[CW] A ham’s night before Christmas

[Michael]

Excellent read!

Merry Christmas!

73 Mike K6LQ

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 24, 2019, at 6:48 PM, Dr Jim Kennedy via CW <cw at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I thought that you all might enjoy - 73, Doc (K2PHD)
> 
> 'Twas the night before Christmas,  
> And all through two-meters,  
> Not a signal was keying up  
> Any repeaters.
> 
> The antennas reached up  
> From the tower, quite high,  
> To catch the weak signals  
> That bounced from the sky.
> 
> The children, Technicians,  
> Took their HT's to 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 PacketCluster,
> 
> While I ran to the window  
> And peered up at the sky,  
> To see what could generate  
> RF that 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 though 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 start.
> 
> He ran copper braid,  
> Took a steel rod and pounded  
> It into the earth  
> Till 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 wouldn't 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?
> An Elecraft, TEN-TEC
> Or Flex, could it be!"  
> (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 weekends
> I worked Public Service?
> 
> He hooked it all up  
> And in record time, 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 a 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 an old ham expects: 
> "Merry Christmas to all, 
> And to all, good DX."
> 
> © 1996, 2016 Gary Pearce KN4AQ 
> Permission granted for any print
> or electronic reproduction, 
> no advance approval required.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
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> =30=
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