>
> Do you like poetry?
> Read:
> There was a ham with a cubical quad,
> He had five hundred watts and a ground in the sod.
> One night he was listening in the eighty meter band,
> When he heard a rare station way down in Congo land.
> He switched on his transmitter and reach for the key,
> Then pounded out his call letters as fast as could be.
> The ham in the Congo said his readability was four,
> And told him to keep on sending some more.
> When he finally wound up that QSO,
> The fuse in his final was about to blow.I turned the knob and current
> flowed,
> The filaments within now glowed.
> I listened for those waves of short,
> From foreign land, the air and port.
> But what was this, a rising hum?
> It louder grew and drowned all fun.
>
> I pulled the cord and sniffed for smoke,
> Those roasted bugs were not a joke!
> I pulled the tubes and checked each one,
> And looked around for grounds undone.
> Electrolytics oozing goo,
> Resistors toasted black and blue.
> Insulation all dried and loose,
> No holiday for this old Goose!
>
> A cathode short or cap that fried,
> The coil hummed Taps and then it died.
> The knobs were loose, shafts warped with age,
> Missing was the schematic page!
> Dial cord was frayed, the pointer bent,
> The dial lamp filament was spent.
> The chassis dark with flecks of rust,
> But fix this rig I knew I must.
>
> To Internet i went with haste,
> To find some help, then cut and paste.
> With solder warm and tester hot,
> I searched my junk for parts forgot.
> With luck and coffee by the dawn,
> That blasted hum would all be gone!
> And then with eyes all red like beets,
> I'll turn that knob and mock defeat.
>
> Now some may think this really dumb,
> But solid state is just no fun!
> There's nothing like that magic glow,
> That comes from vacuum radio.
> So when your Halli hums so strong,
> Be sure to smile and hum along!
>
>
>
> Note from author W8DBF: I got an A for this silly poem about amateur
> > radio for my tenth grade English class.
>
>
>
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