A: Scorching summer days have finally come to Vietnam’s northern and central regions. The temperature ranges from 27DC at night to 37DC during the day. I think the temperature in the city is even higher than that.
B: You’re right. Yesterday afternoon, it was 39 DC in Hanoi. People are warned not go to out at noon if unnecessary because they can get sunstroke. It’s forecast that the heat will gradually abate in a couple of days.
A: I think students love summer the most. My children are singing “There's 104 days of Summer Vacation. And school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation, is finding a good way to spend it.”
B: I like that song from the Disney show “Phineas and Ferb's” very much. Although I’m no longer a student, I always look forward to summer vacation to discover interesting places or just escape from work to relax in the peaceful countryside.
A: Well, before you go anywhere, please answer some of these letters.
B: Of course. Reading listeners’ letters is always my favorite activity. Here’s a letter from John Burczyk of Greenport, New York in the US. It has been a rather long time since he wrote to us. John says: “As soon as I received your latest frequency list, I set my radio for the correct time on frequency 12005 khz. I enjoyed hearing VOV that night, April 19, at 0100UTC. I liked the tale of the Hung Kings and the music. I will listen more often to the Voice of Vietnam”.
A: Thanks you, John Burczyk. We’re happy to receive your feedback again after a long hiatus. We’ll verify your report and send you a QSL soon. Here I have a letter from another listener in the US, Joseph Pecenka of Indiana. He wrote to us after listening to our program on April 22 at 12005 khz. “The new frequency came through with flying colors. The winter frequency of 9640 khz was not too good. It is so good now to hear the entire broadcast with a good signal and very little noise or fading. The Sunday show was fantastic. I enjoyed hearing and learning about the northern provinces and how different ethnic groups get along. My most favorite was that lively song to close the show.”
B: We’re glad to receive a lot of positive feedback for the new frequency of 12005 khz beaming from Woofferton transmitting station in England and Cypress Creek in the US to Eastern North America at 01:00 UTC and 02:30 UTC. Thank you, listeners, for your helpful feedback to monitor our transmission in other part of the globe.
A: Now, let’s read letters from listeners in Europe. Allen Dean of Padiham, Lancs, England, wrote: “It’s been a year since I last wrote to you. I continue to tune in regularly to the 19:00 UTC transmission, which I’m pleased to say has good reception. After all the years I’ve been tuning your way, I still find your programs of great interest. They are very informative, giving a good insight into what is happening in Vietnam. This is what international shortwave broadcasting is all about. May you continue to inform the world about your interesting country”.
B: We’ve checked your reception report for the program on April 24 at 7280 khz which rated SINPO at 45444. Using an Eton satellite 750 receiver with a telescopic rod antenna, Allen got a clear signal without any interference. Allen added that these reception details remain unchanged each day.
A: Positive feedback on the transmission makes me very excited because transmission is the final step in bringing our production to listeners worldwide. Next up is a letter from Fotios Padazopulos of Greece. Hey, Chi/ Phuong, do you notice anything interesting about this week’s letters?
B: What do you mean?
A: Almost all of them are listeners who haven’t written to us for a long time. So does Fotios Padazopulos.
B: Let me see. Fotios wrote: “It’s been years since I wrote to you from the US. I accidentally tuned in since I have not done much Dx’ing in the last 3 years. I was surprised at the signal strength, because reception in my location was ok, with SINPO rating at 45433.”
A: It’s fantastic to receive correspondence from old listeners, so we know that, although you don’t write to us regularly, you’re still there listening to our program. You’ll soon receive our verification card together with our latest frequency list to help you find our channel.
B: A listener from Austria, Harald Suss, told us: “I was glad to listen to your radio station during my holiday in Pandan on the island of Panay in the Philippines. My hobby is listening to broadcasting stations all over the world and collecting verifications of my receptions.” He monitored our transmission on April 9 at 12020 khz and rated SINPO at 43543. The signal was strong but there was some interference by a Chinese station.
B: Thank you very much for spending time on our channel during your holiday. We’ll send our verification card to your address in Austria. From Japan, Fumito Hokamura continues to send us letters every week. He says he wants to improve his English so he can write us longer letters. He listens to VOV as a way to learn English while learning about Southeast Asia and Vietnam’s news.
A: I think his listening skill is very good because his reception reports are usually detailed and precise. On March 28, Fumito enjoyed our Discovery Vietnam segment, which was about the central city of Da Nang and its scenic spots particularly Linh Ung pagoda.
B: Fumito said the Colorful Vietnam – Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups segment is another of his favorites because he learns about Vietnam’s blended culture and customs as well as the unique features of each ethnic group. From Indonesia, Alex Torbeni emailed us to say: “Your English broadcast can be heard well in my hometown, Denpasar Bali, Indonesia. I’m happy that you still air your broadcast via the shortwave although nowadays there are many radio stations stop shortwave broadcasting. I wish VOV keep broadcasting on shortwave because there are still people listening to you.”
A: Your reception report tallies well with our station log, so we’ll send a QSL to verify it soon. You said you received our reply after almost a year. We feel sorry because we don’t know the reason. We process and reply to reports every two weeks. We don’t take too long to reply to letters because we hate to disappoint listeners who are waiting for QSL cards. Also, it’s more difficult to check the station log to verify old reports.
B: I think there’s a problem with the post-office delivery. This time, please inform us as soon as you get our QSL confirming your report of May 8th. Many of our listeners collect stamps so we send our letters with a Vietnamese stamp on the envelope. We also send used or new stamps as gifts. You’ll get some from us.
A: Our time is running out here on VOV’s Letter Box. Thank you for spending time with us and for your detailed feedback. Before we go, we’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 for now.