Sweden Calling DXers

In 1948, Arne, then a young engineer at Radio Sweden, founded Sweden Calling DXers

Sweden Calling DXers

Sweden Calling DXers was a radio program on Radio Sweden, founded in 1948 by Arne Skoog. He reasoned that shortwave listening or DXing was a very young hobby, and that by providing information in a weekly program for shortwave listeners about their hobby, Radio Sweden was teaching its own audience...

 as a way of keeping listeners in touch with news in the world of international radio. Shortwave came into its own during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and after the war shortwave listening

Shortwave listening

Shortwave listening is the hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts located on frequencies between 1700 kHz and 30 MHz. Listeners range from casual users seeking international news and entertainment programming to hobbyists immersed in the technical aspects of radio reception and DXing...

 became a popular hobby. But hobbyists needed access to the latest news, and Arne felt the best place for them to find out was on a shortwave station.

Many hobbyists say they remember Arne presenting Sweden Calling DXers, which is curious since he never did. Arne wrote the scripts, which were read by colleagues, first by the English Service, and then in all of Radio Sweden’s languages, except, ironically, Swedish.

Initially Arne gathered all his own news for the program, but soon listeners were writing in with material for the program. Almost immediately a written version of the program scripts was being mailed out to everyone who contributed. At its height there were between 1500 and 2000 names on the list, and they constituted a ”Who’s Who” of the shortwave

Shortwave

Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...

 community.

When Arne retired in 1978, on the program’s 30th anniversary, George Wood, who wasn’t even born in 1948, took over. But changing times and new Radio Sweden management led to radical changes with the introduction of satellite broadcasting in the 1980s.

The mailing list was discontinued, and the program became a twice a month English-only program called MediaScan, which concentrated more and more on satellite DXing and general Scandinavian media news. The raido program was completely discontinued in 2001, and continues as a sporadically updated page on the Radio Sweden website.

Arne and the DX Community

Arne Skoog was also one of the founders of the Swedish DX Federation, and later the European DX Council. He rejected, however, the sometimes expressed claim that he was ”the father of all Swedish DXers”.

In his retirement, Arne turned to his second pastime, violin-making, for which he was quite respected. He taught many courses in the skill. He passed away on June 7, 1999, in his beloved home province of Jämtland.