Mail Roundup – September 1, 2023

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

Vlad Palcu, 01.09.2023, 14:48

Hi, guys!

Summer is nearly over, at least according to the calendar.
In actual fact, many of us are still vacationing, so to everyone still taking
or planning trips, enjoy the sunshine, the cool breeze and the beautiful
scenery while it lasts!

***

From the USA, John Jurasek wrote in to say:

While I wanted to share the basic technical details of
reception in this message – I wished, most importantly, to write-in to let you
know that I greatly enjoy listening to your station. While I enjoy the medium
of shortwave radio, I got into the medium back in 2013 in order to sincerely
listen to radio stations from all over the world for news, perspective and
education – not because of technical specificities or the expectation of
getting anything in return from any radio stations.

Your programming is exactly what I had hoped to find and I
am so happy that you are still broadcasting to North America – although I have
heard about the recent shortwave cutbacks and I sincerely hope that those days
of shortwave broadcasting are not coming to an end soon.

Any contribution is highly appreciated, John. We know the
majority of our listeners don’t write or send feedback, but we know they are
out there, listening to our station. So we’re glad to have you in our community
of listeners.

***

It is true that you
can listen to whatever you want on the internet, but where to start? That
little bit of effort you have to put in to listen to the radio, the element of
surprise, that makes it interesting I guess. And while I have a PhD in physics,
or maybe just because I’m a physicist, I’m still amazed by the fact that you
can put a little bit of power on an antenna somewhere in the world, and it
triggers waves that – under the right conditions – can be received all over
that same world. It’s a bit of magic that the internet lacks. Although I have
to admit: I do use the internet a lot to find tips on what can be received. And
since my retirement last year I also started to build a weblog to share my
hobby, which brought me already a few new friends!

Peter Reuderink, Netherlands

***

As always, we got a number of hand-written message sent by
regular post to our office. We greatly appreciate the effort of listeners who
do that, and we thought to reward them by quoting excerpts from their messages:

Robert Wallace (United Kingdom)

Very entertaining programming! Thanks!

Grant Skinner (United Kingdom)

I am a DXing enthusiast and like to discover a lot about
the world via shortwave. I can travel around the globe with my radio. My house
is an open windows to the world.

Christer Carnegren (Sweden)

Nice broadcast!

Jackson Pritt (USA)

One of the farthest radio stations I have received so far
on the shortwave bands.

Yoshihiro Toyama (Japan)

Greetings from raining season in Hamamatsu, Japan. How are
you getting on? I am fine. Thank you for your broadcast and the letter to me.

Harald Süss (Austria)

I was glad to hear the signal here in Austria. This time I
spent 2 weeks in a DX-Camp in Southern part of Austria called Döbriach, beside
the lake Millstätter See. I lived in my tent. We all in the group were
listening to radio stations.

Jyrki Ollila (Finland)

I was able to listen to your station for the first time in
years. I was a DX listener in my youngerhood, now I am 58 years old and live in
Oulu, Finland. I was excited when I heard your radio station, I listened on my
balcony in my flat. I have a small Tecsun Pl 660 radio and wire antenna. I wish
a good summer to your editors / broadcasters.

We also got a letter last week from Anand Mohan Bain
(India), who enclosed the following materials.

Special thanks for writing to Ricky Hein (USA), Hayato
Furukawa (Japan), Jurijs Dimbovskis (Latvia)

***

Last week, our friend from Malaysia, Mohamad Haidir Hasim,
wrote to us to convey the following message:

I read about Romanian commitment on helping Ukraine in many ways
from humanitarian and militarily.In Malaysia, we also
show our solidarity to Ukraine with many ways such as donations and sharing the
truth about what happens in Ukraine.

I also donated to Ukrainian Cultural Association in Malaysia by
purchasing their merchandise (a t-shirt). I think Ukrainian and all people has
right to live in peace and no one cannot deny this right. Nobody should be oppressed.
Nobody should live in fear and tyranny.

Ukrainian Cultural Associations or UCA in Malaysia was
established to promote Ukrainian culture and humanitarian affairs targeting
Malaysian people.

When Russia invade Ukraine on 2022, UCA more actively in sharing
awareness about the truth and horror happening in their country.

Ukrainian Cultural Association always sharing articles,video and
any news to counter Russian propaganda outlets.

They using media social for share news or any information about
the war and sometimes I really sad when looking terrible thing happened in
Ukraine.

From them,I finally know that Ukrainian language are different
from Russia and their cultures also different.

Ukrainian Cultural Association also doing charity sales to gain
funding for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

I and my friends once go to their charity sales and i buy their
t-shirt. They give me cookies and Ukraine flag to me.

