EDXC Conference in Vaasa 2008

report by Anker Petersen, photos by Jari Perkiömäki and Anker Petersen. 
(more photos can be seen at http://www.netikka.net/edxc2008/photos.html)

The 41st annual Conference of the European DX Council (EDXC) was held on 05-07 September, 2008 at the excellent Hotel Silveria in the city of Vaasa, located in Ostrobothnia, western Finland with a population of about 58,000 inhabitants. It was founded in 1606 by the Swedish King Charles IX, but the total town built of timber burned to the ground in 1852! A new town of Vaasa was later built in the neighbourhood. 

I flew from Denmark together with Kaj Bredahl Jörgensen and his wife Else by Finnair to Helsinki and then by Finncom. In Vaasa we met no less than 15 other members of the DSWCI !

Group Photo

(click photo to enlarge)

112 people from 12 countries attended this Conference in beautiful weather. The biggest attendance came from Finland with 84 participants, because the organizer, The Finnish DX Association (FDXA) which could celebrate its 50 years birthday, held its annual Summermeeting at the same time. 
These other countries were represented: Sweden (7 DX-ers), Russia (4), Denmark (3), Germany (3), United Kingdom (3), Japan (2), Ireland (1), Italy (1) and U.S.A. (1). Two foreign broadcasters were: Voice of Turkey (2) and Vatican Radio (1).

< Claës-W. Englund

Jyrki Talvitie >

< Bengt Dahlhammar

Michael Murray >

L to R:  Risto Vähäkainu, Tibor Szilagyi and Torre Ekblom

Arto Mujunen >

Friday 05 September 

At 1800, the flags of Finland and the FDXA were hoisted outside the Hotel

Risto Vähäkainu then talked about important events during the 50 years of the FDXA 

< Risto Vähäkainu

 This mostly Finnish-speaking DX-Club was created in January 1958 following the example of Swedish-speaking clubs. In 1983 it reached its maximum of 2,548 members. Since 1972 over 250 DXpeditions have been made to the perfect MW DX-site in Lemmenjoki in Finnish Lapland. There are new challenges on MW with the close down of European powerhouses due to high power expenses, and the new X-band. Today, FDXA is the leading MW-organization in the world.

Raimo Kaksonen and Kari Kivekäs (left) presenting FDXA Book 

Later on the Chairman Kari Kivekäs and Chief Editor Heikki Aarrevaara introduced the brand new, beautifully printed 200 pages book in Finnish about the history of FDXA. 
At 1900, Arto Mujunen presented a difficult DX Quiz where we should recognize a number of languages as heard on radio. Alexander Beryozkin from St. Petersburg became the best. 
At 2000, a representative from the mayor welcomed us to the city of Vaasa. Later on we all joined an outdoor grill party with special Finnish snacks and "lemonade" 

After that a DX shack opened with various good receivers incl. AR7030 and SDR-IQ.

Saturday 06 September 

< Tibor Szilagyi

The Conference was officially opened by Kari Kivekäs and Tibor Szilagyi who mentioned that the EDXC now has 10 organizations and one individual as members. Three DX-Clubs and a radio station are observers. (Read Tibors full speech - here) .

Greetings were received e.g. from Luigi Cobisi, Paolo Morandotti, George Brown and Victor Goonetilleke. Tibor found the contact to international radiostations in Europe very disappointing. The late DX-editor at Radio Budapest, Mr. Lajos Horvath who passed away in March was honoured by one minute of silence.

A radiostation which had reacted positively on the invitation was the Voice of Turkey. Mr Hasan Mueminoglu and Ms Ufuk Gecim explained that this station now broadcasts in 30 languages from Ankara on shortwave and in five languages in the tourist area of Antalya on FM. They are also introducing a website. In total the foreign service has 500 employees. <Mr. Mueminoglu & Ms. Gecim

Turkish Radio &TV (TRT) in total with domestic services on radio and TV has 8,000 employees. Turkey is coming closer to a European way of living and that is why, it has an increasing interest in spreading information about the country on the Voice of Turkey and fullfill the wishes and questions by the listeners. Reception reports are highly appreciated from DX-ers and verified by a variety of beautiful QSL-cards. 

