EDXC Conference in Lugano 2007

report and photos by Anker Petersen. 

The 40^th annual Conference of the European DX Council (EDXC) was held on Nov 01-04, 2007 at Hotel Dischma, Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, very close to Italy.

This cheap, but very good hotel has its name from a roman-latin word which is deviated from "decimus" which was 1/10 of the income, the oldest form of paying taxes. In year 1365 this name was found in the registers as Dismao and in 1562 as Dyschma. The hotel is actually located in Paradiso, a southern suburb of Lugano which counts 54,000 inhabitants. It has a wonderful panorama along the Lugano Lake with Monte Brè and Monte San Salvatore as the nearby 600 meter higher landmarks.

Hotel Dishma, Paraiso near Lugano

I travelled from Denmark together with Kaj Bredahl Jörgensen and his wife Else, first flying with Swiss International to Zürich and then taking the CISALPINO train to Lugano with its many breathtaking views of the snowcapped mountainous landscape which still had the very beautiful autumn colours in the valleys. Very symbolic for my media presentation the following day, we were welcomed in Zürich Airport by an Andean Indian who played the old Inca tune "El Condor pasa" on harp. 

29 people from 9 countries attended this Conference: Finland  (8 participants), Italy (4), USA (4), Denmark (3), Switzerland (3), Germany (2), Japan (2), Sweden (2) and one from the UK. Lugano was carefully selected as venue in order to make it attractive to many DX-ers from Southern and Central Europe, so their limited participation was a big disappointment. 

The Conference was officially opened Friday Nov 02 at 1030 by a warm welcome by Deputy Mayor of Lugano, Dr. Venturi  who by the way also is a shortwavelistener.

The Secretary General, Mr. Tibor Szilagyi, then welcomed everybody to the 40^th EDXC Conference and forwarded greetings and regrets from DX-ers and broadcasters who were unable to attend. Later on, former Secretary General Mr. Michael Murray, expressed some commemorative words about Mr. David Bowman from the BBCMS who passed away short time ago at an age above 90. He has actively attended many EDXC Conferences in the past. 

The lectures began at 1100 hours when the Director of Radio Miami International, President of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters in USA (NASB) and Vice Chairman in the U.S. DRM Group, Mr. Jeff White gave a presentation about

1. The state of Shortwave in the Americas.

2. Status on Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

3. Status on NASB and DX-Meetings.

Even though the IBB (e.g. VOA) is cutting down its number of languages, most private U.S. broadcasters continue to use SW.

To strengthen economy, however, some have begun to sell airtime to overseas broadcasters. The FCC has allowed the use of Powerline Communications (PLC), but so far only a few companies have begun to use it in the U.S.A.

Group Photo

(click photo to enlarge)

The development of DRM has reached 768 broadcasting hours per day as of Sep 27 this year. Some broadcasters like HCJB, CBC, TWR and CVC have adopted DRM for tests, others may do so soon while others may wait some years until the DRM receivers are more common and widespread. 

The 2007 NASB annual meeting was hosted by HCJB in Elkhart, IN and the talks can be heard and seen at the website: www.shortwave.org . The 2008 meeting will be hosted by TWR in Cary, North Carolina. The NASB is also participating in meetings with the FCC, HFCC and various DX-organisations.

Anker Petersen then talked about "DX-ing in the High Andes" as defined as above 2,500 metres, and showed pictures and sounds from his visits to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. The cultures of the Quechoa and Aymara Indians were described and two different extracts of "El Condor pasa" played.  

The number of domestic SW stations in the Andes is clearly declining, but instead the number of FM stations is strongly increasing. TV, cellular phones, internet and streaming audio is also coming up for the more rich part of the population. 

He is still on his own producing "Switzerland in Sound" and at http://www.switzerlandinsound.com/audiotext32/conference_in_lugano.mp3 you can hear a roundtable discussion about SW in 1967 when the EDXC was born, and today, between Jeff White, Tibor Szilagyi, Michael Murray and Anker Petersen chaired by Bob Zanotti. 

