Christmas is a comin'!

‘Twas the night before Christmas

The shack was quiet as a mouse

Not an amplifier was fired up, or was warming the house.

The tree was lit up, all the presents were wrapped,

All the busy-ness was done, I should have taken a nap.

Rubbing my eyes, I turned towards the rig  

To see if the bands might be hopping, activity big.

20 Meters was quiet, no signals to be heard

40 Meters seemed better, by the activity I was spurred.

I twiddled the dial, across the band the tuning knob purred 

And to my surprise, I came upon a Morse tone that chirped like a bird.

It was a Ham In 8 Land calling CQ, kind of weakly

His fist was not shaky, but he was only S3

So I decided to throw out my call to see if he would answer me.

He told me his rig was homebrewed, not quite up to snuff

His first go at building, the design was still rough, but he had turned on the power,

Hoping he’d snag a QSO if conditions weren’t too tough.

We were both pumping five Watts

Sending our RF to and fro

He was thrilled his creation was working– his excitement was beginning to show.

We had a nice rag chew, on this Noel

Finally, he sent me his fondest farewell.

In turn, I bade him a Merry Christmas, and 73

I switched off the rig, took my hand off the key.

It was not a big deal, not an extraordinary contact, it would appear

Certainly, no great feat of DX – he was actually quite near

But it did my heart good to make another Ham happy at this time of year.

So if you hear a signal that’s not quite S9

Perhaps a bit warbly, or choppy or a fist touching a paddle for the very first time

Work them, if you can, it won’t cost a dime

To make a brother or sister Ham’s Holiday sublime!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!