A: This week we got a flood of emails, mostly from Indian listeners. Debakamal Hazarika and Karobi Hazarika, members of the Universal DX Club in India’s Assam city, told us that they listened to our program on October 6 and 7 with great pleasure. Debakamal said the Sunday Show about folk singing in Vietnam’s central region was informative and enjoyable and the sample melodies were heart touching. Karobi enjoyed the Weekend Music segment of the Saturday program. She said the first song “Melody of the homeland” was mind blowing and inspiring.
B: We’re glad to hear you had a pleasant time listening to our program. We thank you for your detailed remarks on our signal quality on the frequency of 9550 khz at 16:00 UTC with SINPO rating at 44344. Debakamal and Karobi used a Phillips RL452 receiver with a random long wire antenna.
A: Karobi had us some questions about Vietnam. What is Vietnam’s largest city? Who wrote Vietnam’s national anthem? And how many Vietnamese historical sites are on UNESCO’s world heritage list?
B: Thank you for your interesting questions, Karobi. We’ll answer them later in the show. Right now, we’ll continue with comments from our Indian listeners. Soumya Bhattachartjee of West Bengal submitted a report for our September 8 program on 9550 khz. Soumya rated SINPO at 45444 and said “the overall reception was very good. There was no interference. The good reception created a very comfortable listening experience. I’m very happy with the reception quality, and enjoyed the program without any difficulty.”
A: Thank you for your remarks, Soumya. According to reports from listeners across India, we know that the frequency of 9550 khz provides the best signal. Your countryman Machiraju Subba Screenivasaraju also often tunes to this channel. This week, he emailed us to thank for sending him “a lord Buddha pagoda frame”, our special gift to loyal listeners on the occasion of our 67th founding anniversary on September 7.
B: Now, we’ll answer Karobi’s question about Vietnam’s largest city. The capital city of Hanoi is Vietnam’s largest city geographically at over 330,000 ha. It ranks second in population after Ho Chi Minh city. Hanoi has been the political and socio-cultural centre of Vietnam for more than 1,000 years.
A: The Vietnamese national anthem was written by Van Cao, one of the most salient figures of Vietnamese music, and a noted poet and painter. Van Cao wrote the "Marching Song" also called the "Army March" in 1944”. It was adopted as the national anthem of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, and then of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam following the reunification of north and south in 1976.
B: In our September 12 Letter Box, we introduced Vietnam’s natural and cultural heritages recognized by UNESCO as world heritages. We invite you to log in to our website at vovworld.vn to read or listen to that program.
A: Andres Aule of Estonia emailed us a reception report for our program on September 23. He heard the program on the frequency of 7280 khz at 19:00 UTC and again on the frequency of 9730 khz at 20:00 UTC. The second try gave him a very good listening experience with perfect signal quality. Andres said the frequency 9730 khz is the best for listening to VOV in Estonia.
B: The frequency of 9730 khz offers good quality in Europe and we don’t change it seasonally. Andres also gave us an overview of his small country in Northern Europe which has a territory of 45,000 square kilometers and a population of 1.34 million.
A: Last year, your Prime Minister, Adrus Ansip, paid a visit to Vietnam to boost bilateral relations. It was the first visit made by an Estonian PM to Vietnam since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992. Our leaders reached a consensus on the establishment of a Vietnam-Estonia Joint Committee on Economics, and direct relations between the two countries’ ministries, localities, and businesses in order to boost cooperation in infrastructure and urban construction, bio-technology, and information technology. This year, our countries will hold several events to commemorate 20 years of diplomacy.
B: I followed the link you sent to learn about your country and see photos of Estonia in the summer. I was impressed by the images of the place not far from the summerhouse, where you listen to the radio. Andres is a 39-year-old shortwave listener. He wrote: “I was a Dx’er when I was a schoolboy, but for many years I didn’t listen to shortwave radio. This year I decided to take up DX’ing again. Now it seems nostalgic and nice to listen to transmissions of distant stations. That is how I discovered the Voice of Veitnam. Your radio station is located over 7,400 km from where I listen to the radio.”
A: We’re happy to know that our voices are heard thousands of km from Hanoi and that you consider our programs informative and entertaining. From Indonesia, Poen Dandoeng reported listening to our program on 12020 khz. Poen wrote: “The programs heard were current affairs, society, and business. I need to listen to the news on Vietnam and ASEAN. VOV is the best for that purpose. It’s also very interesting to hear about other radio lovers around the world on the Letter Box segment.” Poen uses a Sony ICF SW 11 which he says travels with him everywhere around the globe.
B: Last but not least, we acknowledge letters from Sandro Blatter of Switzerland, Fumito Hokamura of Japan, John Bernhoffer of the USA, Grant Skinner of the US, Biake Stevenson of the USA, Christer Brunstrom of Sweden, Toshiya Nishimura of Japan, Rana Dewan Rafiqul and Mizan Rahman of Bangladesh, and Jorge Luis Medina of Venezuela. Thank you all for your reception reports with useful feedback. Time is running out on this week’s Letter Box, so we have to say goodbye. We promise that we’ll confirm all the reception reports we got this week. We welcome your suggestions at:
English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
B: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. And if you miss any of our programs, you can always catch up by visiting our website at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.