RadioMan763.com
HOME - SUPPORT THIS JOURNAL - MENU
015
04-05-2026 - 5:00 AM - Good Morning! It’s Sunday, and there will be a lot of “nets” (on-air meetings) scattered across the Amateur (ham) Radio bands today. I’m thinking I’ll probably tune in to maybe zero of them. The older I get, the less of a “net” person I find myself to be. There are nets on a wide variety of radio and non-radio subjects. Search the ARRL Net Directory, and you might be surprised. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready. I wonder if there is a net about coffee?
--- 5:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny, with a high near 69. Calm wind becoming east northeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 44. East wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening.
--- 5:10 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 81.9% Kemp: 95.6% Kickapoo: 84.4%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 87.7% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (83.15%) to determine drought stage.
--- 5:15 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:20 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:25 AM - Some Wichita Falls weekend radio scanning targets: Walmart (154.570 MHz), Allred Unit (153.815 MHz), Wichita County Jail (155.520 MHz), State Hospital (154.800 MHz) city transit buses (453.5375 MHz), Wichita Valley Airport (122.800 MHz), Kickapoo Airport (122.700 MHz), Wichita Falls Regional Airports / SAFB (119.750 & 122.950 MHz), FAA ATC Fort Worth Center (132.925 MHz), and the BNSF Railroad (160.920 MHz). MORE!
--- 5:55 AM - Do you remember the old wireless baby monitors that operated around 49 MHz? They could be—and were—monitored with even the cheapest Radio Shack scanners. These baby monitors were usually placed in the bedroom, sometimes left on all night. What happens in bedrooms? Scanner users with tower-mounted antennas could listen in from blocks away. Scanner Radio Enthusiasts - The Original Wardrivers.
--- 7:40 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 7:55 AM - Several decades ago, a female police officer (not in Wichita Falls) was talking on a drive-up pay phone. Remember those. She was having an “adult” conversation with someone. Unknown to her, but known to every other officer on duty, as well as countless scanner radio enthusiasts, she had somehow keyed her epaulet-mounted microphone. Now, her new radio fan club world knew what she intended to do to her phone mate when she got off work.
--- 8:52 AM - I contacted a station in Savannas Preserve State Park (US-3654) in Florida on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 12:10 PM - You've seen them—photos of CB Radio and Amateur (ham) Radio "shacks" with multiple shelves of radios and associated gadgetry. Do the multi-shelf people add more shelves as they acquire equipment, or do they throw up the shelves and make it their mission to fill them? I'm asking for a friend.
--- 4:00 PM - It was in 1976 and 77 when I would climb - in my Datsun B210 - to the highest points in San Francisco - Twin Peaks and Mount Davidson - to receive more signals on my AM-FM portable radio with extended VHF receiver coverage. I was interested in that, even more than listening to Dr. Don Rose on KFRC. With an extended VHF tuning range, in the days before scanner radios were popular and affordable, I could listen to commercial entities of all types. I even found the frequencies for car phones. Cordless phones were, as far as I know, not out at that time. I don't remember hearing any. It didn't matter since there was no shortage of other scanning targets. Manual spin-the-dial scanning. Oh, and CB Radio coverage wasn't bad either! I'm sure Hobby Radio enthusiasts still frequent that elevated area.