QSLs / ARTICLES

Monday, February 19, 2018

Voice of Vietnam Retrospective



This short video on the Voice of Vietnam features their station interval tune and verification cards (QSLs) issued between 2011 till 2018. After submitting reception reports of their medium-wave (MW) and short-wave (SW) broadcasts, originating from Dac Lac (MW), Con Tho (MW), Hanoi-Sontay (MW/SW), as well as Dhabbaya (UAE), Moosbrunn (Austria), Skelton and Woofferton, UK (SW), these cards were posted to me.

Besides programmes in Vietnamese and ethnic Vietnamese dialects, Voice of Vietnam offers programmes in English, French, German, Russian  and other languages. One will note this video features verification cards in some of these languages. This is a common practice among international broadcasters, not just the Voice of Vietnam.

Further, Voice of Vietnam occasionally distributes different souvenir/PR items, i.e. pocket calendars, wall calendars, New Year's cards, bookmarks and postcards. I have included a few examples of these in this video. In the early years, Vietnam used to post their letters with colourful postage stamps depicting the flora, fauna, landmarks and traditional attire of Vietnam.

Interestingly, when I resided in the US and listened to the short-wave bands in the 1960s-1970s, neither Hanoi nor Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) could be heard in Colorado (Denver). Although, in recent years, I have heard archived material. And, these recordings provide an excellent backdrop to the mood and events in North and South Vietnam during the Second Vietnam War.




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