B: Thank you, Mr. Sharma, for your words of comfort. Floods, triggered by torrential rains, have occurred in Vietnam’s central provinces over the past few days, wreaking havoc on localities which had already suffered some devastating floods just a few weeks ago.

A: Every year, Vietnam’s central region is struck by natural disasters. Despite preparations, the tremendous power of nature always causes losses of human lives and property. In many communes residents have to travel by boat. Several houses were flooded just after locals had cleaned them up following the last flood.

B: The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said severe floods are expected as river water levels are rising rapidly in provinces from Ha Tinh to Quang Tri which were devastated by historic floods earlier this month. Water from floods at the beginning of the month has yet to subside in some areas, resulting in repeated flooding.

Flood in Vietnam's central region

B: The forecast center said 50-100mm of rain within six hours was reported in the provinces from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai yesterday. Torrential rains caused serious erosion of rock and earth on many road sections, triggering traffic congestion in mountain districts.

A: All schools in the flooded areas were shut down. Railway authorities in the province deployed trucks to assist trains travelling through the flooded areas. North-south trains were forced to travel at an average speed of 5km per hour. Provincial authorities reported that thousands of hectares of farm land were submerged.

People have to travel by boats

B: Donations from inside and outside Vietnam have been delivered to the central region to ease the burden of the local people. The Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Vietnam Red Cross Society, and other social organizations have received hundreds of thousands of USD worth of aid from agencies and individuals to support the victims.

A: Besides measures to prevent and cope with torrential rains, flashfloods, landslides, broken dykes, inundated houses, and many other things,  we must keep our fingers crossed that the damage will be minimal. Now let’s continue with letters from other listeners. Gerry Neumann of England reported listening to VOV in October.

Convoys deliver food and essential goods to flood-affected people

B: He wrote: “Reception in Hampshire, in the south of the UK, has been poor or very poor on 7280khz and 9730 khz, the 2 frequencies used for transmissions to Europe. I haven’t always been able to tune in on short wave. I hoped that with the change to winter time on October 30^th the frequency of 5955khz from Moosbrunn would be used, but it was not. I had to listen to the program on the web, as I have often done since September, because the shortwave frequencies were unstable.”

A: We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused by poor transmission. Your useful remarks will be forwarded to our technicians to help them monitor our broadcast abroad. We hope they can fix the problems soon so any of you, who are experiencing the same problems, can return to your Dx’ing hobby with VOV. In the meantime you are invited to listen to VOV online on our website at vovworld.vn.

B: Jayanta Charabarty of India told us in an email on October 30: “As an admirer of Vietnamese popular music I would like to say that the Vietnamese music segment on VOV has been the primary source which has cultivated in me an interest in the music of your great land. Beautiful choreography, imaginative video, and the creativity of talented artists make the melodious Vietnamese music a pleasure to listen to. Songs like Autumn Milk Flower, My beloved mom, Pink girl, Love has gone with the wind, and Beautiful Vietnam are some of the songs which linger on in your memory long after you have heard them. Though I’m not acquainted with the Vietnamese language, I still enjoy them as music has no language barriers or borders.”

A: Thank you very much, Mr. Charabarty, for your appreciation of Vietnamese music. We’ll update our music collection on our website with selected songs from different music genres, so you’ll have a broader view of Vietnamese music.

B: Indian listeners said they heard on VOV that India’s Festival of light – Deepawli – was celebrated in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi. During Deepawli people worship the goddess Laxmi – the goddess of Wealth and prosperity. On this occasion, S.B Sharma sent his very best wishes for a wealthy, healthy, and happy Deepawli to the VOV staff, their family members, and the Vietnamese people. 

A: Thank you for telling us a fascinating story about Deepawli, which is also spelled Diwali or Dipawli. They all have the same meaning, so all are right.

B: Mr. Sharma, a loyal VOV shortwave listener made an interesting suggestion: “I know that QSL cards are issued by you only for radio reception reports not for listening online. So I have not been sending those reports to you. But I want to ask you why you don’t consider online listening reports for QSL confirmation.”

A: I agree that we should.  We’ll forward the suggestion to our boss. Mr. Sharma continued: “Times are changing. Most things are now online. So reception reports of online listening should be confirmed by QSL cards. And one thing I also want to tell you is that reception on Internet radio is very fine. The sound comes through perfectly without any distortion or noise. So listening is enjoyable online.”

B: We appreciate your suggestion. We’ll add it to our list of things we could do to improve our service. This week we acknowledge letters from P.S Sekar of India, Gary Scroggins of the US, John Ball of Australia, Mahfuz Azad of Bangladesh, John Rutledge of China, Peter Ng of Malaysia, Roger Roussel of Canada, and Paul Walker of the US.

A: Thank you, listeners, for tuning in to our program and sending us feedback. We’ll verify your reception reports and hope you’ll receive our QSL cards soon. We welcome your feedback at English Section, VOVworld, Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Thank you for listening to VOV on shortwave and online and for visiting our website. Good bye until next time.