PUBLISHER'S NEWS 2016
Raimo Kaarna, signal@sci.fi

Thursday 29 September 2016

I scanned today four pages of the
World Hobbies Bulletin from Korea
and also a few samle pages from the
Czech Pen Friends. They were added to the front page of www.penpalmagazine.net. Collectors around the world want to exchange with you !

Click below to read the ads now !
WORLD HOBBIES BULLETIN,
BRAZILIAN COLLECTION CLUB,
FILACAP MAGAZINE
AND PEN FRIENDS

Wednesday 28 September, 2016

Received today this letter from Brazil...
It was sent on September 14 2016 by
Uillian Frignani Cardozo, the publisher of
BRAZILIAN COLLECTION CLUB.

It is a fact that internet HAS KILLED 99 % of the printed penpal and collectors papers around the world. Those few publications still issued are fading away, day by day.
Some 30 years ago there were about
one thousand bigger and smaller 'magazines' containing the postal addresses and personal info about the advertiser and his or her hobbies and exchange wants and offers, now the amount has fallen to some 50-100 papers.

I'm going to introduce some fellow hobby publishers by printing a few pages of their magazines under their own name or logo on my website www.penpalmagazine.net. I hope you find this kind of co-operation useful, it will bring more readers and more contacts to the advertisers.

Also a few pages from another Brazilian philatelic magazine, FILACAP June 2016 issue, can be read on penpalmagazine.net. Click the two pages to make them readable, the texts BIGGER !!! More swapping contacts for you.

Raimo Kaarna, the publisher

Wednesday 21 September, 2016

Received this letter from an advertiser in NY USA:
To Mr Raimo Kaarna,
Last year I gave my name and address to your pen pal club and now I am receiving letters from male prisoners in the U.S.A.!
I feel very unsafe. If you are giving my name and address to prisoners you are putting my life at risk and are acting very irresponsibly.
Please remove my name and address from your mailing lists and databases immediately.
Thank you, M. S., NY, USA.

RAIMO KAARNA, THE PUBLISHER

Monday September 5, 2016

Some "investors" and "loan sharks" keep sending their fraud ads for publication. I simply do NOT publish their ads at all and that is made to protect you from financial losses. NEVER send a red cent in any currency to any of these "businessmen".

Google Chrome web browser does NOT SHOW Signal's penpal listings of the latest full month at all - SOME 50 LATEST LISTINGS ARE MISSING !!! It simply starts Signal's front page without the most recent ads, even the date of the first ad is missing... The ads from today to one month backwards are seen quite normally in Microsoft's Edge and other web browsers. Possibly some hackers are causing this strange behaviour of the Chrome browser?

Anyhow this causes some misunderstanding among the Signal readers, they may think that I have not added any new penpal listings to signalpenpals.net even though A FEW NEW ADS ARE LISTED EVERY DAY !!!! Check yourself !

THE PUBLISHER

THIS WEBSITE OPENS TO SLOWLY ! SHIT... TEST THIS FAST SIGNAL NOW !
www.signalpenpals.net/2016fastsignal.htm

Even though most western readers have really fast portable computers and tablets it takes to long to open Signal's main website, www.signalpenpals.net. The third world readers in the developing countries have slower net connections and operators, older computers and they must have even more patience in waiting for the front page to open...

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. Therefore I'm now testing a few different new lay-outs and front pages. Some seem to be fast when I leave off 90 % of the links to outside websites, make the photos smaller, forget voices or videos or scrolling or changing photos. Or what should be done ? Tell YOUR OPINION...

- Would you prefer opening just FRESH NEW ADS in about 20-30 seconds ? Nothing else, just the penpal listings of this month plus previous month. Or have you got the patience to wait for one to two minutes to see the 'entire' Signal to open, including live map of todays readers pointed in the world map, and hundreds of links to newspapers, translations in 90 languages, world itvs, world newspapers etc.

- I'll add a SIMPLIFIED FAST NEW 'FRONT PAGE' of the signalpenpals.net here later today. TEST IT and tell your opinion.

Raimo Kaarna, the publisher
raimo.kaarna@signalpenpals.net
signal@sci.fi

THE SLOWER FRONT PAGES ARE:
www.signalpenpals.net/index.htm
www.signalpenpals.net/index.html

Tuesday July 5, 2016

VISIT RUSSIA NOW !!!!!

Thursday June 9, 2016 Unreplied snailmail... Sorry for the delay. I'm starting to reply them little by little. Packed some fifty envelopes yesterday, more today and tomorrow. Propably they'll get ready to be taken to the local post office on Monday or Tuesday. We'll see.

Last year I received in all some 500 snailmail letters, i.e. envelopes carried to my mailbox by the postman. Some 30 years ago the amount was 4000-5000 letters a year. Most messages from the Signal readers are received via email at present, also the penpal listings.

