May 12, 2008 (Cary, North Carolina, USA) - Bill Damick of Trans World Radio was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) at its 2008 annual meeting in Cary, North Carolina on May 9. Damick also gave a presentation about shortwave audience research during the event.

The meeting was hosted by Trans World Radio (TWR) at its world headquarters building in Cary, which is a suburb of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. This year’s conference was the 20th annual meeting of the NASB, which is a professional association for the nation’s privately-owned shortwave stations.

Opening the meeting in a large auditorium with a giant glass wall looking out into a tranquil North Carolina forest, Trans World Radio CEO Thomas Lowell expressed his view that shortwave broadcasting remains an important delivery method for TWR’s Christian message in many parts of the world. TWR invited representatives of the NASB to speak to staff members about the viability of shortwave radio in today’s world, in the midst of new technologies like satellites and the Internet. The NASB reps explained that there are many countries where Internet access is non-existent or very limited, and many places that cannot be reached by local FM signals.

Again this year, as it has for the past several years, the NASB annual meeting was combined with the annual meeting of the USA DRM Group. The DRM meeting took place on May 8 at the same TWR venue, and featured speakers such as Adil Mina of Continental Electronics, who is chairman of the USA DRM Group and a director of the DRM Consortium. Mina gave an update on the latest developments at the Consortium, and the prospects for new consumer-friendly, inexpensive DRM receivers in the coming months.

The NASB annual meeting had a very North Carolina flair this year. Besides TWR’s participation, the meeting featured a presentation by NASB member Fundamental Broadcasting Network, which operates shortwave stations WTJC and WBOH on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. An audiovisual program was also offered by the staff of the IBB Greenville, North Carolina transmitter site, from where the Voice of America and Radio Marti are transmitted. Rachel Baughn, the veteran editor of Monitoring Times magazine, which covers shortwave extensively, spoke about her publication and the need for shortwave stations to provide timely information to magazines such as hers which reach the shortwave listening public. Monitoring Times’ headquarters is located in Brasstown, in western North Carolina. Lunches and dinners at the meeting included typical North Carolina fare such as pork barbecue, grit cakes and sweet tea. They were sponsored by NASB members and associate members Media Broadcast, Comet North America, Thomson Broadcast, WMLK and Continental Electronics.

Another session which drew a great deal of response dealt with shortwave radio’s role in crises and disasters, such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Personnel of various stations talked about how they can be most helpful when a disaster occurs. Mike Adams of Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) told delegates that he is developing a disaster plan for his stations that can be implemented in the event of sudden need, which other NASB members may want to adopt as well.

A new member and a new associate member were welcomed at this year’s NASB meeting. Jason Cooper and Brady Murray of WWCR in Tennessee gave a brief introduction to their station, and Allan McGuirl of Galcom International in Canada talked about his company’s newest innovations, including a multi-frequency “fix-tuned” shortwave receiver and a low-power FM transmitter that will eventually be adapted for use on AM and shortwave as well.

At the Cary meeting, the NASB decided that its representatives at the upcoming High Frequency Coordination Committee (HFCC) meetings will be Glen Tapley of WEWN in Alabama, who will attend the B08 HFCC Conference in Moscow in August; and Jeff White of WRMI in Miami, who will go to the A09 conference in Tunis, Tunisia in February of next year.

Besides newly-elected board member Bill Damick of TWR, the other NASB board members are Jeff White of WRMI (president), Mike Adams of FEBC (vice president), Glen Tapley of WEWN, Adrian Peterson of Adventist World Radio and Charles Caudill of World Christian Broadcasting, which operates shortwave station KNLS in Alaska. All were present in Cary except Caudill, who was hosting a visit to his headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee by the president of Madagascar, where World Christian Broadcasting is building a new shortwave station. Mike Adams was re-elected to a second three-year board term. Jeff White and Mike Adams were re-elected as president and vice-president, respectively. Dan Elyea of WYFR in Florida was re-elected NASB Secretary-Treasurer, and Thais White of WRMI was re-elected Assistant Secretary Treasurer.

Bill Damick replaced Elder Jacob O. Meyer on the board. Elder Meyer, of WMLK in Pennsylvania, ended two consecutive three-year terms on the NASB Board this year. According to the Association’s bylaws, after two terms, board members must rotate off for at least a year.

The new board decided to investigate the possibility of the NASB commissioning a survey of shortwave listeners in North America, and it talked about methods of publicity that the group can use to make listeners more aware of its member stations and organizations.

At the NASB business meeting in Cary, the members decided the dates and places for the next two annual meetings, which will again be held jointly with the USA DRM Group meetings. The 2009 meetings will be co-hosted by World Christian Broadcasting and WWCR in the Nashville area on May 7 and 8, 2009. The 2010 meetings will take place May 13 and 14 in Hamilton, Ontario, hosted by associate member Galcom International.

Complete audio files of this year’s meetings, as well as video presentations, will soon be available on the NASB’s website, www.shortwave.org.

IN THIS ISSUE:

• 2008/2009 NASB-USA DRM Annual Meetings
• HFCC News
• DRM News
• HCJB News
• Galcom International
• VT Communications
• Beth Shalom
• WHRI
• KAIJ
• KTWR
• EDXC
• NASB Mailbag

Read the whole issue here - presented as illustrated PDF File.

