[ForSale-Swap] FW: Ham's Night Before Christmas

[Cyrus Turner]

>From: "Cyrus Turner" <w5dxe at hotmail.com>
>To: w5dxe at hotmail.com
>Subject: Ham's Night Before Christmas
>Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:49:50 -0600
>
>
>
>>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, Tech-Pluses,
>>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 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 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 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."
>>===========================
>

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