitter about 50 milliwatts mxximum. Also radio crystal kit, and several other receiver projects. It was made by the Lionel train company who started science project kits in the mid-l960s.

So CFAY signed on with a 50 foot range in the summer of l966. Later we extended it to about l00 feet. The first homebrew transmitter I built was in l967 summer it was the Electronics Illustrated 3 or 4 tube carrier current l00 milliwatt (approx.) and could use a long wire anttenna as well. It used l2AX7 and l2AU7 tubes. The first DJ's on CFAY were Frank London , Cool Bill (Bill Ashby) and myself the Real EEL or Eldon Sanders. Our studio equipment improved quite a bit after l969! We used several tape reel to reel recorders and better turntables. At the second location in l971, I called it CFAY-TWO, behind the Dell Shopping Mall. We also went to FM with 100 milliwatss at 92.1 mhz.

At that location (a hillside) FM worked better than AM. I really have enjoyed the Sky Valley Radio comments as well. I*m wondering how you heard about CFAY in the early l970s ? It would be great to hear CJJZ on the lower mainland! I was also looking forward to hearing the new Saltspring Island FM radio station on 107.9 . I have visited Victoria and Vancouver Island but never the Gulf Islands. Have spent a lot of time in Southern Ontario and Calgary, Alberta over the years. Cheers. All the best. 73s Eldon.

[another dog]

Hello Mr CFAY,

Long time, no see or hear from. It's your old pal from CKDJ in Burnaby. Yeah him, Doug Miller.

Not to be confused with the other D.M. that used to give the weather on Televisision.

I was out your way yesterday, but didn't know your were in that area.

It seems like we are all here on RadioWest as a happy family, welcome aboard here, hope to see you soon, you old pirate.

[skyvalleyradio]

Hi Eldon - I first heard about CFAY through an elderly ham who 'mentored' me into the tech side of radio. Jack VE7JK knew Brian Williams and told me about CFAY and suggested I try listening for it. The CJJZ 89.1 signal unfortunately won't make it to the mainland. I am on a high ridgetop and there is a slight bit of elevation and a thick blanket of trees between my place and the ridge side that faces the mainland. Visible from there are the 'Outer Gulf Islands', Tswassen and up into the Fraser Valley; also the North Shore mountains. CJJZ first existed as "radio Homegrown" using a home built Jana Electronics FM transmitter that put out about 10 mW until I redesigned the output FR circuitry to put out 600 mW. The tuning on it was awful - NOT a nice stable PLL circuit but a shitty LC tunable coil that had to be carefully tweaked using a plastic screwdriver so as not to affect the tuning. It needed to be "warmed up" for an hour before it was stable and stayed on its frequency - 89.9 mHz. At that time I lived right in the middle of the downtown area of Ganges village and had a tower on the building with my ham antennas, a long wire and Radio Shack VHF/UHF/FM log-periodic. The signal came in pretty nicely all throughout Ganges and there were several businesses that used it a background music during its weekly Sat. broadcasts. I also designed and built the 240 w FM exciter & RF amp for 1980's Salt Spring pirate 'TNFM' 100.3 After its owner was visited twice by the DOC (now Industry Canada) I confiscated the RF amp which hadn't been paid for. I was genuinely worried this young adult would squel to the DOC on me so shut him down. The current signal began in 1998 using the Jana kit to rebroadcast campus/community CHLY Nanaimo of which I was a part of during its formulative years. Sionce at that time it was an internet-only station pending the CRTC application, I rebroadcast CHLY here on Sky Valley ridge on 88.1. After "retiring" from 17 years in campus radio at 3 different stations, I fired up Sky Valley Radio, gor rid of the shitty Jana transmitter (still have it as a backup!) and installed the PCI-slot version of the PCS Max Pro into the stations web-stream server. I too enjoy hearing your stories - how about some from Doug about CKDJ???? YAAAARRRGGGHHHH mateys!!!!

[Dan Sys]

Been moving into our new digs for the past week and only got the internet back today. What a surprise to see Eldon on the site now.....welcome aboard old buddy!

[Woodcarver]

Frank London...now there's a name I haven't heard in 40 years. Er...that would be me. Hi, Eldon! Long time no see! How are you doing!!!

I had the privilege of being one of the "first wave" of CFAY DJ's. I spent many a chilly evening - the "studio" was neither heated nor insulated - spinning records as Eldon roamed the neighbourhood checking the range of each transmitter modification. Monthly issues of "Radio-TV Experimenter" and "Electronic Illustrated" were combed for tips or techniques that could extend CFAY's range another 100 yards. The Lafayette and Allied Radio catalogues were our constant reading companions. What better way for a kid to grow up?

Eldon and CFAY sparked an early interest in radio and electronics that eventually led to electrical engineering at BCIT, then careers as a radio engineer at CJOR, a technical sales rep for Sony Broadcast, and eventually computers (Apple). I can honestly say that a lot of what I am today I owe to Eldon and that little pirate radio station in the heart of Whalley.

