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



I've been scanning old Signals - thousands of pages - for the last weeks. Got finally the work done, take a look now !

YOU CAN NOW READ ALL
SIGNAL PENPAL MAGAZINES
of 1960-2000 printed on paper
in actual size & colors

as they were issued in those
40 years - over 1 0 0 separate issues, and thousands and thousands of penpals and photos, collectors, mail order ads, penpal clubs far over from 100 countries, interesting news and editorials...
1960-1969 = 6.500 penpals
1970-1979 = 10.850 penpals
1980-1989 = 16.700 penpals
1990-1999 = 18.400 penpals
SIGNALPENPALS.net 1997-2017
on web already for 20 years...

1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |

Thursday December 29, 2016


Do you speak FRENCH ?

Then you should visit
30 different world cities
via this site
cites.tv/citesdumonde

Translate the texts using translate.google.com




Wednesday December 21, 2016

MERRY XMAS
& HAPPY
NEW YEAR
2017

to all the Signal-readers worldwide!
RAIMO KAARNA - THE PUBLISHER



Wednesday November 16, 2016
Listen to Pakistani music
- a bit different experience for you???


Sunday 6 November 2016


VOY AUSTRALIA, your fine envelope and the contents safely received... Thanks !
ELIZA FRANCE, thanks for your cd, cards, stamps
SHIKEAGI JAPAN, your payment received
JOSEPH MALTA, fine postage stamps!
Signals will be sent soon to all of you... Printed next week?
TADEUSZ POLAND, IRCs (International Reply Coupons) are rare nowadays, thanks for them. Info next week.
LANANI ALGERIA, your listing received at least ten times via email, almost ten times in postal mail. It has been issued several times already here !
TOMOKO JAPAN, Signal info via surface mail...


Tuesday November 1, 2016

If you don't like waiting for the front page to open click here

FASTER OPENING SIGNAL


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.
The name and address have been deleted from Signal's website now. Also the policy about prisoners' ads has been changed already last year after getting several complaints. I do NOT accept penpal ads from prisoners in 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".


Sunday August 28, 2016

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


Wednesday July 27, 2016

THIS WEBSITE OPENS TO SLOWLY ! SHIT... TEST THIS FAST SIGNAL NOW !
www.signalpenpals.net/ 2017fastsignal.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 !!!!!

Read about technology, military, abandoned cities, submarines, aircrafts, people, anything... You'll spend hours 'opening your eyes' !


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 ???


Tuesday May 24, 2016
Apple trees are in full blossom now here in Lahti Finland, in Signal-publisher's garden...


Monday April 25, 2016

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


Wednesday February 11, 2016

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.


Friday, January 1st, 2016

SIGNAL HISTORY 1960-2016

This is what the Signal issue number 1 was like back in January 1960... You may take a look at all the Signal issues from 1960-2015, their front pages and circulation, the printing system, how they were composed and lay-outed.



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!


That's what the SIGNALs looked like from 1979 to 2004...
The size was usually tabloid, 5.000 copies.

SIGNAL issues from 1969 to 1973 were magazine size. 10.000 copies per issue...

Signals 1988-89, photocopied

Offset printed Signals 1990-91

All Signals 1995-2007 were digitally printed by your publisher

Signals 2007-08 color laser printed

SIGNALs 1960-69 were mimeographed and offset printed, 1.000 circulation, my address the same as now in 2013.


READ 2018 EDITORIAL
READ 2017 EDITORIAL
READ 2016 EDITORIAL
READ 2015 EDITORIAL
READ 2014 EDITORIAL