EDXC
Conference in St. Petersburg 2006
by Anker Petersen.
The 39th annual Conference of the
European DX Council (EDXC) was held on Oct 19-22, 2006 at
the State Regional Education Centre of the Federal Agency
for Atomic Energy in the northern part of St. Petersburg,
Russia. This was also a cheap hotel. 70 people attended this
Conference from 12 countries: Russia (32 participants),
Finland (22), Denmark (3), Sweden (3), U.S.A. (3) and one
from Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the
Netherlands and Scotland. For us, it was a special pleasure
to meet many present and former members of the DSWCI,
including Alexey Osipov, Mikhail Timofeyev and Alexander
Beryozkin from the St. Petersburg DX Club. DSWCI-members
from other countries were Toshi Ohtake (Japan), George Brown
(Scotland), Bengt Ericson and Tibor Szilagyi (Sweden), Maria
Gösselova (Czech Republic), Heikki Puranen (Finland) and
from Denmark Kaj Bredahl and Else Jørgensen and myself.
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| Group photo |
The following radio stations were
represented: Deutsche Welle, FEBC (NASB), WRN, KNLS, TWR,
Radio Prague, Russian TV & Broadcasting Networks and Radio
Open City St. Petersburg.
The Conference was excellently organized by
the coming Secretary General, Tibor Szilagyi together with
the St. Peters-burg DX-Club whose members showed us
fantastic hospitality and friendship!
The Conference was opened by Mr. Alexander
Beryozkin on behalf of the local DX-Club by playing the
Anthem of Sankt Petersburg. Then Mr. Tibor Szilagyi gave
the EDXC welcome on behalf of the interim Secretary General,
Mr. Luigi Cobisi, who was on a business trip to Japan. An
impressive agenda was presented with no less than 14
lectures and reports held in Russian or English with
simultaneous interpreting.
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| Alexander Beryozkin opening
the Conference |
During Friday and Saturday morning we heard
and saw the following lectures:
·
“Special features of radio waves propagation
by reflection from ionosphere” by Professor Evgeny Milyutin
who explained the Sunspot 11.3 years cycle, MUF, OWF, echo,
fading, disturbances by thunderstorms and meteors.
·
“National Association of SW Broadcasters and
my 13 years at KFBS, Saipan” by Michael Adams, FEBC, USA.
·
“Using active magnetic aerials in
professional radio receiving and DX-ing” by Dr. Anatoly
Bobkov who stressed that a good grounding is needed. Loops
can suppress interference.
·
“Collecting Soviet vintage radio receivers”
by Mr. Omar Cheishvili who has many Russian domestic
receivers produced before 1939.
·
“LW/MW/SW broadcasting: past, present and
future. DRM standard” by Ms. Valentina Jolkver-Krasnoposkaya
from Deutsche Welle. An superb presentation on the use of
radio from A. S. Popov’s wireless transmission in 1895 till
the use of digital broadcasting in the coming years. As of
August 2006 there are 39 DRM broadcasters. General problems
with QRM. Tests on 4-5 MHz with vertical radiation and with
low power on 26 MHz! In 2009 cheap DRM receivers are
expected to be available for general sale.
·
“DX-ing and radio landscape in Thailand,
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia” by Anker Petersen, Denmark. This
lecture will be brought in full in SWN this winter.
·
“Results of the tests of software-defined
radio receivers for HF and MW reception using both analogue
and digital (DRM) technology” by Mr. Tarmo Kontro, Finland
who has been testing the advanced and very sensitive
receivers like WinRadio 313e, SDB 14, Tentec 320 and ICOM
1000. In the extreme future such receiver robots may be
programmed to listen, send reception reports to transmitter
robots who issue QSLs – all without any human interference!
“Broadcasting in St. Petersburg region” by
Mr. Mikhail Timofeyev who is technician at the Regional
Broadcasting
Centre in St. Petersburg. He gave an overview
of its many transmitters on LW, MW, SW, FM and TV,
including Radio Centre No. 1 at Olgino (LW+MW), No. 3 at St.
Petersburg (684 kHz MW relays BBC, DW, RFI and religious
stations), No. 5 at Kaliningrad (Bolshakovo) with MW, and
No. 11 at Krasny Bor (Popovka) which 18 SW transmitters of
200 kW are used by Voice of Russia, TWR and CRI.
·
“Reception of satellite international
broadcasting in St. Petersburg” by Mr. Vladimir Kharitonov
who told that 180 stations have been picked up on Astra
satellites and about 400 on Hot Bird 2 satellite.
·
“Development of DRM radio transmitters” by
Mr. Alexander Artamonov who explained the present transition
phase in Russia with testing. It will still be years, before
cheap DRM receivers of 30-50 US $ are produced in Russia.
·
“DX-ing in Japan” by Mr. Toshimichi Ohtake,
Japan. Similar to Toshi’s lecture in Vejers in May, but
updated with participation in Tokyo HAM Fair in August 2006.
·
“DX-ing in Finland” by Mr. Risto Vähäkainu,
Finland who talked about FDXA (SDXL) with 700 members who
mainly DX on MW, and its relations to Russian DX-ers.
·
“Moscow Club of DX-ers” by Mr. Vadim Alexeyev
who explained the difficulties of running this Club which
was formed in 1990.
·
“St. Petersburg DX Club” by Mr. Alexander
Beryozkin. It was founded in 1984 as DX-Circle Leningrad and
has as logo the wise crow which is DX-ing at the bank of
river Neva.
On Friday evening a few of us were
interviewed at R Gardarika for a special one hour broadcast
Sunday afternoon. During the first half hour Alexander
Beryozkin interviewed Tibor Szilagyi and me in English about
the EDXC now and then. The second half hour was in Russian
with Valentina Jolkver-Krasnopolskaya (DW), Vadim Alexeyev (WRN)
and Mikhail Timofeyev. It was heard on 12010 and 15640
throughout Europe and in Japan.
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| Tibor Szilagyi being
interviewed at Radio Gardarika |
After a sightseeing tour by bus through parts
of the beautiful city on Saturday afternoon, we visited the
Professor A. S. Popov Apartment Museum where his radio
laboratory and scientific work was presented by the
Director, Mrs. Larisa Zolotinkina. On May 07, 1895 he
demonstrated the transmission through the air of
electromagnetic signals over a distance of about 250
meters.
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| Ms. L. Zolotinkina
explaining at A. S. Popov Museum |
In the evening the Conference closed with an
excellent Banquet dinner and lottery.
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| Banquet Dinner |
It was a very informative Conference where we
met many DX-friends particularly from NE Europe. It was held
in the Russian city which always had been regarded as the
“Russian Window to the West”.
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| Church of Blood in St.
Petersburg |
We look forward to the next EDXC Conference
in Lugano, Switzerland on Nov 01-04, 2007. (Petersen)
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| Anker Petersen in front of
the Cruiser Aurora which in 1917 initiated the Russian
revolution |
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| Seven nations meeting
informally |
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