This week...in your letters.

Abdelillah Boubchir from Algeria writes: “Hello dear friends at RRI, Each new year is a new start ... a new beginning ... May this new year bring you a lot of joy, love and luck. Let all your dreams and hopes come true and that each of your good resolutions you opens the door new life full of emotions! Happy New Year! My RADIO. Waiting for your reply thank you! I would like to receive printed items, flag of radio, QSL cards, stickers, pins, programs, calendar 2014 or agenda, ...and I am also a philatelist.”

Matti Hovi from Finland writes: “Since I am a listener of foreign radio transmissions ever since the 1980s, I remember the old radio Bucharest quite well. Since those days, I have not listened to Radio Romania much. However, this time I did it and I was very pleased to hear a very high quality programming. The short feature programmes were interesting and easy to listen. I work as a Head-of-Department in one of the regional units of the Forest and Park Service in Finland. Our main duty is the administration and management of protected areas. Kuusamo, my hometown is located in the northern part of Finland. It’s a small town but we have a very popular skiing resort here, which attracts about one million tourists annually.”

Alan Roe, from the UK, writes: “Another year and another great broadcast with such a variety of topics packed into the hour. I don’t know how you manage to get so much in one hour! I especially enjoyed Society Today about the various New Year’s traditions and customs. I also enjoyed Romanian Musicians and the wide range of tunes that you played. I heard on the BBC World Service recently that a spokesperson was saying that RRI would continue on short wave beyond the next three years. I really hope that this is not the case, and that you continue on short-wave for many years to come. I often tune in to your broadcasts and to enjoy the wide range of programmes and would really miss you on short-wave. My best regards to everyone at RRI for 2014.”

George Vastianos from Greece writes: “My name is George Vastianos and I live in the Nea Smirni area of Athens. I am 36 years old. I am an electronics engineer with postgraduate studies in digital communications and I work as a researcher in the field of telecommunications in the National Centre of Scientific Research “Demokritos” in the capital city. My hobbies were always related to electronics, computers and radio. In my early teens (1993-1996) I spent a lot of time doing BCL Dxing and collecting QSL cards mainly in short wave and medium wave radio bands. The fact that a country is RADIO ACTIVE in a specific broadcasting band (through its national broadcaster or through a relay station of a foreign broadcaster) is a precious treasure. A treasure that will disappear, sooner or later, when the eternal radio silence will also hit this country. As you may have understood, my goal is to collect as much as possible of these “treasures” and “save” in my own way this part of history that is “doomed to death”.

Ian Morrison from Beijing China, writes: “Many thanks for the package I received last week containing the prizes in the "George Enescu 2013 Festival" contest. The two CDs are really great, and I am very impressed by the lovely book about the paintings of Iulia Halaucescu. I didn't know about the work of this artist before, so, thanks to this lovely book, you have broadened my knowledge of art, and helped to me to learn even more about Romania and its vibrant cultural life. “