EDXC Conference in Dublin 2009

report by Anker Petersen, photos by Anker Petersen, Toshi Ohtake and Nobuya Kato. 

The 42nd annual Conference of the European DX Council (EDXC) was held on 28-30 August 2009 at Grand Canal Hotel near the centre of the Irish capital, Dublin.

I flew from Denmark together with Kaj Bredahl Jørgensen and his wife Else with SAS. We were welcomed in the airport by DX-er Edward Dunne who was the local organizer. When Susanne Lips from Germany, Alexander Beryozkin from St. Petersburg and Jonathan Murphy from Cork, Ireland, also had arrived, we all took a bus to the Hotel.

At 1900 we had an informal gathering in the lobby and were welcomed by EDXC Secretary General Tibor Szilagyi and Edward Dunne

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Tibor and Edward welcoming

Group photo

Saturday 29 August 

At 0900, Counsellor Rebecca Moynihan, representing the Lord Mayor of Dublin welcomed us to the beautiful city. 

Then the Conference was officially opened by Tibor Szilagyi and Edward Dunne, the Irish DX Club. Tibor reported: " The number of members of the EDXC is showing a growing tendency. Today we have 12 European DX Clubs as Regular Members --- 2 Clubs more than 1 year ago. 

On the Individual Member side, we have noted a significant increase: We have now 4 Members: 2 from Sweden, 1 from Finland and 1 from Italy. As Observer Members we count -- as we did last year as well --- 4 Observer Members: 2 from Germany, 1 from the U. K. ( = The British DX Club ) and 1 from the U.S.A. : National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB). 

The Membership Fees have been paid rather fast at the beginning of the year 2009. We at the EDXC are very grateful for that --- being a small and very poor hobby organization, operating with penny--like financial means. 

For this years EDXC Conference I have invited 27 different Radio Stations, just to come here to Dublin, to make their own presentations and just to see how we work as a hobby organization. Of those 27 invited Radio Stations I did receive answers from only a few : Radio Belarus and Voice of Russia in Moscow answered at the beginning of this year and told me the following: Because of this World Wide Financial Crisis they received much less money from their governments, so, even if they were extremely flattered by the kind invitation of the EDXC, they cannot come. From those Invited Radio Stations in Asia only China Radio International answered to me. The secretary of the English Section wrote to me, that she forwarded my invitation to the Chief of the English Service: Mr. Yang Lei. Altough I repeated our EDXC Invitation to those 27 Radio Stations several times, a complete silence was the reward from these stations. 

During the last years EDXC Conference in Vaasa / Finland, we received the kind Invitation from the Voice of Turkey in Ankara, to come to Ankara and arrange our next EDXC Conference together with the Voice of Turkey there in 2010. The EDXC has several times expressed our truly thankfulness for this kind invitation to Ankara. Because of this we certainly maintained a special contact with Voice of Turkey. 

While organizing this years EDXC Conference I was often in contact with Edward Dunne from the Irish DX Club here in Dublin. Edward always answered my E-mails immediately and we had a very good co-operation during this time working together. On behalf of the EDXC I wish to express my BIG THANK YOU to Edward for the excellent work you have done. In the springtime of 2009 I was contacted by Risto Vahakainu from the FDXA ( Finland ) asking me, to think over, what could we offer more for this Conference as an extension of the Programme for Sunday, August 30. As you can see from the Detailed Programme our Finnish DX Friends managed to contribute with a lot of interesting items for this Sunday. I wish to express my thankfulness towards our Finnish DX -- Friends for this excellent contribution. 

At the same time I would like to wish the Conference a great success, and please do continue with this wonderful DX -- Hobby !!" 

Edward Dunne pointed out that this was the first time, an EDXC Conference was held in Ireland. Therefore he was anxious that all arrived well, got good memories and will come back to Ireland another time. 

Greetings were received from AGDX, Rhein-Main DX Club, Valerio Cavallo of AIR, Jeff White and Torre Ekblom.

Mike Adams, FEBC

The first lecture was about "Shortwave Disaster Radio and Studio-in-a Suitcase", held by Mike Adams. He is engineer at FEBC and also Vice President of NASB. Shortwave is still a strong medium in many countries in Asia. Since the big Tsunami in 2005, FEBC has developed a "Rapid Response Kit" with advanced technology which can be sent anywhere in the world as humanitarian aid in cooperation with the Red Cross. The Kit consists of two suitcases each weighing 20 kg comprising a FM transmitter, an antenna and a Chrysolute studio. If the disaster has destroyed the local radiostation, FEBC can send a reporter team with the Kit to the area within 72 hours. Test have shown that the FM station can be established within 45 minutes. In addition the reporter team can report back to the FEBC on the Philippines and broadcast emergency broadcasts to the area via SW. The reporters seek out local officials (police, doctors, community and rescue people etc.) and forward their utmost important messages, besides establish a service for missing people.

