EUROPA CEPT 1988 – Finland - Transport and Communications

The Europa CEPT theme for postage stamps in Europe in 1988 was ”Transport and Communications”. Finland issued these two stamps and the cover to portray this theme on 23.5.1988. This FDC was given to me by Merja.

The stamp on the left depicts Electronic Communications. In telecommunication, communications-electronics (C-E) is the specialized field concerned with the use of electronic devices and systems for the acquisition or acceptance, processing, storage, display, analysis, protection, disposition, and transfer of information.
C-E includes the wide range of responsibilities and actions relating to:

• Electronic devices and systems used in the transfer of ideas and perceptions;
• Electronic sensors and sensory systems used in the acquisition of information devoid of semantic influence;

Electronic devices and systems intended to allow friendly forces to operate in hostile environments and to deny to hostile forces the effective use of electromagnetic resources.

The stamp on the right shows a horse drawn tram which was prevalent in Finland in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Horse Drawn Tram. Trams in Finland go back to a horse-drawn Turku tramway network, which opened in 1890. Electric tramway traction started in Finland in 1900, and the horse-drawn trams last operated in 1917.

• Although there were three Finnish tramway networks between 1912 and World War II, the number of networks had dwindled to just one, in Helsinki, by 1972. Since then, the Helsinki network has remained Finland's only tramway network. However, there have been, and still are, a number of proposals to set up new networks, in the form of light rail, elsewhere in the country.