A: 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.
B: He wrote: “It reminded me of the late 1960s when I was studying at the University of Gothenburg. The US war in Vietnam was immensely unpopular in Sweden and I remember taking part in huge rallies in support of Vietnamese resistance. It was a period when many young Swedes took a strong interest in politics and what was going on in the world. Today young people seem to lack ideals and tend to be centered on their own pleasures.”
A: Thank you for your comments about our show and for being one of our friends during our resistance war for independence. This week we received a thick envelope from our regular listener William Patalon with dozens of detailed reception reports of our broadcasts in March, April, and May.
B: Thank you for your nice postcard from Toledo, Ohio, the US where you spent time with your dad on a Father/Son outing, as well as the lovely pocket calendar for the host of the Letter Box. It’s really a very sweet present from you.
A: As for your concern about the closing of Sackville, as we said in our previous Letter Box, you and the many other listeners from North America who share the same concern can catch our broadcasts direct from Vietnam on the frequency 9840 kHz.
B: From Yakutsk, Russia, Andrey Novolodsky reported listening to our May 21st broadcast from 11:30 to 11:57 UTC on the frequency 12020 kHz with a SINPO of 35433. Thank you. We’ll send you our QSL card to acknowledge your reception report as soon as possible.
A: We also received a nice postcard and greetings from John Felabom of Indiana, US, who logged on to our April 16 broadcast from 2:35 to 2:57 UTC on 6175 kHz. With a SINPO of 44544, 64-year-old John could recap our program in pretty good detail. Of course, a QSL card to verify your report is on its way to you now.
B: Also from the US, Timothy Brockett wrote: “Thank you for your professional and informative English language broadcast on Voice of Vietnam. I came across your station last evening while browsing the shortwave bands. I enjoyed your program and thought you might find a reception report useful.”
A: Welcome to our audience of VOV listeners and thank you for your detailed report of our April 29 broadcast at 03:40 UTC on 6175 kHz, of which you said the signal quality was quite strong with some fading and static but you could hear and understand almost everything that was said.
B: We’re glad you enjoyed our program and look forward to some comments and suggestions from you. Right now, let’s take a short break with some traditional Vietnamese music dedicated to Anna Tositti of Venice, Italy who recently sent us a postcard and said she loves our wonderful music.
A folk song
A: That was a piece of traditional music dedicated to Anna Tositti of Italy who tuned in to our May 5th broadcast at 20:51-21:02 UTC on 11840 kHz with a SINPO of all 5s.
A: Let’s continue our show with a letter dated January 26 from Georgi Bancov of Bulgaria. He wrote: “The Vietnamese broadcast started with an interval signal and traditional Vietnamese music. The program consisted of a news and information bulletin. The headlines were read by a male and a female announcer…. In closing, please allow me to extend my best regards to all the sincere and dedicated staff members at your station and wish you success, prosperity, health, and peace”
B: Dear Georgi, we can tell you logged on to our broadcast in Vietnamese on that day. We’ll forward your letter to VOV’s Vietnamese section and I’m sure they’ll send you a QSL card to verify your report. On behalf of the VOV staff, thank you for your warm wishes to us.
A: Muralidhar of India sent us an email and asked: “I had sent three separate reception reports via airmail for the months of Jan, Feb and Mar this year. These reports were acknowledged in the “Letter Box” program. As of today I have not received any QSL cards for the above reports. Could you kindly check with your correspondence department and confirm whether the QSL cards were sent to me?”
B: Dear Muralidhar, we’ll check to make sure QSL cards were sent to you. We’re very sorry for this inconvenience and hope to receive more suggestions and comments from you about our programs.
A: This week we received emails from Ian Cattermole of New Zealand, who listened to our latest broadcast on May 21st from 20:36 to 21:13 UTC on 7220 kHz; and from Tony Roper from Scotland who tuned in the same day from 17:00 to 17:28 UTC on 9625 kHz with a SINPO of all 4s.
B: Our regular listener Ian Morrison who now lives in Beijing, China, sent us a reception report for our May 19th broadcast. We also received emails from Munetsugu Matsushita of Osaka, Japan, who reported tuning in to our broadcast on May 4th on 9840 kHz from 13:30 to 13:57 UTC and said although the signal was strong, understanding the content was difficult because fading was also strong.
A: Thank you for your comments. We’ll inform our technical department of the fading issue. Thank you all, dear listeners, so much for keeping in touch with us. We look forward to receiving more comments and suggestions from you. Our contact address is:
The English program,
Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam,
45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam
B: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. Our program is also available on our website at: www.vovworld.vn.