A: Starting this week’s Letter Box, we welcome James Obrien of Cardiff, the UK, to the VOV listeners’ community. James listened to our station occasionally in the past, but until this week he had never sent us an email. Mr. Obrien wrote: “I listened to your broadcast on October 13th on 6175 khz from 04:30 to 5:00 UTC. Your signal was quite powerful with only bits of disruption now and again due to the signal coming and going. But other than that I was able to listen to you with fairly good audio. I have caught bits of VOV in the past when scanning the shortwave band and on these occasions the signal was very poor. I was so happy this time to stop off and be able to listen to a full broadcast.”
B: It’s pity that you didn’t write to us earlier to let us know about your difficulties when you tuned us in. Now that we have established correspondence, you will receive our latest winter frequency list so you can listen to our program at your most convenient time. You can also listen to our program with better quality on our website at www.vov.vn. Mr. Obrien went on to say in his email: “I enjoyed the extensive news that I heard and really liked the listeners’ mailbag program. You seem to have a big following of listeners and the one I heard from the UK where I’m from was interesting enough. It’s interesting that you broadcast to Europe and that I’m not the only one out there who seeks out to listen to your transmission.”
A: We actually have a contingent of regular listeners in the UK who have had a keen interest in our station for several years. We can say that British D’xers are very passionate shortwave listeners because we receive their feedback and reception reports on a weekly basis. Mr. Obrien commented on the Grundig 750 shortwave receiver that he and many of our other listeners use. It’s very powerful and handy to own when trying to pick up stations that are very far away.
B: James Obrien, we are very happy to have you join our listeners’ community. It’s our pleasure to send you some VOV souvenirs you can put on display to spread the word about our station. Once again, thank you for contacting us. We look forward to receiving more letters from you soon. Now let’s read an email from Gerry Neumann, one of our loyal UK listeners. He informed us that he got our beautiful bronze Dong Son drum model last Saturday. Gerry said “It already has a place of honour in my home, and will remind me of my links with VOV and you, the staff of the English section.” You’re the first recipient to inform us that our gift and certificate acknowledging your years of listening to our station arrived at the right address. We are waiting for a reply from dozens of listeners in the US, UK, Germany, India, and the Philippines.
A: Mr. Neumann says he has just returned from a month in Hue City, and has been tuning in to VOV English for several days. The Letterbox program on the 26th of October mentioned that our new winter programme schedule has been sent to listeners and that Vietnam is urging people to vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the 7 wonders of the world. Voting for the new 7 wonders has entered its final days and the results will be announced on Friday. Our heritage is currently among the top 10 of the 28 finalists and we’ve been stepping up our get-out-of-the-vote campaign.
B: Mr. Neumann is also the first listener to note our frequency changes for the winter. The programme to Europe at 18UTC on 5955 KHz had a SINPO of 55555. We appreciate that good news very much. Gerry found the broadcast informative and interesting. He listened to our October 30th the Sunday Show about the manufacture of Conical hats in a village near Ha Noi, where most of the population earns money making hats. On October 31st there was a problem with the program at 18 utc. Mr. Neumann wrote: “It started with the end of the segment on Major events in the world during the past week. This was followed by Current Affairs about a 2-day visit by the president of Kazakhstan. After this, 'Land and People' was about Stork Island - 70 Kilometres east of Ha Noi, the home of many storks and herons since the island grew out of marshy land in the 15th century. The other part was about Mr Ho Vay in Quang Tri province who is growing wet rice. This whole part of the programme was then repeated, (major events.... ) with a song at the end. I don't know what happened to the News segment.”
A: We thank you very much for attentively listening to our program and giving us prompt feedback. We’ll check the problem with our Broadcasting and Transmission department and comment in our next program. Next up, here’s an email from Paula and Terje Nielson, members of the DX-Listeners’ Club Norway and the New Zealand Radio DX league.
A: Hello Paula and Terje Nielson, our old friends. This time you sent us a reception report of VOV’s program in French together with a mp3 recording for verification. We’ll forward it to the French section to issue a QSL card for you. We’re very glad to hear from you again after a quite long period, which you explained: “It has been more than a year since I last sent a reception report to any radio station from Christchurch, New Zealand mainly due to the earthquakes that hit Christchurch last September. It’s still going on today with aftershocks. My wife and I lived in ChCh for many years, but we decided three months ago to leave. We moved down to Oamaru, a small town some 240 kms from ChCh down on the east coast of South Island. We just could not take any more of the aftershocks; we’re just too old for that. ChCh City is “gone. Not much left of the city and several 1000s of private houses that can’t be repaired.”
B: We’re so sorry to hear know about the lingering aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquakes in ChCh. VN also regularly suffers severe natural disasters and we know how hard it is for the people in these areas to normalize their lives. I believe that time heals almost everything and I hope the people of ChCh will quickly rebuild the city even better than before. We wish you and your family a peaceful life in your new house in Oamaru. It’s interesting to find that our transmission is audible in your new place and we can have regular contact again. You’ll soon get our QSL card and VOV’s winter frequency list at your new address.
A: From Bangladesh, Khondaker Rafikul Islam, President of the Source of Knowledge Club, contacted us to say many of their club members regularly listen to VOV’s daily English program. They find most of the programs very nice, neutral and timely. Mr. Islam wrote: “some female members in our area are also interested in listening to your daily English
program. They promise to hear your program now and in the future and will
send you feedback.” The Source of Knowledge Club has 325 members. Every 6 months they publish a Dx guide book, organize sports programs and give prizes to the winners. They ask our station to donate some gifts such as a 2012 calendar, t-shirts, notebooks, used postage stamps, bags, pens, and magazines for the events.
B: We’ll be sure to send you some souvenirs from VN to diversify your prizes. We’re waiting for letters from your individual club members so we can hear their opinions and requests. Toshiya Nishimura of Japan reported tuning in to our channel on the frequency of 12020 kHz on November 3. He noted that noise was troublesome for a while, but the broadcast came in well as on other days. Mr. Nishimura often listens to VOV’s program in Japanese also and says the signal is stable. His favorite subjects are VNese culture and music.
You’re with VOV’s Letter Box. We welcome your letters at English section, Overseas Service, VOV, 45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, VN. Our email address is: ennglishsection@vov.org.vn.