B: S.B Sharma, President of the SBS World Listener Club, wrote: “We are very happy to learn that VOV is going to celebrate its 72^nd birthday. The Declaration of Independence of Vietnam was aired on VOV on September 2, 1945, and since then VOV has been proudly serving the nation, progressing from traditional broadcasting to 24/7 radio and online broadcasting. VOV is spreading information about Vietnam – news, music, food, business, culture – among the millions of its listeners through its 11 overseas services. Thanks for your noble work. Thanks for connecting Vietnamese fans on shortwave and social media like facebook.”

A: Amir Jameel of Pakistan wrote: “During the past 72 years, Voice of Vietnam has played a vital role in introducing Vietnam to the world. Now Voice of Vietnam is one of the best radio stations. I congratulate the hard working, professional retired and current staff and management for their hard work to promote Voice of Vietnam to the world. Due to their efforts, VOV listeners are increasing day by day on every continent of the world. I and my fellow club members congratulate you on the 72 successful years of Voice of Vietnam.”

B: Amir Jameel, your e-cards for Vietnam’s National Day and VOV’s anniversary are meaningful and beautiful. The written transcript of this Letter Box edition will be posted on our website together with the many postcards our listeners sent us. In Vietnam, VOV has organized a meeting with listeners. The World Service regrets being unable to meet with all our listeners around the world. But our overseas reporters have visited a few listeners to talk about their DX’ing hobby and their feelings about for VOV.

A: VOV’s correspondent in the US visited Paul Walker in a small town in Pennsylvania. Paul has been a regular listener since 2015.

B: Paul said: “I still listen to VOV today, 2-3 times a week, depending on what else I’ve got going on, but still listen and send in reception reports. I like the music, especially when they play the older music. I also like to listen to news because I like the different perspectives, different opinion on it because other countries see things differently than we do and I like to hear that. I like to learn a little bit what goes on in another country on a daily basis, daily life. I like the Letterbox program, that is one of my favorites, I like to hear how other listeners hear VOV and what they like about it and it seems like a fair amount of people like the music so I know there’re many of us out there. VOV’s English announcers are very friendly”

VOV's reporter Pham Huan visited Paul Walker in Pennsylvania

A: You’re right that many of our listeners have the same interests as you. They like the older music and folk music of Vietnam. The Letter Box program is one of the most popular features on VOV. As Paul said, it creates a personal connection between VOV announcers and listeners. Listeners who have been listening for a while, VOV announcers remember who they are and where they are. It makes it a little more interesting to listen when you have a personal connection, whatever that personal connection must be to the radio station or to the country.

B: I love to read letters from listeners in which they tell us about their families, their hobbies, the weather and people in their town, the Vietnamese people and restaurants in their town, etc. All the stories bring us closer despite the geographical distance.

A: Modern technology and high costs have caused many radio stations to discontinue their shortwave transmissions to focus on online streaming.

Paul Walker is a regular listener of VOV since 2015

VOV has continued its overseas broadcasts, something Paul really appreciates: “Shortwave is quite an effective way to reach people without the Internet. Countries and broadcasters who may be a little under-funded I can understand because you can’t really judge how many people are listening to shortwave. I like being able to the radio without being connected to the Internet, you can basically listen to VOV anywhere you can get one of their radio signals and a lot of the places you can’t get Internet so I can see why VOV keeps shortwave to reach out to places where Internet is slow, unreliable, and expensive.”

Some of Paul's collection of VOV's verification cards

B: As with Like many other DX’ers, listing to foreign radio stations, like VOV, has become part of Paul’s daily routine, a way to relax after work. Of VOV’s 72^nd anniversary, Paul said: “I just want to wish them a happy anniversary. The fact that they’re still here after 72 years shows that they’re doing a good job and fulfilling their mission of sharing Vietnam with the rest of the world.”

A: We’ll continue as long as we have many enthusiastic listeners like you. Richard Nowak of the US emailed us a reception report for the program on September 4 on 7315 kHz. He listened with a Zenith Trans-Oceanic B600 hooked up to an indoor active loop. Reception was perfect - all 5s.

B: Besides news about Vietnam’s National Day and congratulations for Vietnam from world leaders, Paul found the Culture and Sports Roundup interesting with information about the ASEAN Golden Festival in Hanoi with traditional songs and dances from ASEAN countries, and a cello concert at the Opera House.

A: The great Sunday Show focused on students having to become independent and students working and choosing their jobs. Paul said it’s nice to hear that the students found jobs that followed their studies – a student studied music became a musician and a banking major is working at a bank.

B: Yes, job for graduates and people of working age in general is a major issue in many countries. Having a job suitable for one’s major, passion, and ability is a not easy. From India, Jayanta Chakrabarty said he enjoyed listening to the feature on the "Coconut Island".  The story was about the scenic floating island of Nam Yet in the Truong Sa archipelago. It’s home to some 400 coconut trees. Samplings from this island are also planted to other islands to enhance the greenery and soil quality. “It was good to hear that Nam Yet natural beauty and cultural heritage of the Buddhist monastery are being well preserved and maintained.” Jayanta Chakrabarty wrote.

A: Speaking on coconut trees, he told us that having a long coastline of about 7520 km and interior fertile land, coconut plantation is also very popular in India. Yes I bet that all people know that India has lots and lots and lots of coconut. We hope to hear more about India’s coconut in your next letters. 

B: This week we acknowledge letters from Eddy Prabowo of Indonesia, Eric Zhou of China, Paraian Dorel of Romania, Miss Karobi Hazarika of India, and Dmitriy Puzanov of Kazakhstan.

A: We’ll send you QSL cards to confirm your reception report soon. We welcome your letters at English Section, Overseas Service, Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Thank you for listening. Please join us again next Wednesday for another Letter Box edition. Goodbye.