Simon Maher

Next was Simon Maher, General Manager of the Rock station Phantom Radio, in Dublin. It is broadcasting on 576 kHz MW and analogue FM. But it is also going to broadcast on DAB and digital cable TV. He sees no future for DRM. In Dublin there are 3-4 pirates on FM in the weekends and a few SW pirates.

Jonathan Murphy

Then Jonathan Murphy gave a well-documented lecture about "Broadcasting to the World: The Role of the Media in the Baltic States during their struggle for independence from the USSR". He described the independence attempts in 1991 in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as they were broadcast by the radio. The Soviet forces in January occupied key installations, but in August the left again and the three countries declared their independence. At the same time Boris Jeltzin had taken over from President Mikhail Gorbachev with a coup.

A. J.

Next A.J. gave an update on the status of Radio Free Asia whose broadcasts in Korean, Tibetan, Mandarin, Uighur and Vietnamese are still jammed. He introduced the new QSL for September-October and thanked for the many reception reports to the website www.techweb.rfa.org . On the QSL's 6 IBB sites are identified, but others cannot be that for political reasons.

 
Dr. Ufuk Geçim (l)  and Tibor Szilagyi (r)

Dr. Ufuk Geçim from the German Section of the Voice of Turkey (TRT) then told about the station and her job as editor of the Letterbox and DX-programme. Her audience is German speaking listeners, including many Turks who live in Germany and Austria. She hoped the next EDXC Conference could be held in Ankara, probably on 30 September to 03 October 2010, but the formal invitation from TRT could not yet be given. 

After lunch a sightseeing bus driven by Steve and with James as guide brought us through the very clean city of historical Dublin with its many beautiful buildings and parks. We passed the radio building of RTE, saw the ruins from the Vikings who had 150 years of influence.

Ireland's Oldest Pub

We ended up in the Radio Vintage Museum "Ye Olde Hurdy-Gurdy Museum" in the very green Howth and saw its many old receivers. Weather varied with both sunshine and rain at times. The Irish say: "There will be rain between the showers!"

 
Vintage Radio Museum

The delicious Banquet Dinner was held under cover at the Hotel followed by a raffle with many DX-related prizes.

Sunday 30 August 

Risto Vähäkainu

At 0930 Risto Vähäkainu told about the current DX-Club activity in Europe and the World. Many clubs have the option with both a printed bulletin and a PDF-version on the website. The internet is necessary to attract younger members, but the websites have to be updated. 

Club leaders 

From left: Anker Petersen, Alan Pennington, Alexander Beryozkin, Kari Kivekäs, Edward Dunne, Claes Englund and Tibor Szilagyi. At the labtop Mike Adams. 

Then followed a club meeting where all DX-Clubs represented told about their activities: DSWCI, BDXC-UK, St. Petersburg DX-Club, FDXA, Irish DX Club, SDXF/ Mälardalens DX-Club, HDXC and JSWC. Tibor Szilagyi also revealed that a new candidate as Assistant Secretary General had been found in Sweden, because Torre Ekblom has decided to cease this job for personal reasons. The new name is Ingvar Kohlstroem. The sun broke through, so we hurried out to take the official photo in front of Grand Canal Hotel

Back in the Conference room, Jukka Kotovirta gave a lively talk about the magic FM DX-hobby. With a good antenna, e.g. a 15 element Yagi, you can get good results even in noisy cities. The year 2009 has had very poor reception conditions, maybe because of the poor stock exchanges… 

Jukka Kotovirta

Then Arto Mujunen, leader of the IBB monitoring in Finland, stated that shortwave is still needed, because crises and disasters may happen. Furthermore, in some remote areas, e.g. in Russia, shortwave is the only medium available. DRM was very much on the agenda at the recent HFCC Conference in the Dominican Republic. India and Russia have decided to introduce DRM, so shortwave and mediumwave DX-ing will be more difficult in the future.

Tibor Szilagyi and Edward Dunne then closed the successful EDXC Conference which had many very interesting lectures and not at least was a social event where we met old and new friends. Thank you to Tibor and Edward for this!