Thank you, Eldon!

P.S. - Say "hello" to Gloria for me.

P.P.S. - I've accumulated thousands of radio-related items over the years. Somewhere in my archives I still have a reel-to-reel tape of one of those early CFAY broadcasts. Alas, most of my photos from those days where Polaroids so they haven't survived. When I retire I hope to have time to catalogue and digitize all of this stuff.

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

WOW!!! I can't believe it, one of the original C-FAY DJs and technical people now on-line at Radio West. My God RADIOFAN we almost have a complete CFAY Radio Reunion at Radio West. Just have to get Wild Willy or Cool Bill and that might just do it. Actually I do have his phone number and he lives just outside Williams Lake, B.C. with his wife Carol. Has Worked for ICBC for many years now!!! Bill used to sing along to the records when he did his show on CFAY way back in l967! His mother Peggy was one our most closest neighbors and dedicated C-Fay listener. Her other favorite station was CJJC 850/800 Langley which was then owned by Joe Chesney. She knew him years before when they lived on Vancouver Island in Port Alberni, that was way before Bill was around. In fact most of the CFAY staff wasn't around including me! Anyway WOODCARVER very good to hear from you and thanks so much for your nice comments and background info about your experience at C-FAY!!! Sounds like you have accumulated a lot of radio memorabilia just like I have!!! I have a lot of tapes, radio station stickers, coverage maps and surveys not to mention all the radio books, magazines, tons of parts etc. in Langley but especially back east at my Ontario location near Cobourg!!! I even have had to rent storage units in Langley for all the stuff, since what I have here in B.C. can*t fit in our apartment. Anyway Woodcarver, that's great that you have a reel-to-reel tape machine from back then. I have photos of you at the original location in Whalley, near the Ballpark and also at the C-FAY Location-Two behind the Dell Shopping Plaza!

Just remembered to space this so everyone doesn't go blind reading my long posts! So Woodcarver (Fred) VE7ROX says hello too (that's Jim), and liked reading your post too. We both give you a real big welcome to Radio West!!! We just joined this year as well in the spring. I first became aware of radio west and really all the radio west websites about 2 or 3 years ago while trying to find info out about all the new low power radio stations licensed on FM in the USA. There was very little info in the print media about this, so writing to stations was difficult without addresses etc... Anyway to make a long story short our friend Linda H. who helped out at the Langley Swap Meet was good at computers (operating them and getting to websites), so I hired her to help me do this. She found Radio West as we tried to get info on some of the newly licensed Canadian Radio stations, with the CRTC info on Radio West. Dan Sys does a great job on this! That happened about 2006 or 2007. However, the low power FM website info was helped greatly by several sites Dan Sys gave to myself and Linda at the Langley Swap Meet. So we originally started checking them out in April 2005. Before that time I did not realize many radio stations had websites at all! I had always used the old snail mail method or phone calls to write to stations in the USA and Canada to get program schedules, coverage maps etc... Now finding the websites and radio info on the internet made all this much faster and less expensive. One station I have a lot of info about is WBCQ 7415 Monticello, Maine, owned by former Pirate operator Allan Weiner. I listened to them a lot in 2001 back east over-the-air on shortwave, and have heard them here in Langley on Shortwave as well, when conditions are okay. Sunspot activity has been low the last few years though. I listen to them regularly on my Wi-Fi Radios and have done many airchecks of them. They have a very unique format. Allan does a show each week at 8 PM on Friday (that's Eastern Time). 5 PM Pacific Time. I've called him up quite a few times, and it's the only station I've actually E-mailed to so far.


Wi-Fi radio is even newer to me than the website research. I first discovered these at London Drugs, just over a year ago in the spring of 2008. I bought my first one at the end of November 2008, it was a Grace Table Radio Wi-Fi and works very well, receiving over 12,000 radio stations from around the world, using Wi-Fi internet. Since then I have bought 3 other wi-fi radios including the Grace Traveller (uses 6 double A batteries) for portable operation.. I recommend the Grace Wi-Fi radios and have found they work well. Most London Drugs sell them, although I had to special order the Grace Traveller, as it is not a regular stock item on the shelves yet, possibly by August or Fall 2009. The Blik Wi-Fi Radio works well too. WBCQ is carried on the Reciva list of stations which the Blik and Grace Table Radios have. The Grace Traveller uses a Vweb portal which has a different list of stations (carries over 12,000 stations worldwide) although some of them are the same as on the Reciva list.

