ARC/SWB meeting at Kaneberg, Halmstad

This weekend the Arctic Radio Club and Shortwave Bulletin had its annual meeting at the Kaneberg cabin, close to Halmstad in southern Sweden. Before the hurricane Gudrun swept over the area bringing down most of the trees that used to carry the antennas there used to be a lot of DX-ing at these gatherings. This time a couple of shorter antennas were erected but due to some powerful electrical disturbances most listening had to be made on FM. Still it was a nice meeting and it was great to meet many of the wellknown ARC/SWB signatures in person.

ARC, the Arctic Radio Club, used to be somewhat of a secret circle and new members had to be recommended by a present member. This was mainly because there were a lot of fake loggings made by unscrupulous 'DX-ers' but today anyone who's interested can join the club. It may have kept a low profile over the years but long before the Internet it provided a very fast information service through its printed bulletin, MV-Eko (The MW Echo). This bulletin is still issued in printed form and with a deadline on Monday you will have the bulletin in your letterbox by Wednesday! Who could beat that - and who really needs the Internet? Actually, ARC has been running since 1960 and several of the original members are still active. Many of Sweden's most successful DX-ers are to be found as members of ARC and SWB and the MV-Eko has been full of exciting loggings due to this season's great propagation conditions. Also, members of the clubs are regularly providing information for the World Radio TV Handbook.

As we all know the number of stations on short wave and in the tropical bands is being drastically reduced every year but fortunately there are still lots of new finds to be made in the medium wave (AM broadcasting band). Still the SWB will continue to come out albeit less frequently. As for the MVE it will continue to be published as a printed bulletin for the time being. It is really an impressive work which is done by the editors of both bulletins and these publications are a must for the active DX-er.

Next year Arctic Radio Club will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary and we will get back to that. Below are the radio enthusiasts of ARC and SWB who attended the meeting.