Report from EDXC Conference in France

2

November 3, 2014 by OH6001SWL

text by Anker Petersen,
photos by Anker Petersen, Alan Pennington, Christian Ghibaudo, Kaj and Else Bredahl Jørgensen and Toshi Ohtake.

The 47th EDXC Conference was held in Saint Dalmas de Tende in the French Alps with following tours to Tende, Ventimiglia (Italy), Monaco and Nice on 19-22 September 2014, excellently organized by Christian Ghibaudo and EDXC Secretary-General Kari Kivekäs.

29 DX-ers from 10 countries (incl. New Zealand and Japan) took part. Most of these were welcomed upon arrival at the airport in Nice by Christian who brought us to the special EDXC Express bus, which drove us the about 60 kilometres via Italy to Saint Dalmas de Tende through marvellous landscapes.

There we were accomodated in a former Italian convent until 1947. Then it was taken over by France after World War II and is now the good hotel Le Prieuré, which is seen on the first photo taken by our member Toshi Ohtake:

Most participants are seen on the photo in front of the hotel below:

On Friday September 19th at 1800 the EDXC Conference was opened in the open air by Secretary General Kari Kivekäs. Greetings were received from Tibor Szilagyi, Torre Ekblom, Mauno Ritola, Alexander Klepov and Dmitry Mezin. (See two photos by Toshi Ohtake).

This was followed by an interesting slide show from Brazil in 2013 with visits to local radio stations made by Dario Monferini and Roberto Pavanello (to the left in the photo).

On Saturday at 0930 Kari Kivekäs opened the ”EDXC Topics” by bringing these subjets on the agenda:
EDXC Blog at https://edxcnews.wordpress.com/ .
Bob Grevenstuck, one of EDXC founders, in memoriam.
Deduction in membership fee by 50 %.
EDXC has 14 members at present.
Three new members during the past year.
The EDXC finances in 2013 had a profit of 26,11 Euro.
No extra costs.
Alan Pennington and Dave Kenny are new auditors.

Ongoing projects:
EDXC Country List now updated by Kari and Jan-Mikael.
Tried new DX-Clubs as members. Few have reacted!
UNESCO interested in cooperation on World Radio Day.
Common European Data Format for DX-loggings.
Solutions for filing DX Club’s documents.

New initiatives:
International Radio for Disaster Relief.
DX-ers having equipment noise:
Technically minded DX-ers can assist.
EDXC can no longer affect major European stations!
The private SW-stations in Europe mostly use broadcasting
for commercial reasons, not for the DX-ers.

David Ricquish and Toshi Ohtake: In contrary to the western world, where the internet has taken over, there is an increasing interest for SW DX-ing amongst younger people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan and Africa. Maybe European DX-Clubs can help them?

At 1030 David Ricquish, New Zealand, held a very interesting talk about the 30 countries still broadcasting in the Pacific, but mostly on FM. Only Australia, New Zealand, Guam (funded by USA), Vanuatu (funded by New Zealand and Australia) and the Solomon Islands (funded by Japan) are still active on shortwave. Generally these stations have no interest in verifying reception reports from DX-ers!

In Papua New Guinea, the NBC HQ’s sends the financial money to the local Governors, but in many cases they use the money for other purposes!

On the photo is seen David Ricquish (left) and Mike Terry (UK).

At 1115-1545 we enjoyed a very nice tour, first by a local train, to Tende with splendid weather and 27 Centigrades!

On this photo are seen from the left Christian Ghibaudo (France), Kari Kivekäs (Finland), Jan- Mikael Nurmela (Finland), Arto Mujunen (Finland) and George Brown (Scotland).

On this photo is seen Hotel de Ville in Tende decorated with its local, regional flags (not Danish!).

There was free time to walk around in this mountaneous city in 800 metres altitude and also to have a lunch. On the next photo, taken by Christian Ghibaudo,are seen from left Alan Pennington, Dave Kenny, myself and Chrissy Brand, all others from the U.K.

The next photo shows a typical view from Tende.

Back at the Conference at 1630, Kari declaired that the EDXC Country List had not been updated since 2007, when former editor Olle Alm resigned. It is now nearly updated, but there are still a few technical issues to be solved.

At 1645 Christian Ghibaudo told the exciting history of Radio Monte Carlo, inaugurated in 1943 under control of Germany. After the war the station developed to SW, MW and LW.

On this photo are, besides Christian, seen Jocelyne d’Errico (New Zealand) and Jan-Mikael Nurmela (Finland).

At 1730 Anker Petersen gave the unusual lecture: ”DX-ing on a Cruise Ship” telling about his many MW and FM-loggings heard on the big ”Norwegian Breakaway” in the eastern Caribbean.

At 1800 Alexander Beryozkin gave an update on the status of the St. Petersburg DX Club with their new Club House in Bolskiye Poroyi. We were also informed about their current planning of organizing the second EDXC Conference in St. Petersburg in autumn 2015. By writing to the Sokos Olympia Garden Hotel, via the DX-Club, you will get an official invitation from the Hotel which makes it easier to get visa. Later this winter the EDXC will send out an official invitation.

Alexander with Dave Kenny and Alan Pennington listening.

At 1830 a more technical,documentary film was shown about the high powered shortwave Hörby transmitter in Sweden.

At 1930 it was time for the traditional, delicious EDXC Banquet which started with an aperitif. After the dinner, Kari Kivekäs handed out a gift to Christian Ghibaudo for his excellent work so far. After that Anker Petersen handed out the newest Domestic Broadcasting Survey to Christian for his outstanding job, as seen on the next photo, taken by Alan Pennington.

On Sunday morning we left Dalmas de Tende by the EDXC Express Bus and headed down to the Italian Mediterranean city of Ventimiglia, where we had a stop. A photo of this beautiful place is shown here:

From there we drove to the third country on our tour: Monaco where we had some hours stop with a visit to the Palace of Prince Albert II. Later a walk around in Monte Carlo.

Group photo taken in front of the Palace of Monaco by Toshi Ohtake.

The next photo is from the busy harbour of Monte Carlo.

From there we drove the short distance to Nice and were accomodated in our hotels. In the evening the DSWCI had a special dinner for its present and former members with partners at the hotel restaurant with a view to the Mediterranean Sea.

View from the restaurant where we had the DSWCI dinner:

On Monday our group first visited the Jewish Radio Chalom in Nice. Here is a photo from their studio:

After that we had a guided tour through the Old Town of Nice in a little train driving on the streets. We saw many old, picturesque buildings and ended on a high hilltop above Nice with a beautiful view over this fine city. The next photo shows this view.

After this guided tour we paid a visit to an old wine cellar called ”Formule niçoise”, where the owners told about the hundreds of years old history of their Italian wines and their food from the Middle Ages. We had a delicious lunch following that!

Visiting an old wine cellar:

The tour ended with an interesting visit to the catholic Radio Chrétiennes de France (RCF):

Again I must thank Christian Ghibaudo and Kari Kivekäs for this wonderful EDXC Conference!

P.S. If you click the photo, you will see it in larger size.