BDXC=Burnaby DX Club

[jon]

I thought now might be an appropriate time to try and put together some history of Radio and DX in Burnaby. Not that our experience was the first. A couple of years ago, I got a call from a fellow who lived across the alley and down a few doors from me in East Burnaby, who was 7 years older than me, best friends with my neighbour, and was part of a group of Radio fanatics that pre-dated all of us here on RadioWest, even with a pirate station around 1964. They later made up the first BCIT Radio class.

The BDXC, Burnaby DX Club, was formed from the interest generated by an Armstrong Elementary School hobby show that occurred early in 1965. Where I displayed my parents' portable radio, which I used for DX and general listening, the (September 1964 Radio-TV Experimenter) magazine article on medium wave DX and QSL cards written by C.M. Stanbury, my DX logbook, and some QSL cards, record surveys and radio station coverage maps. I was only at Armstrong for one year, as Second Street School ended with Grade 6, and Armstrong started their first year of Grade 7 the year I finished Second Street. Brian Elder and I were the only ones we knew of at Second Street who were interested in DX and Radio in general. We had been friends since Grade 2, and ended up graduating from UBC the same year with the same degree.

The club probably discussed record surveys more than DX, and may even have had a newsletter or two. But its existence was prolonged because neither Brian Elder nor I could determine if the IRCA (International Radio Club of America) was a legitimate organization. The Better Business Bureau had never heard of them.

It wasn't until June 1966 that Brian and I went down to Woodward's and bought U.S. money orders for our first year's IRCA membership. $4.40 for Third Class mail delivery of 34 annual editions -- weekly in the winter DX season, monthly in the summer -- of DX Monitor.

Prior to our arrival, Greater Vancouver already had a few IRCA members. Ken Clapp, who was in his early 20s and more interested in ham radio and later CB, was in North Burnaby. Eric Floden was in South Burnaby, a year or so older than me. Len Mack was a Korean War veteran living on the edge of Chinatown in Vancouver, suffering from recurrent malaria. Bill Wilson is the name that comes to mind for another Vancouverite. He was working on his Masters degree in Physics at UBC. I keep thinking that Larry Killack came along later. Perhaps at the same time that Dwight Morrow joined from White Rock.

That may not sound like many, but compare that to Alberta, where there was only the late Percy Kesteven and John Oldfield, both from Edmonton.

The IRCA was only formed in 1964, after a disagreement with the National Radio Club (NRC) that had existed since the 1930s, the tail end of the years when DX was everyone's hobby. Both clubs still exist.

A lot of the BDXC members did join IRCA over time. And we even managed to have the 1970 IRCA Convention in North Vancouver.

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Thanks for the background info. about the Burnaby DX Club and radio in Burnaby during the l960s!!! I found it very interesting and it reminded me of IRCA having formed only in the mid-60s! I joined IRCA in August or Sept. l967 and thats when I found out about you and Brian Elder etc.. Yes Dwight Morrow was another IRCA member from White Rock that I talked to on the phone quite frequently about dx and IRCA. I never did meet him (amazing considering White Rock is just south of where I lived in Surrey!) however I think Dwight knew Pluto and that was how I met him and VE7ROX in the fall of l967!

You mentioned other people who were from Burnaby before you and Brian that had an interest in radio, one person who even operated a pirate station in Burnaby in the early l960s. Jon, do you remember or know what Am frequency they operated on and what the name of the station was? From about l967 (Fall) onward I was on a search for other stations in Greater Vancouver that operated with low power Am or FM. I did see a closed circuit station at the PNE Hobby Show that was there for several years during the PNE in the summer. It was called CKRI and I was really impressed by their studio equipment. I believe that Rick and Brian Antonson operated it with others. They certainly did a good job operating it there!!! Just after that I found out about a closed circuit station that operated in North Burnaby using wired audio lines to at least 30 homes, they had a network of two stations, one at each end of the wired line system, one station was CKDJ and the other was WXLW. The studio equipment was quite impressive! They visited us out in Surrey at CFAY and actually we did several range checks with Bill's car radio. We found out that our l00 milliwatt carrier current Elect. Illustrated transmitter project actually got out up to l mile away for the first time! I believe that Brian Williams and Doug (anotherdog radio west member) were djs at CKDJ/WXLW as well before CFAY.

Yes it certainly seemed like Burnaby had more radio enthusiasts than other parts of Greater Vancouver, Surrey in particular! Speaking of radio clubs I have belonged to IRCA on and off over the years, was thinking of rejoining since I haven't been a member for about l4 years now. Also have belonged to National Radio Club, Worldwide TV-FM DX Club, and several others over the years. One club that specialized in collecting radio station memorabilia like music charts, keychains, coverage maps and stickers was radiophiles from Seattle. I think it still exists under another name though. I really liked that one a lot when I was a member, nice club bulletins and neat info.. Dan knows more about that one's current status.

While listening to some of the Netherland local stations on my wi-fi radio I came across an interesting one for Radio West members. There must be at least 40 different stations that I can get on the Grace Wi-Fi Radio that stream on the internet via the Reciva web portal list. I just did two cassette airchecks of about six of them including former off-shore pirate Radio Veronica (they have 4 program feeds), Radio Noord is there to. They broadcast on-shore now and I believe are licensed stations in the Netherlands. Anyway the one I taped which kind of floored me was RADIO WEST which is a music and information station with contemporary format. It broadcasts on Fm in the Netherlands!!! Haven't checked to see if they have a website but perhaps someone might want to feature them on this Radio West site!!! Anyway thanks again for the Burnaby radio history Jon! Take care!