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40 Years with the European DX Council

by Anker Petersen, Denmark

2007 became a historical year for the DX-hobby in Europe! 

It is 40 years ago, since the European DX Council (EDXC) was founded. In this short note, I intend to cover some of the most important parts of this long period. 

In the 1950-ies and 1960-ies, national DX-Clubs appeared in several European countries. Many people listened to domestic and foreign broadcasts on long-, mediumwave and shortwave. At that time, broadcasting on FM, TV and via satellite or internet did not exist! Because of this, there was a good basis for the hobby of listening to far-away radiostations (DX-ing) mainly on shortwaves, but also on mediumwaves. 

In 1965 Ellmann Ellingsen of the DX-listeners Club of Norway got the vision to establish a supra-national DX-organisation to improve the co-operation between DX-Clubs in Europe, using the Council of Europe as a model. On his initiative, a preli-minary committee was then established which proposed the first Statutes of the EDXC. 

At the inaugural meeting on June 3rd -4th,1967, DX-leaders from Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden met to discuss and agree upon the foundation of the EDXC. These DX-ers were: Torre Ekblom (Finland), the late Heinrich Kobsch (the Federal Republic of Germany), the late Wouter Franken, Bob Grevenstuck and Maarten van Delft (The Netherlands), the late Ellmann Ellingsen (Norway), Claës-W. Englund and Göran Svensson (Sweden) and Kaj Bredahl Jørgensen and myself (Denmark). As a central venue, my private house in Skovlunde near Copenhagen was chosen. On June 4th at 1400, Ellmann Ellingsen could declare that the EDXC was founded with a Council and various committees.

The EDXC then established the following working committees:

  1. Reception Report Committee. (Chairman Anker Petersen)

  2. Landlist Committee. (Chairman Torbjörn Einarsson)

  3. Contest Committee. (Chairman Wouter Franken)

  4. Information Committee. (Chairman Ellmann Ellingsen)

  5. Technical Committee. (Chairman Jim Vastenhoud)

  6. Statute Committee. (Chairman Claës-W. Englund)

During the first years, the membership of the EDXC was based upon Country-membership, but this was from October the 1st 1969 replaced by Club-membership.  

In December 2003 when the three year term of the Secretary General and his Assistant ended, there were no new candidates to succeed them. The EDXC Member Clubs then decided to prolong their duties for an interim period while a new Statute Working Group was appointed.  It consisted of Anker Petersen, DSWCI, Denmark (Chairman), Tibor Szilagyi (Hungarian DX Club) and Francisco Martinez, A.E.R., Spain.

It proposed a completely revised set of Statutes for the EDXC which the Member Clubs agreed upon in April 2005. One of the innovations was that it is now possible for individual DX-ers to become full members of the EDXC with voting rights. 

The EDXC has been really "EUROPEAN" as the following two lists indicate:

Secretary Generals and Assistants elected by the DX-Clubs: 

June-Sept.1967 Anker Petersen, Denmark
Oct. 1967 -1968 Claës-W. Englund, Sweden
1969    Jyrki Talvitie, Finland
1970 Alan Thompson, United Kingdom
1971 Bengt Dalhammar, Sweden 
1972-1973 Wolfgang Scheunemann, Fed. Rep. of  Germany
1974 Ian Foster, United Kingdom
1975-1978 Rudolf Hein, Federal Republic of Germany
1979-1995 Michael Murray, United Kingdom, Assistant: Simon Spanswick, United Kingdom
1996-2000

Risto Vähäkainu, Finland; Assistant: Arto Mujunen, Finland
2001-2003 Luigi Cobisi, Italy; Assistant: Paolo Morandotti, Italy
2004-2006 Luigi Cobisi, Italy (Interim); Assistant: Paolo Morandotti, Italy (Interim)
2007-2009 Tibor Szilagyi, Sweden (Hungary); Assistant: Torre Ekblom, Finland.

It has become a useful tradition to meet at Annual EDXC Conferences which have been organised as follows except in 2004 when no host could be found:

  • 1967:  Skovlunde, Denmark

  • 1968:  Skovlunde, Denmark

  • 1969:  Halmstad, Sweden

  • 1970:  Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany

  • 1971:  Jyväskylä, Finland

  • 1972:  Hilversum, The Netherlands

  • 1973:  Oslo, Norway

  • 1974:  Canterbury, United Kingdom

  • 1975:  Aarhus, Denmark

  • 1976:  Hilversum, the Netherlands

  • 1977:  Bruxelles, Belgium

  • 1978:  Mölndal, Sweden

  • 1979:  Wien, Austria

  • 1980:  Paris, France

  • 1981:  Berne, Switzerland

  • 1982:  Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany

  • 1983:  London, United Kingdom

  • 1984:  Stockholm, Sweden

  • 1985:  Madrid, Spain

  • 1986:  Paris, France

  • 1987:  Espoo, Finland

  • 1988:  Antwerp, Belgium

  • 1989:  Morokulien, Sweden

  • 1990:  Grado, Italy

  • 1991:  Sitges, Barcelona, Spain

  • 1992:  Tampere, Finland

  • 1993:  Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain

  • 1994:  Paris, France

  • 1995:  Rebild, Denmark

  • 1996:  Florence, Italy

  • 1997:  Zlin, Czech Republic

  • 1998:  Gothenburg, Sweden

  • 1999:  Lyngby, Denmark

  • 2000:  Barcelona, Spain

  • 2001:  Budapest, Hungary

  • 2002:  Pori, Finland

  • 2003:  Königstein, Germany

  • 2004:  No conference

  • 2005:  Prague, Czech Republic

  • 2006:  St. Petersburg, Russia

  • 2007:  Lugano, Switzerland

  • 2008:  Vaasa, Finland (proposed)