European DX Council Celebrates 40th Anniversary at Conference in Lugano
by Jeff White, NASB President
While the prospect of travelling to Europe in November might seem a bit chilly for a resident of Miami, it turns out that the city of Lugano, in southeastern Switzerland, is not that cold. Temperatures reach the 70's (Fahrenheit) during daytime hours, and there are even palm trees throughout the city!
Lugano is the largest city in the Swiss canton of Ticino, with some 55,000 inhabitants. Ticino is the only Italian-speaking canton in Switzerland, and a casual visitor might be forgiven for thinking he or she is in Italy, what with the language, the food, the customs, etc. For example, Lugano celebrates certain Catholic holidays which other parts of Switzerland do not.
Yet Lugano is also quite Swiss. It's the third largest financial center in Switzerland, with over 100 banks, explained the city's deputy mayor, Dr. Venturi, who opened the EDXC Conference on Nov. 2. Lugano was first established as a fishing village, but these days things like banking and tourism have become the most important economic activities, said Dr. Venturi. Ticino has been described as "the Florida of Europe" by some, because many people from northern Europe come to this area in the winter to "warm up" and others come here to retire.
Dr. Venturi also noted, half-jokingly, that "Switzerland is the Afghanistan of Europe," since every citizen is officially a member of the militia -- kind of ironic as this has historically been one of the most peaceful countries in Europe, and the world for that matter.
Coincidentally, during the same dates of the EDXC Conference (Nov. 1-4), Lugano was host to the Swiss Travel Expo "iViaggiatori." Some 80,000 visitors came to see hundreds of kiosks presented by tourist authorities from throughout Switzerland, Italy, Europe (especially the emerging tourist destinations of Eastern Europe) and even parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas.
But also on November 1-4, Lugano was the scene of the 2007 Conference of the European DX Council (EDXC), marking the 40th anniversary of this institution which was formed in 1967 as an umbrella organization for shortwave listening (DX) clubs throughout Europe. (See separate article by Anker Peterson elsewhere in this Newsletter for more on the founding and history of the EDXC.)
Dozens of shortwave listeners from nine countries took part in this year's EDXC Conference. They came from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Switzerland itself. Plus a handful from the United States and even two from Japan. The venue was the Hotel Dischma in the pleasant Lugano suburb of Paradiso.
The EDXC Conference began on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 1, with an informal reception in the bar/restaurant area of the Hotel Dischma, giving everyone a chance to get to know one another and to renew old acquaintances.
The main conference working day was Friday, Nov. 2. After the welcome to the city by the deputy mayor, EDXC Secretary General Tibor Szilagy officially opened the conference, together with his Assistant Secretary General Torre Ekblom. Both of them had been in office for 11 months at the time of the conference.
Yours truly was the next speaker on the agenda. In a space of about an hour, I talked about the NASB, the state of shortwave broadcasting in the Americas, and the status of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) with the aid of some PowerPoints. DRM was a topic of great interest to the shortwave enthusiasts in Lugano, although some were concerned about interference from DRM to analogue shortwave signals.
Tropical Band Shortwave in South America
Next up was Anker Peterson of the Danish Shortwave Club International. This was his 36th EDXC Conference. He spoke about "DXing in the High Andes" -- a sort of shortwave travelogue about his three trips to the Andean countries of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Anker has been listening to tropical band shortwave stations from the Andes for 45 years, and on his three trips to the region he had an opportunity to visit some of them in person.
Anker noted that many houses in the region don't have electricity (only 30% in Bolivia), so people use portable radios (at an average cost of about 10 euros) with batteries. In cities like La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, there is electricity, and therefore a lot of electrical noise. International shortwave broadcasters from North America, Europe, etc. can be best heard at night and in the early morning hours. None of the countries visited by Anker Peterson have external shortwave broadcasters, with the exception of Ecuador's HCJB, an NASB associate member. Anker visited HCJB and experienced a small earthquake while he was there. Other stations he visited included Emisoras Gran Colombia and Radio Baha'i in Ecuador, and Radio Tawantinsuyo in Peru.
