An Ode From The Wednesday Night Class

The Wednesday class is starting, so
It's time to write an Ode
While we're working on the theory
And studying the code.

There are frequencies and wave lengths,
Directed Yagi beams, and 
It's clear that learning Basic Code
Is harder than it seems.

There are single side band voices,
Packets, phones, RTTY;
There are dipoles --halves and quarters-- 
Waves refracted in the sky.

There are slipp'ry sun spot cycles
Passing each eleven years,
And we learn that "Breaker! Breaker!"
Makes our teacher burst in tears.

There are amperes, volts, resistors,
Fuses, switches, watts, and Ohms, and
Descriptions of the little "shacks"
We'll set up in our homes.

There are hams out calling CQ--
Quite a lot who chase DX.
They come in every shape and size
And age and even sex.

We must never broadcast music
Or a word that is profane.
We must minimize our splatter
While we maximize our gain.

We learn of signal strength and tone
And how to Q S L.
The power that's legal max to use...
We know that very well.

We notice arrows pointing in.
we see that some point out.
We learn to operate with skill
And know a "lid"'s a lout.

We convert to metric systems--
Picas, gigas, kilos, too--
Study double throws in switches,
Keeping safe in all we do.

We will alternate our currents
While we measure lambda waves,
And we know "Hello, Good Buddy"
Just sets Larry off in raves.

We soon will match the priv'lege
With the license in our hand,
Calculating hertz and wave lengths,
Offsets, meters, and the band.

Official regs and rules and laws....
We learn enough to pass.
So, we thank the hams who help us
In the Wednesday night class.

               Mariana Conner
               KB7MKB