Friday, January 25, 2013

Whither the Mail from China Tibet Broadcasting?

A month ago a friend visited China and posted a letter with a reception report to China Tibet Broadcasting (CTB) for me. It was addressed in Chinese and Roman script. I had approached him to post the letter in China after many unsuccessful attempts to contact CTB for over a year. Several emails were submitted to the station, each time with no response. Letters, both registered and normal post, were mailed from Malaysia and the United States, with failure resulting in each attempt. 
My originally addressed envelop to CTB

On Friday, 25 January 2013, the letter I gave my friend to post in China was returned to me. It had been placed in another envelop and delivered to my address. Upon closer inspection, I discovered a few anomalies:
(1) The Chinese postal clerk my friend had dealt with instructed him to reverse the sendee (CTB) and sender (me) addresses on the other envelop; and 
(2) while it did reach the post office in Xizang (Tibet), according to the postmark, it for some inexplicale reason was rerouted to my address in Malaysia. 

Nevermind. It's been done. I will make another attempt to post the letter in China. This time the procedure will be different: 
(1) the front of the envelop will be addressed only in Chinese script, stating "TO", followed by  CTB's address (preferably with a contact person and/or no mention of CTB, according to the postal clerk); and 
(2) the reverse side of the envelop will be addressed in  Chinese script "FROM", followed by the sender's address (me). 

Th  re-addressed envelop the Chinese postal offical  required
I know it sounds terribly convoluted. Yet, I'm feeling crazy enough  to give it a try, short of personally delivering the letter to the station in Tibet (which is unlikely).

At the same time, I will contact China Radio International and attempt to have them QSL the reception report of CTB. Even though this means the QSL will be issued on CRI's card, not CTB's. CRI has done this for me with CNR, PBS and Beibu Bay. 

I know CTB can be a difficult station, but not impossible,  to QSL. I have heard stories of guys sending multiple reports, after trying for many years, sometimes getting the QSL or ending up still with nothing to show for their effort. I've even been told by one DXer in China that CTB in  previous years was only too willing to comply with a QSL when a properly documented reception report was submitted. However, with a younger generation now staffed at CTB, they are generally ignorant about the purpose of a QSL. I suppose some listeners will, for some reason or other, will be able to QSL directly from CTB.

The elusive QSL card from CTB
So it goes and so I shall labour on in pursuit of that ever elusive QSL from China Tibet Broadcasting.


2 comments:

  1. I received my QSL card from China Tibet Broadcasting for my first and only report I've ever sent to them. I received the verification in ~ 4 months.

    LZ2GPB (George DX)
    Bulgaria

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  2. Hello

    I sent out a letter and a few emails to China Tibet about 6 months ago. I did receive a short but friendly email back from one of the employees after a couple months later. No qsl though.

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