Anker explained that radio stations in many tropical zone countries in South America have been moving from shortwave to FM in recent years. The number of domestic shortwave transmitters on the 60- and 90-meter tropical bands has decreased from 160 in 1973 to 69 in 2007. Peru is the country with the most domestic broadcast stations on shortwave, but many are on the air sporadically. Anker noted that tropical band shortwave stations of 5 kilowatts or less power could be heard for distances of about 1000 kilometers.
The mediumwave bands are alive and well in the Andean countries, said Anker Peterson. Stations with 20 to 50 kilowatts could be heard for long distances. The number of FM stations is expanding greatly. For example, he monitored 21 all-night FM stations in Cuzco, Peru; 34 in Lima; and 18 in La Paz, Bolivia. Mobile phones and the Internet are increasingly popular in these countries, but few people have DSL or broadband, so connections are slow. Nevertheless, some local radio stations are now broadcasting with live Internet streams.
The Voice of Switzerland
One of the best-known voices from Switzerland on shortwave for 32 years was Bob Zanotti, an American journalist who has lived in Switzerland for decades. From 1970 until 2002, Bob worked at Swiss Radio International as a reporter, producer, editor, program host and as one of "The Two Bobs" (Bob Thomann was the other one) who hosted the "Swiss Shortwave Merry-Go-Round" -- SRI's DX program. In addition to his radio and journalism experience, he is also an amateur radio operator with a great deal of technical knowledge about the shortwave medium.
In his talk at the EDXC in Lugano, Bob tackled three subjects: his personal views on why Swiss Radio International was closed, his own website Switzerland in Sound, and his involvement in the Italian Radio Relay Service.
Regarding the demise of Swiss Radio International (SRI), Bob said: "What happened to all shortwave stations was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Before that, every country had to have a station and a voice on shortwave." Switzerland was officially neutral during the Cold War, but in reality it was aligned with the West. "But when the Cold War ended," Bob said, "politicians began to ask [the shortwave stations], 'what are you going to do now?' Many stations were not ready for this, and could not justify their existence to the politicians. Some stations had answers and are still around. Other stations didn't have answers and are no longer around."
In Bob Zanotti's view, "SRI suffered from mismanagement." At SRI and many other shortwave broadcasters, "top managers were often people who were ineffectual elsewhere in the organization or were about to retire, so they were parked at the shortwave service where they couldn't cause any problems." They often had no firsthand experience of international broadcasting, so they hired consultants who were not international broadcasters either. "They came up with marketing jargon," said Bob, "and the station managers did whatever they said, including shifting emphasis away from the shortwave services,"
"Most station managers never liked QSL-hunting DXers," continued Bob. "SRI was always in the top 10 in shortwave station polls. But then the BBC started telling everyone that shortwave was dead, which some uninformed management figures interpreted as a call to drop shortwave." But Bob said this could have possibly been a strategy by the BBC to get rid of the competition, noting that it's quite ironic that the BBC is still on shortwave.
Today, Swiss Radio International is "swissinfo.ch," a website with information about Switzerland. Only one journalist from the old English section of SRI is still at swissinfo. In 1998, the SRI transmitter site at Schwarzenburg was dismantled, explained Bob, "supposedly for environmental concerns, but really because of economic factors." SRI opted for buying airtime from relay stations, including Deutsche Welle, and for a time had a transmitter swap arrangement with what is now China Radio International.
According to Bob Zanotti, "One SRI director, Roy Oppenheim, knew shortwave would be around for at least another 20 years. He said that Internet and satellite were necessary, but only as a supplement to shortwave -- not as a replacement. But Oppenheim left SRI, and the Internet gurus said 'we can do this for free, and even put audio on the web.' But today they have no serious audio on swissinfo."
