A: Another week has gone by and as usual, we’re happy to be with you on our Wednesday Letter Box to answer all the emails and letters received this week. Let’s start with an email from the other side of the earth.
B: Miguel Angel Lahera Rivero wrote to us from Cuba, expressing his concerns about the closure of our Sackville relay site in Canada. He said: “Luckily the Voice of Vietnam remains the voice of a small country that overcomes obstacles to send us 30 minutes every day full of love and dedication. Vietnam is an example for the world and has a big future.”
A: Dear Miguel, we’re glad to know you’re still managing to catch our broadcasts on the frequency of 9840 kHz since the Sackville closing on June 25th. Thanks a lot for your kind words.
B: Mickey Delmage of Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, emailed us to say he listened to our broadcast through the Sackville relay on its last day of operation on June 25th. We’d like to inform you, Mickey, that you can catch our programs direct from Vietnam on the frequency 9840 kHz and of course we’re going to send you a QSL card together with our frequency list and program guide.
A: While we’re on the subject of Sackville’s closing, we received a letter dated June 17th from news anchor Allan Loudell of Delaware, USA who said he listened to our June 16 and 17 broadcasts from 02:30 to 03:00 UTC on 6175 kHz with a SINPO of 55544. He wrote: “I hope we can still get a relay of Voice of Vietnam in English after Canada closes down its transmitting site in Sackville in a few days.” Don’t worry, Allan. As we said, you can catch us directly on the frequency of 9840 kHz. Don’t give up tuning in to VOV’s broadcasts.
A: This week we received some interesting questions from our listeners. Let’s start with a question from regular listener Dewan Raquil Islam of Bangladesh who asked us the name of our station’s first announcer.
B: Dear Dewan, thank you for your special interest in our station. Radio the Voice of Vietnam was established in September, 1945. The first two announcers were Mr. Nguyen Van Nhat and Ms. Duong Thi Ngan. However, the very popular announcer of our earliest English broadcasts was Ms. Hanna-Hanoi whose real name is Trinh Thi Ngo. She is a Vietnamese radio personality best known for her work during the Vietnam War, when she made English-language propaganda broadcasts for North Vietnam directed at US troops.
A: Here’s another question from Christer Brunstrom of Sweden: “June was a very poor month in Sweden. Most days were cold with rain and strong winds. Strangely enough, the last day of the month was sunny and I managed the very first swim in the sea..What about your weather?”
B: Well, generally we saw many hot days in June, as usual. June is usually the hottest month of the year. However, this June also saw some cool, pleasant days with blue skies and moderate temperatures around 26 DC. Unfortunately, we also had some days with heavy rains and scattered thunderstorms which usually wait until July or August. It’s fact that weather is becoming become more and more unpredictable around the globe these days.
A: Jyrki Hytonen of Kannus, Finland who listened to our April 6th broadcasts on 7210 kHz back in 2007 and on 5975 khz this year, wrote to say: “I have listened to Voice of Vietnam in English and also visit your web page. Your message can reach even far away frontiers. Many tourists from Finland are visiting Vietnam and tourism is increasing and that will also boost awareness of your country and perhaps new listeners and visitors to your website. I want to visit your country with my wife…”
B: We welcome you and your family to Vietnam anytime, Jyrki. And thank you for your nice photos, the CD of our program, and the lovely map of Finland. Evidence that more and more Finnish people are getting interested in Vietnam is that in the past few weeks we have received quite a few letters from Finland. One was from Hannu Kiiski of Makslahdenkatu, Finland. Hannu caught our June 12 broadcast from 16:01 to 16:11 UTC on the frequency of 9730 kHz with overall good signal quality.
A: You’re listening to the Wednesday Letter Box on VOV. It’s now time to relax with a musical interlude. But we’ll be back with more letters and emails from our listeners worldwide.
Song The Storks by Thanh Lam
A: That was The Stocks by Thanh Lam. Now back to this week’s Letter Box. We’d like to express our gratitude to our regular listener William Patalon for his great love for Vietnam and our radio station.
B: This week we received two packages of Mr. Patalon sent us in May and June, enclosing an article about Vietnam be posted on a free daily e-letter along with his reports of our broadcasts during these two months.
A: William wrote: “As you can see, Radio VOV broadcasts were a major inspiration, enabling me to write about Vietnam’s vibrant economy and great promise…and to do so in an informal manner…Thank you for that.”
B: We really appreciate your feelings for Vietnam and VOV. We always look forward to hearing any feedbacks or comments from you to improve our work.
A: From Sri Lanka, Markku Vaalaranta Ambagahahena Naotunna sent us a beautiful postcard of Dehiwela, Srilanka. He reported listening to our June 21 broadcast on 12020 Khz at 18:00 UTC with a good overall rating of 4.
B: We’ll send you a QSL card, frequency list and program guide today. We also wish to acknowledge reports from Masushita of Osaka, Japan, Prithwiraj Purkayayastha of India, Jack Wachter of Australia, and Hazairin of Indonesia.
A: Time flies, doesn’t it? That’s it for this week’s Letter Box. Thank you all very much for joining us. We look forward to receiving more comments and suggestions from you. Our contact address is:
The English program,
Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam,
45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam
B: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. Our program is also available on our website at: www.vovworld.vn.