Bob also revealed that he was actively involved in the establishment of the first site of IRRS 30 km west of Milan, Italy in 1993-2003. After that it was automated and the two 10 kW Siemens SW transmitters were sold and airtime abroad was leased. The present site could not be disclosed. 

Then followed a long discussion about the following EDXC matters, lead by Mr. Torre Ekblom. 

The present management has been very active in trying to revive the DX-related activities of the EDXC. So far it has succeeded in getting published on the web an updated version of the EDXC Landlist this summer edited by Mr. Olle Alm at http://www.dswci.org/ , click EDXC Radio Countries. (As well as on this site, of course, in the menu! Finn Krone)

Since the EDXC has no funds besides its daily administration and only a small one for EDXC Conferences, it is regarded sufficient just to run a website and no printed newsletters, as done previously, which were quite expensive.  

Thus it is impossible, as suggested, that the EDXC is going to publish:

• a 50-60 pages European DX-bulletin,

• a long weekly DX-programme on an international radiostation,

• a translation service of articles between some of the many languages in Europe, or

• a summary of main articles from the European DX-Clubs.

Such services are up to the individual clubs, if needed. 

The EDXC is working hard on establishing a new website for the EDXC and there is good hope for a Finnish solution soon. 

Risto Vahakainu pointed out that the number of DX-ers in Finland, and probably most of Europe, was peaking around 1982, but many are still active.  

Anker Petersen gave a historical review on the initial EDXC nearly scientific study on what the radiostations required of reception reports. It resulted in a published EDXC Reception Report Guide and many useful Reception Report forms in various languages. This EDXC Guide needs updating on a few points particularly on the digital way of reporting and Anker needs a few experienced DX-ers to assist in this job. However, most of the job is already done in the newly published CD: "World QSL Book" (528 pages) at teakpub@brmemc.net  by Gayle Van Horn.

As broadcaster, Mr. Jeff White stated that WRMI still is very interested in reception reports in order to be able to evaluate the reception quality. 

The Secretary General highly appreciated that radiolisteners from seven European countries, the U.S.A. and Japan, did participate in this conference in Lugano. But more activitity from some southern countries would have been very useful! 

There were no further items to be discussed, so Torre and Tibor closed the debate by stating that all comments on these issues are still welcome. 

The former EDXC Secretary General, Mr. Risto Vähäkainu then invited all DX-ers to the next EDXC Conference to be held in connection with the 50^th Anniversary of the Finnish DX Association, FDXA, near the westcoast city of Vaasa on 05-07 September 2008. At http://www.netikka.net/edxc2008/ you can find the initial invitation and useful links to the city of Vaasa and the conference hotel, Hotel Silveria. The conference package will be announced later and there will as usual be an extensive conference programme. In addition there might also be a bus tour to a far destination (Baltic state(s) or Lapland). More details from FDXA, P. O. Box 454, FIN-00101 Helsinki or from risto.vahakainu@helsinki.fi  

Robert Kipp closed the lectures by a more technical insight in the SW transmitters used on Ascension and St. Helena islands and announcing the new Jubilee programme on Dec 15, 2007. 

This station is broadcasting on FM, DAB and satellite with very modern equipment in all four Swiss languages. Tapes and CD's are no longer used, but all is digitalized. In the future all FM transmitters will be replaced by DAB, because in the mountains fewer transmitters are needed. The next day a new programme in English "Swiss World Radio" would start on DAB and satellite, and in Geneva also on FM. 

The Conference closed Saturday evening with an excellent Banquet with these local dishes: Cannelloni au Gratin, Osso Buco in Cremolata, Bread Tart "Cicci", wines and coffee. I gave a short speech about the start of the EDXC which was founded in my home in Skovlunde in June 1967 with Torre and Kaj also active at that time.  

After that they organized a popular lottery. 

We all look forward to the next EDXC Conference, (as proposed, FK) in Vaasa, Finland on September 05-07, 2008. See you there!