BASIC HAM RADIO: ’Twas the Flight Before Christmas

Or: A Ham’s Midwinter’s Night Scene

Summary of this article: This is a humorous poem written in the style of “The Night Before Christmas” but with a focus on an amateur radio theme. The poem describes a ham radio operator's Christmas Eve experience, including DXing (long-distance communication), antenna issues and a late-night encounter with a mysterious air-mobile Santa Claus who uses a ham radio call sign and delivers radio equipment as gifts. The poem concludes with the operator excitedly anticipating new radio gear on Christmas morning.

I wrote this back in the early 2000s and read it at one of the Rochester (Minnesota) Amateur Radio Club’s holiday parties when I lived there. I like to publish it regularly for others to enjoy, too. Happy holidays to all my fellow radioaficionados.

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A Ham’s Midwinter’s Night Scene
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’Twas the Flight Before Christmas

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Written by Chuck Gysi | N2DUP — with extreme apologies to Maj. Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828); previously believed to have been written by Clement Clarke Moore

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the shack
Not a radio was on — anywhere on the rack;
The antennas were tuned by the op with care,
In hopes that DX soon would be there;