[CW] [cwops] Any Robert Service fans?

[Radio K0HB]

Awesome!  Robert would applaud!

*73, de Hans, K0HB*
*"Just a boy and his radio"*
--
Sea stories at --------> http://k0hb.wordpress.com
Superstition trails ---> http://oldslowhans.wordpress.com






On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 12:24 PM, Art Trampler <atrampler at att.net> wrote:

> Thank you for sharing.  Some years back, with apologies to Mr. Service, I
> penned the following and shared on the Ten-Tec reflector after watching an
> OM (who lived near Williams Lake) troubleshoot and fix his Omni VI.
>
> The Fixation of Five Sixty-Three
>
>
> There be strange smoking toil, by the night's waning oil,
> When men quell their chirps and their clicks,
> But the strangest it seems, so near to our dreams
> Was the night near the snake of the Williams Lake
> When Joe repaired his old Omni Six.
>
> Now Joe was a man who was known as a ham,
> Who would dit and dah with the best
> But his dear Omni Six, in need of a fix
> Had a stuck PLL borne on vapors of hell
> That gave our dear OM no rest.
>
> So Joe turned to the reflector, a knowledge collector
> Where the oracle was known to lurk
> And was given good fodder to search for some solder
> That was cold in the joint-now you see my point
> That had caused this unsettling quirk.
>
> With hot iron in hand, smoke rings rose in a band
> Round his head like ethereal wraith
> And o'er the circuits he went with a hard-focused bent
> To make tin and lead flow like spilt blood in the snow
> Yet still t'was an act of his faith.
> For circuits that die are ne'er hard to come by
> Yet to resurrect them requires the knack,
> That is found less these days, lost in mists and in haze
> To fix what is broken, a repair more than token
> In the quiet of Joe's radio shack.
> Yet when he was done was he sure he had won,
> This battle with solder joints cold?
> It would seem that he was, or that was the buzz
> Which passed round the net (did you place a bet?)
> At least that's how this tale has been told.
>
> When at last came the hour when he restored power
> Cold display pierced the shack's whelming night
> He placed his hand to the dial, then turning it while
> The numbers did change; said I before it was strange
> QRG dancing now in his sight.
> Thus a fine fix did Joe bring to his Six,
> And it plays now as yet in its youth
> Each circuit now works, no duty it shirks
> All joints are now well, yet still cold as hell
> Hear all you men, 'tis the truth.
> So when next you hear Joe's signal come near
> I ask you friend, bear this yarn in mind
> That our Joe was not slow
> To repair with all care
> A Six needing a Fix from its bind.
>
> There be strange smoking toil, by the night's waning oil
> And the strangest by far to these ears
> Was the night that Joe fought with what Ten-Tec had wrought
> Coiled near to the snake of that old Williams Lake
> And it may be the strangest for years.
>
> Art Trampler, KØRO
> 481
>
>
>
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