A: To begin this week’s Letter Box, we’ll say Hello to two new listeners, Andreas Lubnow of Germany and Muhammad Idrees of Pakistan.
B: Welcome to VOV’s community of international shortwave listeners. We’re so happy to have a correspondence with you. We’ll send you QSL cards to confirm your first reception report for our program and we’re looking forward to receiving more feedback from you in the future.
A: Here’s an email from Gerry Neumann, our regular listener in England. His last letter to us was in January. Gerry wrote: “it’s time that I wrote to you again to let you know that I’m still listening every day to the English program of VOV. (It’s a habit that I don’t want to stop). Here in the south of England, reception at 18:00 UTC on 5955 Khz continues to be very good – usually 45544. I think that when Summer Time begins in Europe on March 31st that frequency and time will change again.”
B: You’re right, Gerry. We’ll change the frequency according to summer time later this month. During this changing season, we hope the transmission remains stable. We’ll inform you as soon as we get notification from our technical department. Mr. Neumann went on to say: “The daily programs of VOV continue to bring many interesting features and information about Vietnam, as well as news and commentaries. In particular, I noticed that on March 6 and 7, the main item in the international news was about the death of Venezuela’s President Chavez and world reaction to it. Quite often VOV brings more information or details about world events than the radio in my country.”
A: Neumann has a question for the Letter Box: “Several listeners confirmed receiving New Year gifts, calendars, and QSL cards. I sometimes hear that other listeners have thanked you for gifts they have received. I don’t know if the gifts were for something special or maybe the listeners asked for something? This year I received a calendar and I thank you for that. It’s the first time I have received anything for about 3 or 4 years. So I don’t know if you sent something and the things got lost in the post.”
B: We send gifts to new listeners, on listeners’ special days – birthdays, wedding anniversaries – and upon request. Our station gift items include ballpoint-pens, caps and T-shirts with the VOV logo, maps of Vietnam, postcards, dolls wearing traditional Vietnamese costumes, key chains, and bookmarks with images of Vietnam. Some listeners ask for special items such as military badges, toy soldiers, statues, books, and magazines.
A: We’ve sent you wall calendars every New Year, Gerry, and a certificate and a bronze drum to mark your 10 years of listening to our station on VOV’s 65th founding anniversary in 2010. We’ve sometimes included small items with your QSL cards. We wonder why you haven’t received the bronze drum. We’ll check the reason soon. Sometimes we get a reply saying you received the things, but sometimes not. Our listeners often report they didn’t receive our verification cards or packages for unknown reasons. When that happens, we resend the items. If you hear your name mentioned on the Letter Box and we say we’ve sent you something, but you didn’t get it, please let us know.
B: Gerry Neumann, thank you for maintaining a close relationship with VOV for such a long time. We’ll verify your reception report for the program on March 7. Last week, we got listeners’ feedback for different segments. Gerry wrote: “Discovery Vietnam” talked about the 2013 National Tourism Year in the Red River Delta region, to be hosted by Hai Phong city, with some special events also in Hanoi and Ninh Binh. The show ended with a song about the beauty of the Red River Delta. All in all this was another very comprehensive and interesting program.”
A: Bhaikan Hazarika of India said: “I heard today’s Discovery Vietnam about one of the best tourist spots - Da Lat. The program is really informative and enjoyable. It’s helpful for listeners, especially travelers.” Hazarika tuned in to a program on March 4 and found the Land segment about Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago informative.
B: Miss Karobi Hazarika commented: “First accept my heartfelt compliments. A regular listener of your wonderful station, I listened to your Sunday Show on March 3 about a project to protect Vietnam’s golden-headed langur. This langur is one of the world’s 10 most endangered species.”
A: Thank you all for your attentive listening and comments on our programs. We surely will confirm your reports and hope that you will get them soon. From the UK, Ian Anderson said he has a small Vietnamese medal with some writing in Vietnamese that he can’t read. It’s a little star-shaped badge, with a picture of President Ho. The writing above the picture says “Ho Chi Minh city”.
B: Another British listener, Nicolas Spivey, received our transmission on February 19 on the frequency of 9730 khz. SINPO rating was 33233. He included specific listening conditions: It’s cloudy skies. The location is 192 ft above sea level. The radio is a Eton 750 Satellite with its own telescopic antenna. Spivey said he planned to build an indoor radio antenna this summer which should improve the reception.
A: The Eton 750 Satellite is a very popular receiver. Many of our listeners say they use this handheld receiver. From Greece, Merkouris Gogos reported listening to VOV’s English program on 7280 khz, on March 5. Using an Icom R8500 Communication receiver with a WEllbrook 1530 active loop, Gogos observed the program with good signal quality. SINPO rating was 44433. He noted: “During the same time period, the reception of VOV on 9730 khz was impossible because the frequency was dominated by China Radio International”.
B: Thank you for spending time with us and for your detailed feedback. Before we go, I’d like to remind you of our address:
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 at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.