A: We want to welcome Russ Ivey of the US to VOV’s worldwide Dx’er community. Russ wrote us an emailed saying “I just recently picked up the shortwave listening hobby. It’s always a treat to find broadcasts to North America and I look forward to tuning in your broadcasts in the future. I love the glimpse into your culture.”
B: We’re very glad to have a correspondence with you, Russ. Thank you very much for your reception report of VOV’s program on 12005 khz on May 7, 2016, from the Woofferton relay to Cumming, Georgia. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your report. We hope you’ll continue listening to VOV, send us your feedback, and collect VOV’s QSL cards.
A: Our regular listener Richard Nowak of Florida emails us almost every day to give us his feedback on our programs. He wrote on September 6th “Great news. The show came in great tonight on 7315 khz from 1 to 1:27 UTC with an Icom IC-R75 hooked up to an off center fed dipole with an overall length of 41 meters. Reception was good with SINPO rating at all 5s. On a Sony ICF 2010 portable with its built in whip antenna, the show was coming in very good with overall signal at 4.”
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| Brocade products of ethnic in northern provinces |
B: Richard said he enjoyed the “Colorful Vietnam-Vietnam’s 54th ethnic groups” segment about weaving by ethnic women using indigo leaves and the Personality of the Week about musician Vinh Ky and his songs about the autumn.
A: One of our loyal listeners Ullmar Qvick of Sweden told us that he helped promote VOV in the latest issue of “DX-Aktuellt”, an organization of the Swedish DX Federation. The magazine has about 400 subscribers plus an unknown number who read it in libraries. Ullmar published the latest program schedule posted on our website with the comment: “A very listener-oriented broadcasting station which deserves our appreciation. A nice letterbox program on Wednesdays. You can read the text also on the website.”
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Ethnic people make brocade products for tourists
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B: Thank you very much for your devotion and support for VOV. We hope many more Swedish listeners will leearn about VOV and want to tune in to our channel after reading your article. We’ve checked your reception report for the program on September 15 on 9730khz. We’re glad to know the signal earned a SINPO rating of 45434. We also appreciate your comment that our commentary on the EU summit was objective and interesting and the ending song was sweet.
A: A verification card confirming your report is on its way to your address. In India, P.S Sekar said he wants to know about Vietnam’s seaports and the export and import capacity of the biggest port.
B: Along Vietnam’s 3,200km coastline there are 110 seaports, 44 of which are quite large and drive the economy. The rest are relatively small with obsolete facilities and poor support services.
A: The three largest ports of Vietnam are in Ho Chi Minh City in the south, Hai Phong in the north, and Da Nang in the central region. Other major seaports are the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep-water port complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Dung Quat seaport in Quang Ngai province.
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| Tan Cang - Cai Mep seaport |
B: In 2007, the Port of Ho Chi Minh City handled about 1.85 million TEUs of containerized cargo, a 25% increase over 2006 and a more than three-fold increase over 2000. In 2008, the Port of Ho Chi Minh City welcomed 2,168 vessels, and cargo increased to over two million TEUs.
A: The Port of Ho Chi Minh City covers a total area of 263 hectares, containing 14 berths and three anchorage points. It offers six self-propelled barges with a capacity of 16 to 54 TEUs and seven tug boats. It also has one thousand reefer plugs for refrigerated containers.
B: Vietnam's most modern container facility, Tan Cang – Cat Lai port within the Port of Ho Chi Minh City, covers 800 thousand square meters and contains eight berths, including two barge quays, with a total length of 1,200 meters. Tan Cang – Cat Lai contains 17 Panamax quayside gantry cranes to support the fast and efficient transfer of cargoes. In 2010, an additional eight berths totaling 1,400 meters in length with 20 Panamax quayside cranes were built.
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| A ship of Star Cruises takes foreign tourists to Da Nang port |
A: Tan Cang – Cat Lai terminal is the biggest, most modern container facility in Vietnam. With convenient access to the country's highway network, vehicles can carry as much as 30 tons a day to important economic zones in nearby provinces. Each month, the terminal handles over 170 vessels from around the world and has an average throughput of 160 thousand TEUs.
B: Now let’s read some more letters from our listeners. British Dx’er Gerry Neumann told us in an email dated September 19 that he uses a good quality shortwave receiver (Yaesu FRG 100) to listen to VOV, but reception in the south of England on both frequencies – 9730 and 7280 KHz – has been disappointing for some time.
A: Gerry wrote: “According to your updated Frequency List of 1st September there should be a transmission at 18 UTC on 5955 KHz, but that has not been on the air at all. A typical day makes listening quite difficult. For example on Wednesday, September 14, reception at 17 UTC on 7280 KHz and 9730 KHz was SINPO 25232. Some of the details of the Letterbox, which is one of the features I like to listen to, were congratulations from listeners on the 71st anniversary of VOV, including letters from England, Finland, Japan and a US listener who likes the music. You played a song about the mid-Autumn festival and there followed a brief explanation of this festival which was on 15th September this year. Some listeners’ letters were acknowledged before the program ended with the mail and email addresses.”
B: He continues: “On Saturday, September 17 the signal at 17 UTC was hardly audible and the signal at 20 UTC at 7280 KHz was 24332 whilst 9730 KHz had a stronger signal from China Radio International on the same frequency.
A: We’re very sorry for the inconvenience you experienced. We’ll report your remarks to our technicians to fix it and get an answer to your question “When will the frequency 5955 KHz to Western Europe at 18 UTC begin?”
B: Last month we informed you that VOV had revised its shortwave frequencies and broadcasting times. Then we made further changes for the winter broadcast. We assume that these changes caused the inconvenience you’re experiencing.
A: We have stopped broadcasting our program on the frequency of 12005 khz from 1h-1h30 UTC and on 9625khz from 0h-0h30 UTC.
B: On the frequency of 6175khz were adding broadcasts at 0h-0h30 UTC and 1h00-1h30 UTC.
A: On the frequency of 9730khz and 7280khz our programs will be available at 19h-19h30 UTC and 21h30-22h UTC.
B: If you missed this information, please go to our website at vovworld.vn to review it. We’ll also send out letters and emails to inform you of these changes.
A: We’ll verify all your reception reports and trust you’ll receive our QSL cards soon. 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 following us online. Good bye until next time.