SEASON GREETINGS!!

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December - what a crazy month! Here in Texas, and other Southern states, not only due we have Christmas to contend with but also many frontal systems that pass through, and sometimes come back a day later as a warm front, trapping us between an old cold front/now-warm-front and the lastest cold front (usually 2-3 days away. This gives us some pretty nice skip conditions, even some strange ones. For example, this week the Mickey D Fish Fillet almost dropped out of my mouth when I turned the rig in the car on the catch Colorado (not uncommon), Arkansas (semi-uncommon), as well as Dallas (very UN-common from Houston). All 3 were busy in their conversation, so I just sat back, munching on my sandwich, fries, and basking in the cool air blowing through my open car windows (uncommon).

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Of course, knowing Christmas is just a skip hop away, I have to force myself from buying radio items on EBay (after all - how many presents can I possibly buy myself??), and keep my mind on track about other family member gifts...(ed. - if only they were into radio too).

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December marks the end of another year (Damn....they sure come and go faster), reflections, dread of January and Income Taxes, dread of being broke until March, but hoping that the new skip cycle comes as fast as the year goes by! It's also a time to give thanks, and this year my thanks go to Rob Bellville, who had a radio/scanner website and let me start the CB GAZETTE on the worldwide web before I really knew what I was doing in regards to HTML. Thanks Rob and Merry Christmas!!

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So what would 'Ol Woody put on his Christmas list?? Oh, I can think of a few items, so I'll jot a few down -

1. An end to our dependence on Oil/Fossil Fuels
2. A MINT SBE "Super Console"
3. The bottom hoop of an Avanti Astro-Beam
4. Peace on Earth between all Hams and CBer's
5. Oh, almost forgot - Paris Hilton getting Sooooo fat she is never seen or heard from again.

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WEBSITE OF THE MONTH:

Jim Millsap

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Good link to explain "Skip"

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YULETIDE RADIO OPERATORS POEM

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It came upon a midnight clear

I was so tired I could hardly hear

137, burning some watts

(Don't know how many, just know they're a lot)

I grabbed my mike and said: "Go ahead"

137 said: "Woody, why aren't you in bed?"

Now fully awake I thought I'd be flip,

and said "I'm staying up to hear 'Ol Santa Skip"

The radio went silent, almost seemed dead

I could almost hear him thinking ("Is he daft in the head")

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And then came the DX, right through my speaker

Jay, in the desert was stronger not weaker

He was just leaving the diner that night

and thought most the signals would be just line-O-sight

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Then Don blasted in, and I knew his Maco was fixed

'cause his signal was in-the-red (I think twenty-six)

Jeff, on the West coast, broke in for a few,

I felt like I was hearing a radio skip stew...

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Night Eagle jumped in, he was no snoozer

Just tooling around in his new PT Cruiser.

Steve, down in Clute, jumped into the fray

and it seemed just like everyone had lots to say

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Even Doug (101), and the "Fiddler" got on

and I got to rubbing my eyes - heck, it was now almost Dawn!

Then a strong voice came in loudly and called -

"Merry Christmas to Radio Operators, CB, Ham, and et. all"

'Nuff Said,

Woody

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