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Old 12-14-2012, 06:28 AM   #1
Andy N1ORK
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Default T'was the Night Before a Ham's Christmas Eve

Yep, I'm an amateur radio operator ("ham"). You non-hams will just have to wonder about some of the references -- or Google them...!

The antennas reached up from the tower, quite high,
To catch the weak signals That bounced from the sky.
The children (Tech-licensed) took HT's to their bed,
And dreamed of the day they'd be Extras instead.

Mom put on her headphones, I plugged in the key,
And we tuned 40 meters for that rare ZK3.
When the meter was pegged by a signal with power.
It smoked a small diode, and, I swear, shook the tower.
Mom yanked off her phones, And with all she could muster
Logged a spot of the signal on the DX Packet Cluster,

While I ran to the window And peered up at the sky,
To see what could generate RF so very high.
It was way in the distance, but the moon made it gleam --
A flying sleigh, with an eight element beam.

And a little old driver who looked slightly mean.
(So I thought for a moment, that it might be Wayne Green.)
But no, it was Santa -- the Santa of Hams.
On a mission this Christmas to clean up the bands.

He circled the tower, then stopped in his track,
And he slid down the coax right into the shack.
While Mom and I hid behind stacks of CQ,
This Santa of hamming knew just what to do.

He cleared off the shack desk of paper and parts,
And filled out all my late QSLs for a good start.
He ran copper braid, took a steel rod and pounded
Right into the earth, 'til the station was grounded.
He tightened loose fittings, resoldered connections,
Cranked down modulation, installed lightning protection.
He neutralized tubes in my linear amp...
(Never worked right before -- now it works like a champ).
A new low-pass filter cleaned up the TV,
He corrected the settings in my TNC.

He repaired the computer that would not compute,
And he backed up the hard drive and got it to boot.
Then, he reached really deep in the bag that he brought,
And he pulled out a big box, "A new rig?" I thought!
"A new Kenwood? An Icom? A Yaesu? For me?!"
(If he thought I'd been bad it might be QRP!)

Yes! The Ultimate Station! How could I deserve this?
Could it be all those hours that I worked Public Service?
He hooked it all up and then very quickly
Worked 100 countries (all down on 160).
I should have been happy: it was my call he sent,
But the cards and the postage will cost two month's rent!

He made final adjustments, and left a card by the key:
"To Gary, from Santa Claus. Seventy-Three."
Then he grabbed his HT, looked me straight in the eye,
Punched a code on the pad, and was gone -- no good bye.

I ran back to the station, and the pile-up was big,
But a card from St. Nick would be worth my new rig.
Oh, too late, for his final came over the air.
It was copied all over. It was heard everywhere.

The Ham's Santa exclaimed what a ham might expect,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all, good DX."

Copyright 1996 Gary Pearce KN4AQ - Reprinted with permission

de N1ORK



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Old 12-14-2012, 06:27 PM   #2
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Nice!
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Old 12-14-2012, 09:39 PM   #3
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OK, I suppose, though it neither scans nor rhymes.
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Old 12-15-2012, 08:47 AM   #4
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But it mentions Wayne Green and CQ Magazine.

It is of great literary importance just on that account.
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Old 12-15-2012, 12:55 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio View Post
But it mentions Wayne Green and CQ Magazine.

It is of great literary importance just on that account.
True; and old Never-Say-Die will forever be identified with CQ, even more (if possible) than that famous DXer Hashafisti Scratchi. Remember Scratchi?

Wayne's still around, too, and was 90 at his 2012 birthday. According to the FCC data base, he lives in Hancock, NH.

I always admired ol' W2NSD, and sometimes even agreed with his maverick opinions. I was envious when he sold CQ Magazine for 60 million bucks. That was in the 1980s, I think.
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Old 12-16-2012, 08:32 PM   #6
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Default On a sadder note......

Thanks for posting on FB Galen,

twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA



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