[Boatanchors] Santa To Host Sunday HCI Net

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

As always, all flavors and cents of vintage gear are welcome - (if it is not
vintage, just don't tell us!)   	
	
You heard it straight from the reindeer's hoof, jolly old Santa will co-host the
Sunday December 21st HCI 20 meter Net. With a hardy Ho Ho Ho the pre-Net will
commence at 12:45 PM EST, (1745 UTC), if you can't tell time because your
digital device has a dead battery, or when it comes to time conversions you are
zone impaired, just pick up your telephone and call your local number for time!
Or listen to 10 Mhz or 15 Mhz to WWV for the 'coordinated universal time',
called UTC. Don't ask, it is a French thing ...	
	
The Net proper will begin with a stirring rendition of "Santa Claus Is Watching
You!" by Ray Stevens, with old Santa playing the spoons and belching out a
little harmony, at 1:15 PM EST, (1815 UTC). No, I am not playing music over the
air ways,  it is just Christmas magic by the Elves. Remember that Santa Claus
knows who's been naughty or nice, so clean up your act, and don't serve those
carolers your home-brew eggnog, where the main ingredient is 100 proof Vodka,
like you did last year when they got busted for indecent exposure in a manger
scene! 	
	
The frequency will be 14.293 Mhz usb +/- for key clicks, mike splatter and the
pounding, thumping and clattering of 36 little hoofs on your rooftop, depending
on what material you have covering your rafters,  as Santa greases himself with
graphite and tries to slide down your chimney without getting part of his
anatomy caught in your flu! Remember last year when Colonel Fred Mooney, KA1DGL,
got tired of the neighborhood brats stripping naked, greasing themselves with
lard, sliding down the chimney, dashing through the house butt naked, grabbing a
candy cane off the Christmas tree as they streaked by and exiting through the
patio? Leaving his wife in a state of shock, his teenage son and daughter
roaring with laughter and the youngest child shouting "Cool! This is way better
than those dumb old family movies we gotta watch every Christmas!" Fred placed
motion sensors in the fireplace chimney, wired up a military surplus turbine
blower from a scrapped Navy Tomcat and blew those punks back up and out of the
chimney like somebody used an air compressor to power a pea shooter! But being
about as sharp as a dull razor blade after fifty times of shaving the wire
bristles off Queen Elizabeth's legs, they thought it was a new ride at the
Disney theme park and knocked on the front door asking if they could buy
tickets!            	
	
Remember, now Santa is old, like he is pushing four hundred years, give or take
a century depending on which historian you consult. So be sure to leave him a
stool softener capsule or two on the plate with his fresh baked cookies and
glass of half percent milk. Tune your Hallicrafters to 7.255 Mhz lsb, ECARS, as
Santa has been showing up there and taking requests from children! (Truth!) 	
	
I hope to hear many of you tomorrow for a festive Net with things that still go
glow in the dark, without Radium or batteries! Hang that mistletoe with care, as
nowadays you may not want to kis what wanders in and you get caught beneath it
with! Hang up your stockings, if you have a fireplace, or drape them over the
back of the couch if you do not, and hope that old Saint Nick fills them with
fresh fruit, walnuts, chocolate candy, assorted trinkets or delicious candy
canes, and not a delinquent tax bill!    	
	
Keep in mind it is more blessed to give than to receive, but that does not apply
to a disease! 	
	
You can tell if somebody is a Redneck, if they grab Santa in a half nelson, hold
a lit cigarette under his beard of snowy white, and threaten to roast his
chessnuts over a fire if he does not give them a winning lotto ticket! 	
	
If you celebrate Christmas, have a very merry, safe and joyous one with family
and friends. If you do not observe Christmas, but do enjoy some other holiday,
have a most wonderful time too. Above all, whatever you believe or celebrate,
remember to help those in need, share with those with less, care for those who
have nobody to care about them, make a little child happy by blessing him or her
with some of your bounty, invite an elderly person who is alone to have dinner
with your family, care for a pet somebody turned out and abandoned, be thankful
for what you have, not complain about what you have not and always try to do
unto others, as you would have them do unto you. This may be my last Christmas
on the Earth, due to the discovery of advanced colon cancer in July, maybe it
will also be yours, we just do not know. This much I do know, life is always too
short, so make every second you have count in a positive way of some kind, let
grudges be erased, let forgiveness dominate and jealousy be banished from your
consciousness. There is but one race, the human race. Share a smile, share a
memory, share a meal, share some love and share the time you have here wisely,
as your memory is the only legacy that will endure.         	
	
Hear you tomorrow above the roar of those last minute shoppers, the blaring of
motorist's horns fighting for that last parking space and that electronic
talking 'honey do' list with the Oriental accent that announces your yet undone
duties on the hour, every hour!    	
	
Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE 	
NCS: Hallicrafters Collectors International