This week, we would like to begin with a letter from Rumen Pankov of Bulgaria, who has two questions for us. The first question is: with how many countries has Vietnam established diplomatic ties? The second: does Hanoi have any private FM radio stations?

A: Another week has gone by and as usual, we’re happy to be with you on our Wednesday Letter Box to answer all the emails and letters received this week. Let’s start with an email from the other side of the earth.

(VOVworld) - This week, we’ve received a lot of emails and letters from Asian listeners. One is Ms. Robina Aktar, an editor with the LOLONA Listeners Club in Bangladesh. Robina told us that although it’s now the rainy season there, the club will try to hold a DX exhibition in the middle of next month.

A: This week we received an email and a letter from 59-year-old Hans Kronkvist from Malmoe, Sweden, who said he listened to our June 2nd broadcast on the frequency of 9730 kHz from 19:00 to 19:30 UTC. He wrote: “At the time of your broadcast on 9730 kHz, the SINPO was 54544. It was a very fine program I heard from your station.”

Starting this week’s Letter Box on Radio the Voice of Vietnam, we welcome Marcos Cox Aguilera from Vicuna, Chile. Marcos who tuned into the English program for the first time expressed his pleasure to hear VOV.

During the week, we have received a lot of letters and emails from listeners around the world. But perhaps the letters from Abdulkarim Ahmed Ali from Libya impressed us most.......

Ratan Kumar Paul of West Bengal, India, emailed us and said he listened to our programs from 15-21st May at 1600-1630 UTC on the frequency of 7220 kHz. He wrote: “On May 21 your world news was very up-to-date and full of vital information. In which months does the rainy season begin in Vietnam? How do you carry out farming in this season?”

Our regular listener Gerry Neuman of Hampshire, England, emailed us Sunday with detailed reports of our May 19th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, and 27th broadcasts. He said: “Dear friends, this will be my last report before I come to Vietnam again on 7th June for one month. As I'll be staying in Hue for most of the time it will not be possible for me to tune in to VOV - and I don't think I'll have Internet access.”

From Sweden, Christer Brunstrom, who said he spent much more time listening to us in May after traveling quite a lot in April, reported tuning in to our May 19 broadcast at 1700 UTC on 9625 kHz with excellent reception quality. Christer said he found items devoted to the 122nd birthday of Uncle Ho very interesting.

This week we continued to receive letters from listeners in North America who tuned in to our broadcasts on 6175 kHz and expressed concerns that the closing of the Canadian Sackville transmitter would affect relays from Asian countries like Vietnam.