The Signal has been issued since 1960 by Raimo Kaarna in Lahti, Finland !
Every single penpal listing has been 'composed' by Raimo already for 47 years. He has made the all the lay-outs and printing originals, even printed several issues back in the 60's, at first with a manual Roneo mimeographing machine and two electric Rex Rotary stencil duplicators, in the 70's and 80's with Signal's own Gestetner 200 and 210 offset printing presses.

In the 80's and 90's most Signals were printed on high speed multicolor newspaper web offset presses, like Signal issues 1/2004 and 2/2004. The Signals of late 90's and this century 2000's have been printed mainly with two digital Ricoh Priport duplicators.

At first the texts were written with manual typewriters, later with electric IBM ball typewriters, Varityper cold composing machine, then with IBM 72 and IBM 82 electronic composing machines and Morisawa MC-201 Photo Typesetter headliner... Signal's first computer was Orborne I bought in 1986, later it was upgraded into a Goldstar 286, Tandy 386, Huyndai 90 MHz Pentium, the newest computer is Targa Visionary multimedia pc. The printing originals are made with the computer and laser printers, or at present as pdf-files when web offset printed.

All the Signal magazines printed in the last 47 years - some 200.000 copies - have been stuffed into envelopes and taken to the local post offices just by one man, Raimo Kaarna. Now the work burden has become a bit lighter as the main circulation media is the web, internet, information highway...
This new publishing system also lessens the very expensive and heavy postal expenses a lot. In all the Signal has paid far over US$ 50.000,00 for postage stamps alone, not to mention the high costs for web offset printing, or the ink and paper when printing the Signals myself, envelopes, circulars etc.

Below you see some front pages of the Signal with information about each issue. I hope you'll find this "Signal history" worth reading ! I am showing also the front pages of other mail order and correspondence magazines from the 60's here...

Raimo Kaarna, the publisher

In 1960-1972 Signal's page number was varying greatly

1960

Seven pages in 1960, and I received some 500 letters from the readers...

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

SIGNAL issue 2, 1960
- b&w mimeographed ad sheet
- 1.000 circulation
- 2 pages, 210x297 mm
- 37 penpals, collectors
texts: manual typewriter

SIGNAL issue 3, 1960
- b&w mimeographed ad sheet
- 1.000 circulation
- 2 pages, 210x297 mm
- 37 penpals, collectors
texts: manual typewriter

SIGNAL issue 4, 1960

I started keeping records of the incoming mail in August 1960, wrote down the name of the sender and the country from each letter received... In 1960 I received some 500 letters.
This is real "penpal publishing history" indeed ! - SIGNAL, Raimo Kaarna, the publisher

* MAIL ORDER MAGAZINES: I received the first copies of the Luft Press USA back in 1960, soon after starting publishing my own Signal. Got mail from Herman P Luft in Hermansville Michigan on August 27 60, Sept 23 60, Nov 11 60, Apr 4 61, April 13 61, etc. He sent me his letter press printed 6x9's magazines, 16-32 pages on paper stock of different colors, several issues, possibly using also the name "Mail Order Booster" or "Mail Order Rooster"...
* Other famous mail order papers in 1960-61 were for instance "I.M.O.B." from Ceylon, (=International Mail Order Bulletin, ten 9x11" pages, letterpress, on green paper); "Gazette Salesman" (small tabloid, letterpress, 8 pages) by William Shepiro USA; "The Spectator" (6x9" letterpress, 4-8 pages, green paper) by John E Heenan USA...
* PENPAL & HOBBY MAGAZINES: The most famous co-publishable correspondence magazine was the "Western Heart" by Donald Neal USA, established already in 1926, a fine glossy 16 page 6½x8½" offset magazine. John McGee was issueing the "Swap Bulletin", later the "Barter Bulletin", 2-page offset printed A4 ad sheet of philatelic exchange ads, I advertised and got fine results.
* PERSONAL PENFRIENDS AND SWAPPERS: Some of my personal penpals and collector friends in the 1960-61: Gina Mittag DDR, Judy Mann USA, Paul Small USA, Herbert John DDR, Anthony F Hogg USA working in the WHLM radio station - he sent me over 1.000 45rpm records - not for sale disc jockey copies in exchange for postage stamps.

1961

In 1961 the Signal contained 16 pages - I received 637 letters from the readers...

larger photo
SIGNAL issue 5, 1961
- offset printed in USA, blue paper
- 1.000 circulation
- 4 pages, 90x155 mm
- 27 penpals, collectors, mail order
texts: varityper

larger photo
SIGNAL issue 6, 1961
- b&w offset printed in Finland
- 1.000 circulation
- 4 pages, 105x205 mm
- 27 penpals, collectors, mail order
texts: electric typewriter

larger photo
SIGNAL issue 7, 1961
- b&w offset
- 1.000 circulation
- 4 pages, 148x210 mm
- 70 penpals, collectors, mail order
texts: manual typewriter

The Signal has been issued since 1960 by Raimo Kaarna in Lahti, Finland !

In 1960-1972 Signal's page number was varying greatly

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

* MAIL ORDER TRADERS AND MAGAZINES: Progressive Mail Trade USA, 6x9 letterpress, 12-24 pages, co-publishable, publisher Sheboygan Publishing Co.; * PENPAL & HOBBY MAGAZINES: * PERSONAL PENFRIENDS AND SWAPPERS:

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

1999-2000

2001

2002

2004

2005

2006

2007

* MAIL ORDER TRADERS AND MAGAZINES: Progressive Mail Trade USA, 6x9 letterpress, 12-24 pages, co-publishable, publisher Sheboygan Publishing Co.;
* PENPAL & HOBBY MAGAZINES:
* PERSONAL PENFRIENDS AND SWAPPERS: