As many of you surely know, the Euro-African Medium Wave Guide is a publication that provides an overview of literally all long and medium wave stations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It gives extensive information on each station (exact location, broadcast times, languages, parallel shortwave frequencies, format, address, telephone, fax, web site, QSL info, and much more). On top of this it deals with DRM and also sums up the very best web sites on long and medium wave.
At regular intervals people ask me the (usually retorical) questions: how can you make this happen and where do you get the information?

In view of this it may be interesting to explain how the EMWG is being made. In other words, what you are about to read is an insight into the exciting existence of the EMWG which may also serve as a guideline to those who want to make a list of their own.

In the mid-1990s I was becoming more and more insterested in medium wave, in particular the European medium wave. I noticed that the sources I used to consult, the WRTH and Sender&Frequenzen, mostly contained concise frequency lists with nothing more than the frequency, station name and power output. This lead to a continuous browsing between pages to get as much information as possible and make DXing easier. Just like many other DXers I started to make my own list with the information I found. That information came especially from various club bulletins, but also from messages in the various Bulletin Board Systems. These were the internet's predecessors and meant a true revolution for DXers who could now exchange information through their computer.

At the time the EMWG was still called the Long and Medium Wave Guide for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East and was initially drawn up in the Flemish language. As non-Flemish speaking DXers also became interested I switched to English and uploaded the list at regular intervals onto the Bulletin Boards.

Initially a modest attempt to help myself with the hobby, the list soon turned out to be a hole in the market. The later renamed European Medium Wave Guide caught on well, and thanks to some renowned DXers and DX clubs, the publication became more and more professional.
At the end of 2002 the EMWG could be consulted on-line and was now even more being kept up-to-date.

In December 2004, the EMWG was merged with James Niven's African Medium Wave Guide and subsequently covered not only the whole of Europe and the Middle East, but the whole of Africa as well.

Today, it is a truly indispensable tool for the medium wave DXer.

If you want to compile a list, the first part is the hardest: the basis. You need a specific amount of basic information to go ahead. In EMWG's case it was collecting all available information, which is usually copying existing information from other publications, completed with extra information I already possessed. All of this information also needs to be put in a well-structured, and clear form, preferably one that can easily be modified at a later stage. As soon as this not to be underestimated work has been done, the real compilation can start.

It is clear that it is impossible to maintain such a list up-to-date without external help. There are four possible sources:
a. own observations
b. obervations from other DXers
c. information coming directly from stations
d. information from other publications

Sources a. and b. are the most valuable ones. Station information (so-called official information) and information from other publications (club bulletins, guides, etc.) may seem extremely interesting, the true contribution to your publication is to be expected from the actual observations from DXers. Still, one has to proceed with caution. As a general rule, each piece of information needs to be confirmed by an independent second source. Only then can you be sure that your publication is accurate.
This is of course not always possible, and you soon realize what source can be trusted and what source cannot. Some years ago I regularly received large numbers of small papers from a German DXer who seemed to be able to hear the most amazing European stations and collected a wealth of information. After a while it seemed that he was using very old (and thus analogue) equipment that would make it impossible to make accurate reception reports. It soon turned out that most of the information he sent (and is still sending) was completely wrong. For instance, he once sweared by all that is holy that new frequencies were in use in France, while all French DXers denied the fact. Undoubtedly his receiver was generating spurious signals...
Fortunately, cases like this are exceptions to the rule. Many DXers pursue their hobby in a very professional manner and only publish information when they are certain about it. For a publication such as the EMWG this is of paramount importance.

If you want to publish such a publication, you indispensably need contacts in various geographical locations. In the EMWG's case these contacts are spread throughout the whole area served by the publication. These contact persons have access to e-mail so that possible questions are answered swiftly.
This can sometimes lead to very interesting information: a DXer in the far west of Belorussia told me he could barely receive the Belarussion station on 1170 kHz. At the same time DXers at the other side (in Russia) could easily hear the station up to a large distance from it. The conclusion was simple: a directional aerial was being used.
It would have been extremely difficult to obtain such information from the station itself.

Once the list has an acceptable level of quality, the second hard step has arrived: maintaining the list. The only possible way to constantly have an up-to-date publication is to control the flow of information and process it on a very regular basis. If you fail to do so the amount of information to handle becomes uncontrolable.
As far as the EMWG is concerned, I try to process all of the information on a weekly basis. I used to do this on paper only (and incorporate the changes electronically at a later stage). This enabled me to see how many changes there were and made it easier to decide when to issue a new version of the list.

A great number of DXers feel they need to be paid for the work they do. I do not agree to this. It is a hobby and a typical characteristic of our hobby was (is?) that information is shared and that people help each other unselfishly.
There will of course always be profiteers who sponge on other people's work but never contribute anything themselves to the DX community. Getting paid, however, will not have these profiteers disappear.
And yet, at the end of 2006 I decided for a very modest fee of 5 euro for the PDF file. Compared to other similar publications, this remains a real give-away. For me, however, this means that the costs for making and maintaining the EMWG are covered.

Canadian DXer Jean Burnel shows his most important DX information tool

I hope this insight in the making of the EMWG has been useful to you.

- Herman -