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."
> 
>