A: I hope this edition of the Letter Box finds you well. I’m very happy to be on the air every Wednesday to read letters from listeners around the world.
B: Yes, corresponding with listeners is interesting and enjoyable work. In addition to the reception reports about the content and transmission quality of our broadcast in different localities, I’m always eager to learn listeners’ personal information and read stories about their localities.
A: I love to see stamps from around the world and the beautiful postcards listeners send us. Reiner Peuthert of Germany sent us a post card showing the verdant forest and large lake of August-Betel Park in Stendal. In contrast to the tranquil look of August-Betel Park, Heffnann Zitz sent us an aerial photo of downtown Toronto showing the world famous CN Tower and Skydome. High-rise buildings and the CN Tower, an icon of architecture, characterize the modern beauty and vertical growth of the city. Thank you, Reiner Peuthert and Heffnann Zitz, for your postcards.
B: Look at these stamps, from India, Japan, the US, Germany, Italy, and Australia. They are very informative and beautiful. I’ll send some to Roger Henderson of the US who asked us to give him some stamps. He wants to share the cancelled stamps with a young relative.
Stamp collection is a hobby of young and old Vietnamese (photo: baobacgiang.com.vn) |
A: Oh, nice stamps from Vietnam, Japan, Germany, and Italy. I hope he likes them. From Japan, Yoshihiro Kusanagi reported that the signal on 12020 khz at 11:30 UTC is always especially strong. On July 27’s program, Yoshihiro liked the discussion of climate in Vietnam. He said the rainy season lasts from June to July in Japan. Tokyo has seen little rain in recent years and there will be a shortage of drinking water this summer. Meanwhile, Japan’s western and northern regions have seen heavy rains.
B: Another Japanese listener, Toshiya Nishimura, also shared some information about the weather in Japan. Hot days continue and the temperature is hovering around 35 DC. He said he feels climate change has intensified and the results are visible and wanted to know about the situation in Vietnam.
B: Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. Its long coastline and large deltas make it particularly threatened by more intense and more frequent natural disasters, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and salt water intrusion. AusAID reported that Vietnam loses around 2 per cent of its GDP each year as a result of weather-related disasters. In 2011, natural disasters continued to impact Vietnamese livelihoods and infrastructure, flooding around 450,000 households, inundating more than 350,000 hectares of rice paddies, and causing 295 deaths, and damage estimated at 620 million USD.
A: Things are projected to get worse. Vietnam is already experiencing wetter wet seasons; dryer dry seasons; higher intensity rainfall, flash flooding and increased frequency of tropical cyclones. Sea levels have risen 20cm, and if they rise by just one meter, more than 11 per cent of Vietnam’s coastal population could be displaced.
Many places in Vietnam have experienced the consequences of climate change (photo: danang.gov.vn) |
B: Vietnam has mapped out climate change scenarios and approximately response measures. The country has worked with international organizations and other countries to undertake environmental protection programs and low-carbon growth options and help communities in the Mekong Delta adapt to climate change to protect food security and livelihoods.
A: Thank you, Yoshihiro, for sending us your reception report. We’ll verify it soon and send you a QSL card along with the souvenirs you requested. Here I have an email from Victor Qian, who is working as an editor for a radio station in Jiangsu province, China. Victor says a lot of local radio stations are concentrated in the building where he’s working. Victor likes to receive shortwave radio transmissions from far away. He caught VOV’s program on August 25 at 9840 khz. VOV’s signal to eastern China was good with SINPO rating at 45454.
B: Although you only listened to the last half of our program, the Sunday Show, we’ll still verify it with our QSL card. We hope you will spend more time on our channel next time. We’re very happy to have received an email from Indian listener Babul Gupta after a one year hiatus. He sent us a report on our August 21st program on 6175 khz and wrote: “This morning when I was lazily fiddling with my radio, suddenly I came across your station, VOV, broadcasting from Cypress Creek in the US in Spanish and English. I was really surprised to receive your station from such a long distance. I would like to congratulate you on the very professional presentation of your broadcast in different languages.”
A: Babul enclosed some audio files of the program to make it easier for us to judge the reception and verify his report. Ajith Kumar of India wrote to us for the first time in a long time although he says he often tunes in to our program. 47-year old Ajith works in the High Court of Kerala State. He lives in Vrindavan, a rural village in India’s smallest state. He started listening to shortwave broadcasts in 1982 and has listened to and corresponded with more than 300 stations. After a long layoff, he’s returned to his old hobby.
B: Bangladeshi listener Dewan Rafiqul Islam says his “Friends Radio Club” will celebrate its 12th anniversary on October 1. They want to organize some special events such as planting trees, a sports competition, and a DX’ing exhibition. Congratulations! We hope your Club continues to grow. We’ll send the Club some souvenirs for its DX’ing exhibition and we hope our gift arrives in time.
A: Jorge Luis Medina emailed us from Punto Fijo city, in northwest Venezuela. He listened to VOV’s English broadcast on a frequency of 6175 khz from 3:30 to 4 UTC. The signal was good with some moments of atmospheric noise. He said: “Your English broadcast helps me to improve my English listening skills, and the same time helps me leearn more about Vietnamese culture.”
B: Thank you all for spending time with VOV and writing to us. We’ll verify your reports soon. We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs.