Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, our weekly feature dedicated to our listeners throughout the world. We are Mai Phuong and Phuong Khanh.
A: First on our show today, we’d like to welcome Matt Little of the US to VOV. In a letter to VOV this week, he wrote :”This is the first time I had heard a language program on the radio. What a great idea. I thought the news was interesting and it was nice for it not to be Americanized”.
B: Matt continued: “There were talks about Obama visiting Vietnam and lifting the sanctions on Vietnam that had been in place for 50 years. There was mention of the Chinese wanting to control the East Sea and that the US and Vietnam were exercising their right to passage in this area. I thought the news program was good and I will be tuning into it again".
A: Thank you Matt Little for tuning in to VOV. Our program is also available on the internet, so you can check out our website for more stories or to listen to recorded programs. Our website is www.vovworld.vn.
B: We’ll send you a program schedule, frequency list, and QSL cards to confirm your report.
A: We continued to receive update reports from Richard Nowak of the US. Listening to our broadcast on June 20, Richard wrote: “Reception was excellent except for the sound cutting out 12 times and leaving a gap of a few seconds between words each time it cut out. SINPO was all 5s”.
B: Thank you for a very detailed report. It’s very useful to us. Richard also wrote that he enjoyed the Sunday show segment: “The Sunday show was superb! I thoroughly enjoyed the segment on the newspaper collector who has been collecting for 40 years. Wow. His “my country” collection with 10,000 newspapers is fascinating. This was a very unique story. It enjoyed it".
Tran Thanh Phuong and his wife
A: I love that story, too. Tran Thanh Phuong, the collector is really an amazing man and his work is great. From Indonesia, Alex Torbeni wrote: “I’m glad to tell you that I finally receive your stamps as you had promised me. I received your stamps on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Many thanks for your wonderful used stamps, It seems that you receive letters from your worldwide listeners a lot. It’s great to know that your English broadcast is heard worldwide by many different people. Once again, thank you for your gift”.
A: It’s good to hear from you Alex. Stamp collecting is one of the world’s most popular hobbies thanks to its affordability, educational benefits, and historical value. For many collectors, philately is an art, a passion, a way to communicate, and more. Now when people communicate with each other via the Internet, it’s interesting to know that these stamps remain attractive.
B: Many people collect watches, antiques, paintings…but statistically, philately attracts the largest number of collectors. Collecting stamps involves hundreds of millions of people globally. In Vietnam, too, stamp collecting has become one of the most-enjoyed hobbies.
A: According to Vũ Văn Tỵ, Vice Chairman of the Viet Stamp Club and editor-in-chief of Stamp magazine, a famous philatelist who owns a number of rare stamps, the stamp collecting hobby began more than 100 years ago in the developed postal sector of England. At that time, mail recipients had to pay for the delivery, which caused many problems. Rowland Hill, a British reformer, created the world’s first stamp in 1840. Since then, anyone who wanted to send a letter had to buy a postage stamp and stick it on the envelope.
B: Stamp collecting arrived in Vietnam quite late, but the hobby has been popular here for over half a century. In 1946, Vietnam issued its first stamp series with images of President Ho Chi Minh. It is now considered by philatelists to be one of the most valuable stamp series, and “a national treasure”.
Photo: internet |
A: There are various ways to classify stamps. Hoàng Anh Thi, Chairman of the Viet Stamp Club says that normally, stamps are divided in two types: living stamps and dead stamps. A living stamp is a stamp that retains its original state as published by the post-office, and which has not been used yet. There are two kinds of dead stamp: a CTO stamp and a true dead stamp. CTO, or Cancelled-To-Order stamps, are mass-postmarked by the issuing postal service before being sold directly to stamp collectors or dealers, often with a discount.
B: They are preferred by children because it’s quite easy to get a complete collection. A true dead stamp is removed from the envelope after it is sent to someone and has a cancel postmark by the postal service. This stamp is considered more valuable and is much more expensive than the other type.
A: A stamp collection is “an encyclopedia” of nature, society, history, sports, technology, and more. Each collection reveals its owner’s interests.
Photo: internet |
B: That’s a short take on stamp collection in Vietnam. We hope to receive more letters from you to diversify our stamp collections here at VOV and to have more stamp to share with our listeners.
A: This week, we received an email from Kanchan Chatterjee of the Natun Radio Listeners’ Club. He wrote: “There are 20 members in our club. We always try to listen to radio program from different countries. We have collections from radio stations of different countries and we regularly organize Radio Exhibitions and Listeners’ Conferences. We listen to the Voice of Vietnam on its website and enjoy all the excellent program. The Letter Box announcers have very sweet voice on the frequency of 7280 khz in West Bengal”
B: Thank you very much for tuning in to VOV on shortwave and on the internet, Mr. Kanchan Chatterjee. We’ll send you the QSL cards and souvenirs that you requested. We look forward to receiving more comments from you and other members of the Natun Radio Listeners’ Club.
A: Mr. Bill Ball of the US wrote: “I’m still listening faithfully every night to your broadcasts. You are coming in loud and clear in Bozman MD. A lot of my friends have been quite excited about the article and video you did on me some months back. I have updated my radio to an ICOM IC R75 which is much more powerful. I always look forward to your broadcast as they are very enlightening and informative. I wish that my health was better so that I could travel to your countries and see how things have changed. Keep up the good work. The only request I have is that you would be able to extend your broadcast to an hour”.
B: Mr. Bill Ball, we look forward to meeting you in Vietnam. Thank you for your faithfulness to VOV. We’ll forward your request to our boss and like you, we also want to extend our broadcasting time, so that we can give you more information about Vietnam, its land, people, and culture.
A: In a letter to VOV this week, Mr. Edward Fleming of Australia reported listening to our broadcast on February 8, and then on April 12, when the signal on 12020 was generally good and stable with a SINPO rating of 40333. Listening to our broadcasts on May 30th, he reported the signal strength as weaker and there was considerable man-made interference and with atmospheric noise being moderate. The SINPO was between 2 and 3 and was 45034 on May 31st.
B: Thank you, Edward, for your reports. We’d like to acknowledge emails and letters from Toshiya Nishimura and Fumito Hokamura of Japan, SB Sharma and Sihhadrtha Bhattacherjee of India. We’ll send you all QSL cards to confirm your reports.
B: We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. You can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re welcome to visit us online at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.