Other directors were just simply "incompetent" in Bob's opinion. He noted that the CNN World Report segment produced by SRI for many years has ended, and the people who still support shortwave at many international broadcasting organizations are retiring or dying.
Bob Zanotti was involved with the organization of the 1981 EDXC Conference, which was hosted by SRI in Bern, Switzerland. Before coming to SRI, he worked for a time in the 1960's at Radio Sweden, where he hosted the popular "Sweden Calling DXers" program and also worked as a freelance reporter. He remains a big proponent of shortwave radio. "There are millions of shortwave receivers out there," he told the conference in Lugano. "And shortwave receivers still come out when there's a crisis."
Regarding Digital Radio Mondiale, Bob Zanotti offered this view: "DRM is wonderful technology, but it may be too little too late. If it's going to happen, it has to happen soon."
Bob retired from SRI at an early age, and he wanted to remain involved in radio, so he started his own website, Switzerland in Sound (www.switzerlandinsound.com), which is self-financed. SIS was "sort of a way to keep SRI going." It contains extensive audio material about all aspects of Switzerland, including tourist information. There is also a monthly "Letter from Switzerland" audio feature, which until the EDXC Conference in Lugano was hosted on alternate months by Bob and his former SRI colleague Richard Dawson.
Tragically, Dick Dawson died the day after the EDXC Conference ended, "only minutes after sending me his Letter From Switzerland contribution via email. I was to call him on Skype to record his audio rendition of the Letter an hour later. He never answered."
But Switzerland in Sound continues, and it even has a "Two Bobs" section with some of the most memorable editions of SRI's DX program, and new versions as well, including a report from a recent Shortwave Listeners Winterfest in Pennsylvania, and now a report from the EDXC Conference in Lugano.
Back in 1988, Bob met a visitor at SRI named Alfredo Cotroneo from Milan, Italy. Some time later, the two decided to put a privately-owned commercial shortwave station on the air in Milan. The result of their efforts was the Italian Radio Relay Service (IRRS). They purchased a 10-kilowatt Siemens shortwave transmitter from the Swiss PTT which, as Bob describes it, "was about the size of a large refrigerator, and was operational from 1.5 to 30 MHz with eight-second or less band switching." IRRS used reduced carrier single sideband modulation. Bob Zanotti's sidekick from "The Two Bobs," Bob Thomann, was also a technical advisor for IRRS.
At first, IRRS was only on the air on weekends, with Bob Zanotti and Alfredo Cotroneo taking turns operating the transmitter and playing the programming at the transmitter site on a farm in the outskirts of Milan. Bob related some very interesting and entertaining stories about his stints as transmitter operator.
But all of this ended when the station became completely automated in 1993. Today IRRS continues to broadcast, but the Milan transmitter site has been closed for a number of years. Currently the service transmits via rented airtime from a relay station elsewhere in Europe.
Following his presentation, Bob Zanotti recorded a roundtable discussion with EDXC Secretary General Tibor Szilagyi, former secretaries general Anker Peterson and Michael Murray, and yours truly. The roundtable audio is now available on switzerlandinsound.com under the "Two Bobs" section.
EDXC Business Matters
The EDXC is in a time of transition, as many DX clubs in Europe are losing members. It used to be that most clubs published a monthly printed newsletter or magazine which was sent to members, and these publications were comprised of contributions from the membership. Nowadays, many of these printed newsletters have been supplemented or replaced by electronic newsletters, some of which are freely available on the Internet or by e-mail without the necessity for the recipient to be a member of a DX club. As a result, the EDXC has now begun accepting other types of organizations (besides DX clubs) as observer members.
In a two-hour session on the afternoon of Nov. 2, club officials and others discussed Council business, including recent problems with the EDXC's website. Assistant Secretary General Torre Ekblom reported that a new webmaster has been found in Finland, and the new user-friendly EDXC website has now appeared at www.edxc.org, although it is still under construction.