Slava Ukraini

Mohamad also shared with us his collection of postcards and
stamps from Ukraine he purchased to show his support and solidarity. He also
enclosed a photo of the t-shirt and flag he was mentioning.

***

I enjoyed hearing your transmission today on shortwave radio in
DRM mode. I had good reception and enjoyed the programming.

I really like programs on natural history subjects, so I
particularly enjoyed your show today. Thank you for the entertainment.

This is what Scott Walker (USA) wrote to us last week. Thanks
for your words of appreciation, Scott. We’re happy you enjoyed our broadcast.

***

It wouldn’t have been a regular week at the office without
receiving interesting messages from our long-time listeners and friend Bidhan
Chandra Sanyal (India). This time around, our listener wrote to us with some
details about Rahki Purnima, a festival that is quite popular in India at this
time of the year.

Rakhi Purnima is going to be celebrated in India on August
30. Happy Rakhi Purnima with all my sincere love and best wishes!

There are very few people in India who have not heard of Rakhi
Purnima or Rakhi Bandhan. Moreover, the strong bond of love between brothers
and sisters is revealed a lot through Rakhi Poornima or Rakhi Bandhan. This
Rakhi bandhan festival is celebrated in a big way in India. This Rakhi Bandhan
festival is celebrated on the full moon tithi of the month of Shravan.

We all know that the tradition of tying the bond of love
between brother and sister with this rakhi thread has been going on since ages.
So from childhood, sisters express their love for their brothers by putting
rakhis on their hands.

This Rakhi Bandhan festival is celebrated to honor the bond
of love between brothers and sisters. A sister ties a sacred thread called
rakhi on the hand of her brother and prays for his brother’s well-being.

This beautiful rakhi is worn on the right hand of the
brother in observance of various rituals related to the protection of the
brother and the safety of the sister. Many people make rakhi with their own
hands and many beautiful rakhi are also available to buy in the market.

The main significance of rakhi bandhan is to pray for
someone’s protection which is especially observed between brothers and sisters.
Rakhi plays a very important role. To wish for the well-being of the brother,
the sister wears rakhi on the right hand of the brother and tries to keep him
away from all kinds of dangers and harmful things.

For example, when the Greek hero Alexander left to invade
India in 326 BC, Alexander’s wife Rosana sent a rakhi thread to Maharaja Puru,
asking him to promise that no harm would come to Alexander.

Maharaja Puru was a Kotoch Hindu king. So he respected the
rakhi, and Rajapuru did not even once strike a weapon at Alexander himself on
the battlefield to honor the rakhi sent by Alexander’s wife Rosana. This
implies that Rakhi is tied to provide protection.

Sisters are waiting for the joy of wearing rakhi to brother
with enthusiasm and interest from morning. This day is celebrated in many
houses with great pomp i.e. Puja Parvan, cooking, eating everything is grand. But
not only Dami Rakhi. Even though it is thread rakhi, how beautiful the rakhi
bandan festival of poor brothers and sisters is, it is worth seeing.

That’s just an excerpt from a longer message Bidhan sent
us. Thanks for introducing our community of listeners to new traditions from
your culture, Bidhan. It never ceases to amaze us.

***

From Ukraine, we got a nice message from Marian Dan.

I love music. I think that music is one of the most
important things in our life. One day I’ve heard your radio station, you have a
great variety of fine songs and useful programs. Needless to say, I will
continue to listen to your radio station through the Internet.

Thanks for this message as well, Marian. We’re glad you
enjoy our programmes and music selection.

***

Time now to thank our other listeners who took the time to
write, send reports and comment on our broadcasts: Jaouad Saber (Morocco), Gunnar
Green (Sweden), Ruben Zilzer (Israel), Bruce Lee (Australia), Jan Kluska
(Poland), Siddhartha Bhattacharjee (India), Paul Jamet (France), Tom Melville
(USA), Anand Mohan Bain (India), Rob den Boer (Netherlands), Lyssuel Sousa
Calvet Neto (Brazil), Tim Brockett (USA), Rafael Gustavo Grajeda Rosado
(Mexico), Malik Allah Bachaya (Pakistan), Chris Malboeuf (Canada), Jakub
Denisiuk (Poland), Debashis Gope (India), Abdul Mannan (Bangladesh), Richard
Lemke (Canada), Rafan Ahmed (India), Andrey Kuzmin (Rusia), Andrew Kuznetsov
(Latvia), Darrel Hoerle (USA), Tomasz Kotas (Poland), Art Wormald (Canada), Sanil
Deep (India), Gary Paulson (USA), Ding Lu (China), Abdul Mannan (Bangladesh).

Thank you all & 73!