Mail Roundup – November 24, 2023

A roundup of messages we've received in the last two weeks

Vlad Palcu, 24.11.2023, 17:54

Hi, everyone!

Clock’s ticking fast and we’re
rapidly approaching the end of 2023, with only a few weeks left before
Christmas! We’ve gone from Black Friday discounts (see the comment below) to
getting the first snow of the winter season in just two weeks.

We have launched our traditional
end-of-year quiz for you, asking you to nominate a person / group of people
who, in your opinion, left their mark on the world in 2023!

https://www.rri.ro/en_gb/personality_of_the_year_2023_on_rri-2694178

In case you haven’t already
noticed, we’ve posted the QSLs for 2023 on our website and have started sending
them to you individually, so you can print them for your collection.

https://www.rri.ro/en_gb/qsls_for_2023-2693919

It’s a long and complex process,
which is why we’re asking everyone to be patient. Also, in case we might
overlook certain months, please make sure to signal that and we’ll send you the
corresponding QSLs shortly.

***

Our listener from India, Jose
Jacob wrote to us to announce he was celebrating 50 years of DXing in 2023!

I am 64 years old. I have been
your listener for many many years. My records show that my first QSL from you
is dated 28 June 1974 15250 kHz
1500 UTC ie 49 years back !!!! Then name of your station was Radio
Bucharest!!! Later I have collected even QSL cards for your MW & Longwave
stations also.

Happy anniversary, Jose! It’s so
nice to hear from SW diehards such as yourself! Below is a copy of the QSL card
he got 40 years ago from Radio Bucharest

***

Philippe Schaetti (Switzerland)
sent us a report last week, enclosing the following pictures of his receiver.

Thanks, Philippe! We are happy
you were able to pick up our broadcast in your area!

***

Since we operated the change of
frequency in our DRM broadcast to India earlier this month, we’ve had a number
of listeners who have been monitoring the new frequency, 9,420 kHz. One of them
is Thamminana Krushna Rao from Visakhapatnam. Our listener reports no
terrestrial signal in his area, adding but it’s very strong signal with good
audio quality received terrestrially through kiwiSDR in Johannesburg, South
Africa, Saratov, Russia and Santarem, Portugal at the same time.

This was not the only report we
had, as Mohan Natarajan also reports no signal in Chennai. All we can say is
that we have relayed these messages to Radiocom and hope for a better
adjustment of the DRM frequency in the future.

***

Last week we got a nice message
from Geovani Vázquez Reynoso (Mexico) that reads like this:

I would like to leave this
reception report, a YouTube link to my recording of your broadcast, and
pictures of my hometown for you to enjoy. The following images depict a typical
celebration of our martyrs taking place in the urbanized streets of Zacapu,
traditional Purépecha clothes are worn for this special occasion. In its rural
areas we grow sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, alfalfa, and many varieties of
maize. On a daily basis we enjoy the panoramic view of Los Espinos,
our volcanic crater lake.

Thanks, Geovani, for the report
and the pictures. We’ve added them below

***

Bidhan Chandra Sanyal (India)
wrote in to give us his latest comment on a major current event, this time
Black Friday. See his full message below:

Black Friday is a special day in
the United States. But with the passage
of time it is being celebrated all over the world in USA, Canada, UK as well as
the Asian continent and even in Bangladesh its influence is being noticed. On this day, merchants offer special
discounts on products and the amount of these discounts is incredible and it is
a hit among the buyers.

It is said that a $1000 TV can be
sold for up to $200 on Black Friday.
Larger companies like Walmart could increase their net profits from $14
billion for the year starting Jan. 1 to $19 billion on Black Friday.

Generally the word black is
negative but for traders it indicates a positive direction. There are differing opinions on the naming
and history of Black Friday. Around 1869
America was in a terrible economic depression.

Then the businessmen thought of
such a day when the economic statistics show that the amount of sales shows
that the economic index jumps up a lot. Usually, the loss account is written in
red ink in the account book, but on this day, the accounts are written in black
ink from the beginning day, so this day is Black Friday. can be said

Long queues of customers can be
seen before dawn. Black Friday is the
fourth Friday of November every year.
Black Friday falls on the fourth Thursday of November every year – Thanksgiving
Day and the day after Thanksgiving Day i.e. the fourth Friday of November.