Risto Vahakainu of the Finnish DX Association said that his club's peak membership was over 2500 in the year 1983. Currently, it is down to about 700. Trends at most other European DX clubs are similar.
Anker Peterson of the Danish Shortwave Club International (DSWCI) suggested
re-establishing the EDXC QSL Committee, and he offered to chair the group. He explained that the EDXC sent a survey with 108 questions to 54 international radio stations in the early 1970's. Twenty-four stations replied, and the results were turned into an 18-page EDXC reception report guide which many of the member clubs have made available to shortwave listeners in English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and other languages. Anker also reported that DSWCI member Gayle Van Horn, who is an editor for the U.S. magazine Monitoring Times, has published a 528-page World QSL Book which is now available in CD form for about $20 from Teak Publishing, Grove Enterprises and Universal Radio in the United States (all of which have websites).
Other items of discussion at the EDXC business meeting included proposals to form a Program Listening Committee and to update the EDXC Landlist (i.e. country list). A spirited discussion took place about whether Mexico should be considered part of North America or Central America! Risto Vahakainu of Finland presented an invitation for DXers to attend the 2008 EDXC Conference, which will be held in the city of Vaasa, on the west coast of Finland. More details about this will appear in the next edition of the NASB Newsletter.
Incidentally, the Danish Shortwave Club International (in English) and the Finnish DX Association (in Finnish) both publish excellent monthly magazines with a wealth of information for shortwave listeners. Sample copies of recent issues were available at the conference, along with program schedules and other items from Radio Sweden, Radio Japan, the Voice of America, the DRM Consortium and many NASB member stations. The NASB had a tabletop display with photos from many of our member stations, along with lots of schedules and giveaway items that members sent us to distribute at the meeting.
Shortwave from the South Atlantic
The final presentation on Friday, Nov. 2 was by Robert Kipp, an American shortwave listener who lives in Germany and headed up the Radio St. Helena Revival Project. St. Helena is a small British island in the south Atlantic Ocean, about 700 miles from Ascension Island, where the BBC relay station is operated by NASB associate member VT Communications. A British/American military base is located on Ascension Island, and it served an important role during World War II for transatlantic military flights. Jerry Kircher, an American shortwave listener who was at the EDXC Conference, was a military pilot during the war, and he actually landed on Ascension once. Jerry explained that due to the island's isolation in the middle of the south Atlantic, military pilots at the time used to joke that "if you miss Ascension, your wife gets a pension."
As for St. Helena, it's a beautiful volcanic island. Jamestown is the capital. Among the well-known visitors throughout the island's history was Napoleon Bonaparte, who is buried there. The oldest Anglican Church in the southern hemisphere is on St. Helena. Robert Kipp explained that the island's government funds Radio St. Helena (a mediumwave station) and a newspaper called The Herald.
During the 1990's, Radio St. Helena carried out a special broadcast on shortwave one day each year, using a transmitter borrowed from the local Cable and Wireless station. On "Radio St. Helena Day," as it was called, shortwave listeners around the world would try to pick up the station and send reception reports for the coveted Radio St. Helena QSL card. When the Cable and Wireless transmitter was scrapped in 1999, the broadcasts ended. But Robert Kipp and other DXers around the world launched the Radio St. Helena Revival Project. The DXers donated funds and bought a new amateur transmitter and amplifier, an antenna and other equipment which were shipped to St. Helena and installed there. The Japan Shortwave Club was one of the biggest financial backers of the project.
The Revival Project provided a Yaesu ham transmitter with an output of 25-30 watts. This is used in conjunction with a 1000-watt power amplifier which was made for them in the Ukraine. A three-element yagi beam antenna was built in Germany. It provides a forward gain of 5 dB and has a rotator enabling the station to beam to different parts of the world during hours when the propagation is most appropriate.
Radio St. Helena's annual shortwave broadcast returned in 2006. Some 380 valid reception reports were received from listeners in Japan alone. Robert Kipp announced that Radio St. Helena Day for 2007 will be December 15 -- actually from 1730 UTC Dec. 15 to 0100 UTC Dec. 16 -- on the frequency of 11092.5 kHz in upper sideband. A special QSL card will be issued for reports on this broadcast, which will mark the 40th anniversary of Radio St. Helena. Details on specific target areas and beams can be found at www.sthelena.se/radioproject. There will also be an article about the station in the December 2007 issue of Monitoring Times magazine.
Friday evening was free time at the EDXC Conference. The members of the Danish Shortwave Club International and the Finnish DX Association had separate dinners for members of their clubs. The U.S. and U.K. delegates had our own small dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant only a block or so from the hotel, where we enjoyed delicious lasagna, spaghetti and gnocci, and good conversation.
A Tour of Lugano
The major conference activity on Saturday morning and afternoon, Nov. 3, was a sightseeing tour of Lugano by bus. The first stop was to visit the 15th century convent (now church) of Santa Maria Degli Angeli, which contains some spectacular fresco paintings by Bernandino Luini. The largest shows seven episodes of the passion and crucifixion of Christ, done in the style of Leonardo da Vinci. Other highlights of the tour were parks with brilliant flowers, palm and chestnut trees; and a visit to the city center with its dozens of banks, designer boutiques, outdoor fruit and vegetable markets, bakeries, street performers, etc.
The bus also wound its way up a large hill on the outskirts of Lugano for a panoramic view of the city and valley below. Interestingly, one could also view the small Italian enclave of Campione, completely surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino. The border with the rest of Italy lies only a few minutes drive away. The Italian city of Milan is only an hour's drive south of Lugano, and Milan's Malpensa Airport is the closest international airport to Lugano.
The final stop on the tour was RTSI -- the Italian-language Swiss Radio and Television. Switzerland has four official languages -- German, French, Italian and Romansch. The RTSI is the publicly-funded broadcasting service for the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland, and its headquarters is in Lugano. RTSI operates three radio networks and two television networks. The studios are state-of-the-art, including a large concert auditorium and an amazing radio drama studio where a great variety of sounds are produced live during recording sessions.
During the remainder of Saturday afternoon, EDXC participants had some free time. Only a few blocks from our hotel was the entrance to the cablecar that takes passengers to the top of Mount San Salvatore for a spectacular view of the city. There is also an outdoor restaurant at the top. Several of us went up in the cablecar, which we also shared with a few dogs. In Ticino, people tend to take their dogs everywhere with them -- even into restaurants. They are all well-behaved, and the city of Lugano even provides doggie dropping pick-up bags along the streets in the event of "accidents."
Although most people stayed until Sunday, Nov. 4, the official end of the conference was the EDXC Banquet on Saturday evening. It was held in the restaurant of the Hotel Dischma, where the owners prepared a meal of typical Ticinese delicacies like ossobuco and cannelloni. Apart from a few short speeches, there was also a raffle (called "tombola" in Italian) with prizes that were donated by various shortwave radio stations (including NASB members) and DX clubs.
Although at least a few broadcasters always attend the annual EDXC conferences, these are primarily chances to meet avid shortwave listeners, to find out their habits and tastes in programming. And from this standpoint, I was very pleased to have attended on behalf of the NASB and to tell the listeners about our member stations and organizations. I was warmly welcomed by the participants. All in all, it was four days well spent.
NASB Joins EDXC
At last year's EDXC Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, which was attended by NASB Vice President Mike Adams, the Council offered Observer Member status to the NASB. The NASB Board voted to accept this offer at our annual meeting in Elkhart, Indiana this past May. At this year's EDXC Conference in Lugano, Jeff White paid our annual membership dues for 2007 and 2008, so the NASB is now officially an Observer Member of the European DX Council.
(NASB/December 2007)