Some Cuban penpal advertisers seem to be joking with me and the readers of the Signal. There is just one way for me to take care of this 'problem', I'll take the photos off from the pages of this website. Satisfied now Rodney and Dionel ???

Do you like bird watching ?
Visit ESTONIA - take a look at
THE EAGLE NEST !!!!

I just saw a Norwegian tv program 'The Dangers of Net Dating' and how the scammers steal money from innocent people seeking for love... We were also warned about the money transfers to new 'friends' for any reason, especially to Nigeria and Ukraine, not to mention dozens of other dangerous countries.

Lately almost dozen of my letters sent to US prisoners were returned back to me to Finland. The addresses were 'unknown' and no new ones were available. As a pensioner I'm not rich enough to waste money for vain postages.
Free penpal ads are no longer accepted from prisoners in the future. All the old prisoners' ads from previous years will be deleted as time allows.

My aim is to protect the Signal readers and advertisers from financial loss.
WARNING: NEVER SEND ANY LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO ANY OF YOUR 'NEW FRIENDS' FOR ANY REASON.

SIGNAL HISTORY 1960-2016

SIGNAL issue 1, 1960
- b&w mimeographed ad sheet
- 1.000 circulation
- 1 page, 210x355 mm
- 30 penpals, collectors
texts: manual typewriter

Seven pages in 1960, and I received some 500 letters from the readers... The greatest amount of letters received yearly was back in the 80's, almost 5.000 snailmail letters.
At present the amount has fallen back to some 500. And the Signal is still issued from the same address as in January 1960, 56 years ago!

Look inside this 100 years old
fine art album by '-mari -14'

Someone you can feel at easy with,
to tell your innermost thoughts,
knowing your friend will treat them as you would,
their bearing their soul to you.

Someone you'll never meet.
Yet you feel you have always known.
Perhaps in another time and place.

Someone who brings peace and calm serenity
with simple true simplicity
into a world where bitterness and hatred thrive.

As friends, may we know the good
and beautiful people, who are drawn together
in some strange unknown way.
This is how I see you, as "A Friend"
May God Bless and keep you well
and Happy Always.

This poem written by late Mrs Lilian Faulkner was originally issued in the Signal magazine issue 62 in 1985.

Select your penfriends and write direct to them ! FREE !

Hobbyists, widen your collections. Start swapping phonecards, computer software, DVDs, CDs, cassettes, stamps, coins, banknotes, dolls, anything... Write and tell what you want to get and what you can give in return.

Always take the first step in penpalling - to receive a letter from abroad you must write a letter! Mention the Signal magazine when writing. And advertise here FREE, photos welcome. Use the form !

What is it like to be a Finn???

What kind of computers
does it take to publish this signalpenpals.net website
and the printed Signal?

Well, the incoming snailmail is archieved with an old Compaq Contura 430CX and Wordstar 3.3. software using DOS operating system... The address labels and ad texts are then copied on 3.5 disks to another computer using Windows 7 operating system and Pagemake 7 software, the photos are taken with over 10 years old Sony Digital Mavica still camera on 3.5 disks, and then taken into Photoshop 6 for resizing etc. The web pages are done using 1st Page 2000 software, also it is over ten years old. As you may see in the photo I've got several other old computers and b&w and color laser printers, etc. Operating systems vary from DOS to Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Apple's Mac OS X 10.2, Linux Ubuntu, and even Android and CP/M...
The printed Signal has been issued since 1960, on web since 1997.

www.signalpenpals.net

- - - signalpenpals.net - - -
the world on your screen

THAT'S WHERE THE SIGNAL HAS BEEN READ BY NOW !

---

ON FRIDAY JULY 15TH 2011
the Signal gave away old machinery :
- 3 offset printing presses,
two Gestetners, and one Roto
- 3 digital duplicators, Ricoh Priport
- 1 Morisawa Photo Headliner
- 2 electronic IBM Composers
- 1 NuArc repro camera
- 1 photo enlarging machine
- 1 offset plate maker
- 1 paper collator, 1 paper folder
- 1 computer cash register
- 20 desktop computers
- 2 portable Kaypro computers
- 6 computer monitors, 2 scanners
- 4 b&w laser printers, 1 color printer
- 2 inkjet printers
- 3 electronic typewriters
- 4 refrigerators, 1 color-tv, 2 phones
- 1 easy chair, 4 office chairs
Four men were loading the lorry for 4 hours
Buying price US$ 30.000-50.000 in the last 40 years - now I had to pay 50 Euro = US$ 70 to get rid of them !

---

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The above New Year cards are from years 1907, 1912 and 1925, and all were addressed to the sister of my grandmother... I myself am now 71 years old, like collecting all old items like postcards, postage stamps, matchbox labels, even old computers etc. And this hobby is just waste of time and money as any fellow collector knows ! But collecting is nice and interesting, to know your future you must know also your past.
Happy collecting and
Happy New Year to you !
Raimo Kaarna, the publisher

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