Because this is absolutely genius, marry christmas from massachusetts.
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> Date: December 24, 2014 at 12:09:53 PM EST
> Subject: Happy Holidays and a SAFE New Year
>
> T'was 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 HTs 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 Packet Cluster,
>
> 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,
> Re-soldered 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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