History

50+ years with the European DX Council

by Anker Petersen, Denmark (slightly updated by Jan-Mikael Nurmela, Finland and Chrissy Brand, UK)

2017 became a historical year for the DX-hobby in Europe!

It was over 50 years ago when the European DX Council (EDXC) was founded. In this short note, I intend to cover some of the most important parts of this long period.

In the 1950s and 1960s, national DX-Clubs appeared in several European countries. Many people listened to domestic and foreign broadcasts on long-, mediumwave and shortwave. At that time, broadcasting on FM, TV and via satellite or internet did not exist! Because of this, there was a good basis for the hobby of listening to far-away radio stations (DX-ing) mainly on shortwaves, but also on medium wave.

In 1965 Ellmann Ellingsen of the DX-listeners Club of Norway got the vision to establish a supra-national DX-organisation to improve the co-operation between DX-Clubs in Europe, using the Council of Europe as a model. On his initiative, a preliminary committee was then established which proposed the first Statutes of the EDXC.

At the inaugural meeting on June 3rd and 4th, 1967, DX-leaders from Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden met to discuss and agree upon the foundation of the EDXC. These DX-ers were: Torre Ekblom (Finland), the late Heinrich Kobsch (the Federal Republic of Germany), the late Wouter Franken, Bob Grevenstuck and Maarten van Delft (The Netherlands), the late Ellmann Ellingsen (Norway), Claës-W. Englund and Göran Svensson (Sweden) and Kaj Bredahl Jørgensen and myself (Denmark). As a central venue, my private house in Skovlunde near Copenhagen was chosen. On June 4th at 1400, Ellmann Ellingsen could declare that the EDXC was founded with a Council and various committees.

The EDXC then established the following working committees:

1. Reception Report Committee. (Chairman Anker Petersen)
2. Landlist Committee. (Chairman Torbjörn Einarsson)
3. Contest Committee. (Chairman Wouter Franken)
4. Information Committee. (Chairman Ellmann Ellingsen)
5. Technical Committee. (Chairman Jim Vastenhoud)
6. Statute Committee. (Chairman Claës-W. Englund)

During the first years, the membership of the EDXC was based upon Country-membership, but this was from October the 1st 1969 replaced by Club-membership.

In December 2003 when the three-year term of the Secretary General and his Assistant ended, there were no new candidates to succeed them. The EDXC Member Clubs then decided to prolong their duties for an interim period while a new Statute Working Group was appointed. It consisted of Anker Petersen, DSWCI, Denmark (Chairman), Tibor Szilagyi (Hungarian DX Club) and Francisco Martinez, A.E.R., Spain.

It proposed a completely revised set of Statutes for the EDXC which the Member Clubs agreed upon in April 2005. One of the innovations was that it is now possible for individual DX-ers to become full members of the EDXC with voting rights.

The EDXC has been really “EUROPEAN” as the following two lists indicate:

Secretary Generals and Assistants elected by the DX-Clubs:

June-Sept.1967	Anker Petersen, Denmark
Oct. 1967 -1968	Claës-W. Englund, Sweden
1969	Jyrki Talvitie, Finland
1970	Alan Thompson, United Kingdom
1971	Bengt Dalhammar, Sweden
1972-1973	Wolfgang Scheunemann, Federal Republic of Germany
1974	Ian Foster, United Kingdom
1975-1978	Rudolf Heim, Federal Republic of Germany
1979-1995	Michael Murray, United Kingdom Assistant: Simon Spanswick, United Kingdom
1996-2000	Risto Vähäkainu, Finland Assistant: Arto Mujunen, Finland
2001-2003	Luigi Cobisi, Italy Assistant: Paolo Morandotti, Italy
2004-2006	Luigi Cobisi, Italy (Interim) Assistant: Paolo Morandotti, Italy (Interim)
2007-2009	Tibor Szilagyi, Sweden (Hungary) Assistant: Torre Ekblom, Finland.
2010-2012	Tibor Szilagyi, Sweden (Hungary) Assistant: Ingvar Kohlström, Sweden.
2013- 2018	Kari Kivekäs, Finland Assistant: Jan-Mikael Nurmela, Finland.
2019-2021	Chrissy Brand, United Kingdom Assistant: Christian Ghibaudo, France.

It has become a useful tradition to meet at an annual EDXC Conferences which have been organised as follows, except in 2004 when no host could be found:

• 1967 Skovlunde, Denmark
• 1968 Skovlunde, Denmark
• 1969 Halmstad, Sweden
• 1970 Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany
• 1971 Jyväskylä, Finland
• 1972 Hilversum, The Netherlands
• 1973 Oslo, Norway
• 1974 Canterbury, United Kingdom
• 1975 Aarhus, Denmark
• 1976 Hilversum, The Netherlands
• 1977 Bruxelles, Belgium
• 1978 Mölndal, Sweden
• 1979 Wien, Austria
• 1980 Paris, France
• 1981 Berne, Switzerland
• 1982 Cologne, Federal Republic of Germany
• 1983 London, United Kingdom
• 1984 Stockholm, Sweden
• 1985 Madrid, Spain
• 1986 Paris, France
• 1987 Espoo, Finland
• 1988 Antwerp, Belgium
• 1989 Morokulien, Sweden
• 1990 Grado, Italy
• 1991 Sitges, Barcelona, Spain
• 1992 Tampere, Finland
• 1993 Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain
• 1994 Paris, France
• 1995 Rebild, Denmark
• 1996 Florence, Italy
• 1997 Zlin, Czech Republic
• 1998 Gothenburg, Sweden
• 1999 Lyngby, Denmark
• 2000 Barcelona, Spain
• 2001 Budapest, Hungary
• 2002 Pori, Finland
• 2003 Königstein, Germany
• 2004 — No conference —
• 2005 Prague, Czech Republic
• 2006 St. Petersburg, Russia
• 2007 Lugano, Switzerland
• 2008 Vaasa, Finland
• 2009 Dublin, Ireland
• 2010 Ankara, Turkey
• 2011 Melnik and Sofia, Bulgaria
• 2012 Ochsenkopf, Germany
• 2013 Figueira da Foz and Lisbon, Portugal
• 2014 Tende and Nice, France
• 2015 St. Petersburg, Russia
• 2016 Manchester, United Kingdom
• 2017 Tampere, Finland
• 2018 Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria
• 2019 Andorra
• 2020 Bucharest, Romania