Many people may have noticed the
‘Black Friday Sale’ going on in various online marketing companies. Different brands come up with the claim that
you can get the thing you need at an unbelievable low price. But what is this ‘Black Friday’? Is there any connection with the festival or
joy? Come on, let’s hear it.

Just as Navanna festival is
celebrated in Bengal when the new crops grow in the month of Agrahayan, in the
United States, Thanksgiving comes at this time.
Black Friday is celebrated on the last Friday of November. If you turn to the internet to find out what
Black Friday is all about, there’s an interesting story to be told.

The event took place in 1959, in
Philadelphia. There was such a rush to
buy cheap things that the police had to stop and handle the crowd. And they named this day Black Friday. However, if we dig into history, we can find
a different significance of this day.
Which is not so simple, and not so happy.

A major foundation of the US
economy was slavery. The condition of
these slaves was worse than animals.
Black people were forcibly brought to America from Africa. Since there was no shortage of slaves, the
masters did not bother about their privileges.
They had to work hard all day long with inedible food half eaten or not,
piled up in unsanitary conditions. There
was no reward, on the contrary, the whip fell as soon as the lime fell from the
drink. Black Friday was the designated
day for the sale of these slaves. In
fact, Halloween on the last day of October, Thanksgiving in November, New
Year’s preparations after Christmas in December… The wealthy needed workers
to organize such festivities. Besides,
it is the harvest season at the farm. I
want workers for that too. So on the
last Friday of November almost everywhere in America there was a special
market. Slave market.

On January 1, 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln ended this abominable system of slavery. But even then, Black Friday did not end. In the middle of the 20th century, the
question of the human rights of black people was raised by people of good sense
all over the world. Meanwhile, Vietnam
was shaking with the sound of American soldiers’ boots. Black Friday was revived when America’s
apartheid attitude came to the fore.
Just after Thanksgiving, huge shopping discounts begin. It is the memory of hatred towards black
people that is fueled by commercial ideas.
And even today this special naming is carrying that history
unknowingly. As there is a history of
hatred, division and division between people.

Thanks, Bidhan! Always a pleasure to read your messages!

***

Our friend from the Netherlands,
Peter Reuderink has again sent us a report, this time as well enclosing a nice
drone image taken of his town, Woerden. You can clearly see how the old inner
city once was a fortification which could be entered through three gates. Today
the walls have been replaced with tree lines, Peter writes.

***

This week we also got a series of
reports from Bernard Grondin, who is tuning in to RRI from the Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The
details might not interest everyone, but we sure envy his setup, which you can
see below.

That looks so cozy and nice, Bernard. Thanks for sharing!

***

Karl-Heinz Bradtmoeller has sent
us updates regarding reception conditions on 11630 kHz, which he says are
getting worse, propagation and poor signal being the main issues. Here is the
spectrogram he provided.

Thanks for this piece of
information as well. Karl has also sent all of this feedback to RADIOCOM, our
national provider of radio frequencies, describing how the solar eruptions at
the end of October impact DRM reception. He illustrated this impact by taking a
snapshot of different Kiwi SDR receivers located on a lower altitude.

***

As usual, before we end, a shout
to everyone else who took the time to send reception reports, comments and
feedback to our station: Saleem Akhtar Chadhar (Pakistan), Malik Allah Bachaya
(Pakistan), Andrew Kuznetsov (Latvia), Guido Panebianco (Italy), Najim Uddin
(India), Tanima Tanne (Bangladesh), Chris Malboeuf (Canada), Hirmoichi
Kinoshita (Japan), John Zachary Alvarez (USA), Alan Gale (UK), Abdul Mannan
(Bangladesh), Karyono Wasmin (Indonesia), William Tilford (USA), Christer
Brunstrom (Sweden), Sanil Deep (India), Anwar Hosain (Bangladesh), Rob den Boer
(Netherlands), Takashi Ogasawara (Japan), Motokazu Katoh (Japan), Mark Combs
(USA), James Clark (USA), Teruhiko Kachi (Japan), Mohan Natarajan (India), Asaf Poznantig (Israel), Siddhartha
Bhattacharjee (India), Phil Hayward (USA), Richard Lemke (Canada), Hidemitsu
Miyake (Japan).

73!