Then Arto Mujunen, leader of the IBB monitoring in Finland, explained that he has 10 monitoring stations and 20 private monitors throughout the former Soviet Union. They monitor the VOA, Radio Free Europe/Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Their reports are satisfactory,so reports from DX-ers are not needed. 

He had just returned from the HFCC conference in Moscow in August where it became evident, that international shortwave broadcasting is not dying, but it is still more difficult to find available frequencies. There are fewer broadcasters, but the remaining stations use an increasing number of relay stations. Generally the international broadcasters are not interested in using the tropical bands, so these bands will not be crowded by these powerhouses. 

At 1100 the international participants went on a guided bustour through the university city of Vaasa which first was occupied by Sweden and then by Russia, until Finland achieved independence in 1917. The bus then continued through the wonderful Kvarken Archipelago which is the only World Natural Site in Finland approved by UNESCO

 Toshi Ohtake at Alskat>

<Nobuya Kato at Svedjehamn

 We enjoyed a lunch of delicious fish at a restaurant in the archipelago. Back home, the official photo was taken which can be seen at www.netikka.net/edxc2008/photos.html .

Tarmo Kontro > 

Then Tarmo Kontro gave the latest news about the Software Defined Radios. With equipment like SDR-IQ and Perseus you can see the spectrum and sleep while you record the broadcasts of a specified frequencyband and then listen later. But the problem is to find time to listen to all recordings! 

< Jukka Kotovirta 

The private Scandinavian Weekend Radio (SWR) had sent four people to Vaasa (Alpo Heinonen, Tapani Häkkinen, Esa Saunamäki and Trevor Twyman) who established a live studio at the conference for that Saturday's monthly broadcast. They represented a team of 13 plus 15 supporting members which have been broadcasting since July 2000. Copyright fees, radio equipment and the maintenance of the studio building are expences which are paid by the team itself, commercials, selling airtime and SWR products. A new QSL is available. More info on the website www.swradio.net At 2000 we all met in the Hotel Silveria restaurant where a delicious Finnish banquet dinner was served. 

Torre Ekblom > 

Anker Petersen handing a gift to Kari Kivekäs. In between Risto Vähäkainu >

... the Swedish DX Federation, Hungarian DX Club and St. Petersburg DX Club. After that the British born Trevor Twyman made a very funny sketch about the differences between the British and the Finnish people 

Trevor Twyman entertaining 

Then followed a lottery and an auction.

At 0930, there was a meeting of the European DX Clubs, chaired by Secretary General Tibor Szilagyi and Assistant Secretary General Torre Ekblom . 

The following organizations and clubs took part in the discussions: ADDX, Arctic Radio Club, British DX Club, DSWCI, Finlands Svenska DX Förbund, FDXA incl. Finnish DX Clubs, Irish DX Club, Hungarian DX Club, Japanese SW Club, Play DX, St. Petersburg DX Club, Swedish DX Federation, incl. Swedish clubs e.g. Mälardalens Radiosällskap, and the World DX Club. 

Tibor Szilagyi gave the good news that there are possibilities to hold the EDXC Conference in August 2009 on the invitation by the Irish DX Club. In 2010 the Voice of Turkey may invite the European Clubs to Ankara or Antalya at a weekend not yet fixed. Both proposals will now be treated formally within EDXC. 

Torre Ekblom stated that the EDXC-activity amongst the member organizations had been very low and invited all to be more active. The EDXC needs contributions from DX-ers in order to be able to offer anything. 

The EDXC website is now active at www.edxc.org e.g. with an updated EDXC countrylist, EDXC activities with reports from the Conferences, DX-meetings and happenings around the world, EDXC history and EDXC news weblog. 

If some active DX-ers will assist, Anker Petersen intends to update the outdated EDXC Reporting Guide from 1979. 

At this EDXC Conference, St. Petersburg DX Club, Torre Ekblom and Bengt Dalhammar joined as new members and the British DX Club and BCLSicilian DX Club as observers. 

At 1045, Jari Sinisalo conducted a difficult geographical quiz which was won by three Finnish DX-ers. This excellent EDXC Conference closed at 1230 by lowering the flags.