Electronics Poetry: Ode to a New Rig
May 1933 QST

Each month for many decades, a page or two in each issue of QST presented a feature of odds and ends called "Strays," as in stray signals. That is where you could often find bits of poetry, anecdotes about some Ham's experience while operating, and news about amateur radio related happenings. The May 1933 QST included "Ode to a New Rig," by Mrs. W8ETH (whoever W8ETH was), of which title might have been inspired by Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

Ode to a New Rig

All day long he sits to figure

On what he'll have in his wireless jigger.

He'll have to buy, much to his sorrow,

He's getting so he hates to borrow.

He'd like his parts all of the best -

A little different from the rest

Of homemade junk around the town

That's every minute breaking down.

In feverish glee he scans each ad

And covers the pages of half a pad

With a list of expensive this and that

(I wonder - will I get an Easter hat?).

A 203-A he's going to buy

And a new transformer that'd knock your eye;

Condensers and whatnot are forthcoming, too,

This wonderful rig will be shiny and new.

My only fond wish is that everything perks

Or I'll put an axe in the whole blooming works!

- Mrs. W8ETH

Posted May 30, 2022
(updated from original post on 5/12/2016)