Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, a weekly feature dedicated to our listeners around the world. We are Ngoc Huyen and Nhat Quynh.
A: We continue to receive New Year greetings from our listeners around the world which bring warmth to us during the cold winter days in Hanoi.
B: Ashik Eqbal Tokon of Bangladesh sent us an e-greeting card with pictures of Vietnamese Tet delicacies like watermelons, square sticky rice cakes, pork pie, and some other food. We think that you have a very good understanding of Vietnam and its culture. They are typical food that we have during our traditional lunar New Year Festival.
A: Thank you very much, AShik Eqbal Tokon, for your greetings. Here, at VOV, we are very busy to prepare special features for Tet. We hope that you will keep tuning in to our broadcasts for more stories about Vietnam, its land and people.
B: Amir Jameel in Pakistan wrote: “Happy New Year 2017. I and our club members extend our heartiest greetings on the eve of New Year 2017. We hope that New Year will bring peace, happiness, and brotherhood in the world and the Voice of Vietnam English Service with more progress”.
A: Commenting on VOV’s English program, he wrote: “VOV is one of the best radio stations. VOV English Service Programs are informative, nice, and impressive, and providing the latest information from around the world and about Vietnam, its history, culture, political, system, food, music and many more topics.”
B: Thank you very much, Amir, for your greetings and listening to our broadcasts. It has been such a long time since we last heard from you. We also wish you and other listeners a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
A: Muhammad Shamin in India sent Season’s Greetings saying he is a regular listener of VOV’s English broadcasts. He reported listening to our program on January 4 from 1600 to 1630 UTC on the frequency of 7220 khz with a good signal. He wrote: “The report about sugarcane production and climate change in Vietnam was interesting. Which is the largest dam in Vietnam?”
B: Talking about the largest dam in Vietnam, we must mention Son La hydropower plant, which came into operation in 2013. The plant’s operation is an important milestone in the development of the Vietnamese power sector as it’s the largest plant of its kind in Southeast Asia and a testament to the Vietnamese people’s competence in executing such a large project.
B: With a total reserve capacity of up to 9 billion cubic meters and 4 billion cubic meters to prevent flooding, the plant will also supply water to the Northern Delta, boosting socio-economic development in the northwest region.
B: Along with the construction of Son La Hydropower plant, many roads have been expanded and upgraded while relocation and resettlement has been combined with preserving the cultural identities of local ethnic groups and helping displaced people move from subsistence farming to commodities production.
B: Over 20,000 ethnic households in Dien Bien, Son La and Lai Chau Provinces have voluntarily moved to other areas to live, leaving their land for the construction of the plant.
A: Son La dam, a concrete Gravity Dam, was built using roller compacted concrete (RCC), an advanced technology that Vietnam had never employed in building a hydroelectric plant before.
B: To build the plant, Vietnamese specialists visited many countries to learn the technology, and at the same time invited the world’s leading experts to Vietnam to observe. Then, the concrete was imported from Germany and Japan.
A: After 32 months, the main dam of the project was complete using 2.7 million cubic metres of concrete and it is now the largest dam in Southeast Asia. It is 960m long and 238 m high and has a reserve capacity of over 9 billion cubic metres of water.
B: The most important fact is that all parts of the project have been designed and built by Vietnamese workers.
A: That’s a short take on Son La hydropower plant, the largest one in Southeast Asia. This week, Richard Lemke in Canada sent a number of emails reporting on VOV’s broadcasts on December 3rd, 17th, and 27th on the frequency of 7315. He wrote: “Sometimes you have great radio conditions and most of the times halfway through the program, the signal was faded away. I usually check other WHRI frequencies and it is much stronger than 7315 khz. This must be beamed to another region besides North America.”
A: Thank you, Richard Lemke, for your frequent reports on our broadcasts. For winter broadcasts, our 7315 frequency targets listeners in Central America and the Caribbean. Could you switch to 6175 at 01:00 and 02:30 for better signal.
A: This week, we received greetings from Paul Walker of the US. In his email, he wrote: “I haven’t been able to listen to your shortwave broadcast much lately. Extremely cold weather which makes its unsafe to go outside along with poor shortwave conditions and busy work schedules have kept me from being able to listen to your broadcasts. I enjoy hearing your broadcasts because it takes a little effort to pull in your signals and that what makes hearing your broadcasts so rewarding.”
B: Mr. Paul Walker continued: “I do hope you bring back broadcasts from Woofferton in the UK in the Spring on 12005khz like you've had in the past. That broadcast was very well heard in alot of the USA, including here in Alaska. I know several DX'ers who'd listen to that.”
A: He also commented on the low voices of our new anchors and asked us to bring up the volume.
B: Thank you, Paul Walker. We highly appreciate your comments which helped us improve our broadcasts. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your reception report on a VOV broadcast on January 15 on the frequency of 7315.
B: This week, we’d also like to acknowledge emails and letters from Guido Schotmans of Belgium, Hector Frias Jofre of Chile, Debakamal Hazarika of India, Richard Nowak of the US, Toshiya Nishimura of Japan, Shahinur Alam and Abdur Razzak of Bangladesh, David Jabbar Khel of Pakistan, and Fumito Hokamura of Japan. We’ll verify your reception reports and hope you’ll receive our QSL cards soon.
B: We welcome your feedback at English Section, VOVworld, Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Thank you for listening to VOV on shortwave and for visiting our website. Good bye until next time.