The Perseus receiver from Italy’s Microtelecom is designer Nico Palermo’s contribution to the rapidly changing world of SDR, Software-Defined Radio. The experiences in using Perseus can be read in Guy Atkins’ blog ‘Five Below’, here.

Hello friends,

Finally we have been able to get enough base information to make the decision upon this tour:

First of all, the voting held a few weeks ago resulted that the majority is interested in visiting the Baltic states.

We have then investigated the possibility of having a group flight to Vilnius or from Vilnius, but it has turned out that it is not possible with a reasonable price. Therefore, this tour will be organised totally as a bus tour, but those who don’t want to go by bus from Vilnius back to Helsinki (about 650 kms) can then book a flight of their own from Vilnius to anywhere they want (this is of course not included in the tour price).

Preliminary plan:

Sun 7th of September
Leaving Vaasa in the afternoon, either by train or by bus. A ferry to Tallinn in the evening. Overnight in a hotel in Tallinn.
Mon 8th of September
A look at the old Tallinn in the morning. Leaving for Riga around noon. Arrival in Riga around 17 hours. A walk tour in Riga. Overnight in Riga.
Tue 9th of September
A little bit of time still in Riga. Leaving for Vilnius around 11 hours. Arrival in Vilnius around 16 hours. Time in Vilnius will include some radio activities (visit to a radio station, visit to the TV tower), but details are not available yet. Overnight in Vilnius.
Wed 10th of September
The bus to Tallinn will be leaving around noon. Arrival in Helsinki will be either late in Wednesday or early Thursday (in this case overnight in a ferry).

This tour will be offered on a price of 390 euros. This will include transportation, three nights in good hotels (double room including breakfast, extra for those wanting to have a single room) and dinners on
Monday and Tuesday. The price for those taking a flight from Vilnius will be 350 euros.

We would be very pleased, if all who are interested in joining this tour, would contact us as soon as possible. Please write to risto.vahakainu at helsinki.fi.

Please notice that this tour is not fixed and guaranteed yet, so please contact me before booking any flights or other services.

Best Regards

Risto Vahakainu
on behalf of the FDXA

Dear Radio Friends !

Here is a message from The Hungarian Radio today, April 7, 2008.

After a very long and serious sickness Lajos Horvath passed away today in Hungary. He was 75 years of age . He was working over 50 years at The Hungarian Radio. He was a very well known speaker, with the best speaker voice in Hungary . His field of activities were both as speaker but also training, educating others. The Hungarian Radio is arranging everything in connection with the coming up funeral .

Tibor Szilagyi

Hello,

A message for those interested in joining the European DX Conference this year.

The conference will be held 5-7 September in Vaasa, Finland organised by the Finnish DX Association as the 50th Anniversary meeting of the club.

The conference web pages are at www.netikka.net/edxc2008.  There will be packages including accomodation at the hotel as well as without accomodation (for those willing to use other options). However, all accomodation reservation to the conference Hotel Silveria shall be made through the FDXA, as the room reservation has been centralized to us.

The pages include a description of an optional post-conference tour and those interested can vote upon what tour they specially would like to join. However, this voting will be closing soon, so please send your vote as soon as possible.

On behalf of the organisation committee,
Risto Vahakainu
FDXA

In this issue:

• VT Communications to Host HFCC
• KTWR—Guam to Represent NASB at HFCC A-08
• Update on 2008 NASB/USA DRM Annual Meetings
• WRC-07 Report
• France Adopts DRM
• Plans for 2008 EDXC Conference
• 2007 Clandestine Shortwave Broadcasting Activity Survey
• NASB Mailbag

Read the whole issue here - presented as illustrated PDF File.

On December 9th died Francisco Martinez y Martinez (Paco Martinez), known Spanish DXer and chairman of AER (Asociación Española de Radioescucha)

Linked to the world of DXing in Spanish language for more than thirty years, Paco Martinez was one of the founders of GECE (Grupo de Escucha del Centro de Española) in 1977, an entity in which it played a variety of positions until its merger in 1991 with ADXA and AREA to form the Spanish Association of Radiolisterner (AER, Asociación Española de Radioescucha), club successor to the previous and currently was AER’s chairman.

Person equipped with a great energy and ability to work selflessly worked in a multitude of tasks associated with the spread of diexismo in Spain and Europe, while some health problems he had to leave during the past few years the “frontline” of the AER to concentrate their efforts on providing new statutes for the European DX Council (EDXC).

Rest in peace our friend Paco Martinez.

Pedro Sedano, Madrid, Spain
GENERAL COORDINATOR for AER

In this issue:

• WRC 07 News
• DRM Symposium
• RAI Shortwave Closes
• EDXC Reports
• Kulpsville Winter SWL Festival
• NASB Mailbag
• EAS Requirements for Shortwave
• HCJB Global Co-Sponsors Bible Marathon
• HFCC A08 Conference
• Invitation to Submit News

Read the whole issue here - presented as illustrated PDF File.

Welcome to EDXC News. This is going to be the news weblog for European DX Council (EDXC). The EDXC main website is at: http://www.edxc.org/