Woodcarver, my sister says hello! She works for two real estate companies in Ontario, and is a licensed real estate broker. She left the National Ballet Company in the mid-1980s (1986 or so) after a long career in ballet. My mother moved back east near Cobourg in June 1996 although she lived in Mission for two years with me, and then moved to Langley, B.C. in the summer of 2005. She is doing quite well back east. I'm overdue to make a trip back east but have been so busy out here in BC with all the new technologies I've gotten into, plus getting my storage unit completely organized this year. You can email me if you want. ( eldoncfay@gmail.com ) Also have had P.O. Box in Po-Co. since l982! That address is Eldon Electronics Ent. Box 713, Port Coquitlam, B.C. V3B 6H9. Also, I just recently got a new box address in Langley, that address is Box 3536, Langley, B.C. V3A 4R9. For all you out-of-town or out-of-province members, both addresses are good . I still like getting snail mail a lot and some of it does come fairly quickly!!! Woodcarver, you can read more about my WiFi radio station listening on radio west, under "computers and radio". Jon has talked a lot about it there, as well providing some good info as well!!! Its great hearing from you and again welcome aboard Radio West!!! Maybe Pluto can hoist that Pirate Flag up or that Pirate Lassie once again. Take care and best to you all.!!!

[Woodcarver]

Hi Eldon,

It's great to hear from you! I'll private message you about those photos. I'd love to have copies, because as I mentioned, none of mine have survived.

Yes, I'm a newbie on this board although I have been indirectly involved in some the CJOR and Jack Webster threads. My work keeps me pretty busy so I don't have a lot of time to pursue my outside interests. I hope to change that when I retire (381 days, but who's counting).

It's amazing how vivid a lot of those CFAY memories are considering that I wasn't even in my teens yet when we first met. You were in high school, but I was still in grade school. I remember the first record I played on my first CFAY broadcast - it became the theme song for my show - "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" by the Kinks. "Kick Out The Jams" by the MC5, "Now I Want To Be Your Dog" by Iggy and the Stooges, "Cool Jerk", and "Lucy In Disguise" by John Fred and the Playboys got a lot of play, too. Interesting how I always liked the B sides of those hit records.

The CFAY involvement was one thing, but you also got me interested in DX'ing and tape-swapping. You were always fascinated by transmitters, but tape recorders were what really turned my crank. I still have the little Craig 3" and Sony TC-230 that we used at CFAY for the "extended range listening tests". My younger brother has inherited most of my radio receivers, but the tapes from those days and tape recorders I've kept.

I still have all of the QSL cards and reception letters that I collected back then, too.

Glad to hear that Gloria and your mum are doing well. Please say hello to them for me.

As I said, I'll PM you when I get a chance. Keep in touch!

[VE7ROX]

- ROXBOX -

Woodcarver! Wow, what a surprise to see you here on RadioWest. Totally awesome, all the old alumni from the CFAY days and The BDXC (Burnaby DX Club) showing up, sometimes when you least expect it. This board is full of surprises. What a great way to keep in touch. Yes, you can check the postings pretty much daily, as there can be new things added minute to minute. Sometimes a new topic, sometimes replies and comments to an existing topic. You can really get an idea of what is going on in the broadcasting world here, and also computer, music and technical topics. There are occasional non-radio related topics.

So, if you would like to see yourself and other CFAY escapades, make sure your sound is turned up for the full effect, and click here: http://tinyurl.com/l9qqmh Some of the pictures are more recent obviously, including some of Eldon and myself's latest DXpeditons. If you want that picture of yourself, click here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1 ... 1734836072 If you right click it and click "Save Image As . .", you can save it in your picture folder. "Broadcasting Live From The CFAY Studios" haha.

So, there will be more postings forthcoming. Stand by for more entertainment. - ROX . . .

[Woodcarver]

Hey, Jim! Is that you? Great to hear from both you and Eldon!

Thanks so much for the links to those pictures! I've been looking for that one of Eldon and me for ages. There's also another picture of me in your collection...the guy in the leather jacket standing in the CFAY doorway. I'd have been about 16 at the time, circa 1971.

I have a picture of you somewhere standing in front of the City of Spuzzum sign. No doubt on one of your DXing expeditions. If I find it, I'll send it to you. Also have a signed picture of Gloria when she was with the National Ballet. I'll send that to Eldon if he doesn't already have a copy.

Good talking to you both! Glad I stumbled upon this thread!!!

[jon]

Pluto, Radiofan and I went to school with VE7ROX in East Burnaby in the mid-1960s. He and Frank Stacy were truly great medium wave (540-1600KHz) DX'ers while we were at Cariboo Hill Junior High.

There were others, too, and we made a sleepy looking lot on winter Monday mornings at Cariboo Hill, if the DX conditions had been good Sunday night after midnight, when most transmitters were off the air for weekly maintenance.

Sleepy or not, our discussions were lively. Because this was before the days of the Brian Williams DX Hotline, so we had no way of communicating until we got to school. No parents would put up with a ringing phone in the middle of the night. And we lived too far for Frank Stacy's walkie-talkies.