Pretty neat.  


 
-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of james edwards
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 2:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: Remember the Old Day's as a HAM ?

>
>  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.
>
>
>