RadioMan763™
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05-17-2026 - 5:00 AM - Good Morning! It's Sunday, and the Wichita Amateur Radio Society will conduct its weekly informal net tonight at 8:00 PM on the club's 147.140 MHz repeater. Licensed Amateur (ham) Radio Operators are invited to check in. You can also tune in with your scanner radio. Morse code signals on the 40-meter Amateur Radio band are sparse this morning. Maybe the night owls are turning in while the rest of the radio world is just thinking about getting out of bed. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
--- 5:15 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Increasing clouds, with a high near 91. South wind 16 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Tonight: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear, with a low around 72. South wind 16 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.
--- 5:20 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:25 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:30 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 84.6% Kemp: 94.4% Kickapoo: 86.5%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 89.3% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (85.55%) to determine drought stage.
--- 5:48 AM - ERCOT (Texas) snapshot of grid conditions - ERCOT reports that conditions are normal and there is enough power for current demand with an operating reserve of 11,929 Megawatts.
--- 7:50 AM - Someone had a stuck microphone on the local 146.940 MHz repeater for about 30 seconds. They un-keyed before it could get interesting. I mean, if you're going to butt-key the radio, say something interesting. They just did it again, for a few seconds, on the 147.140 MHz repeater.
--- 8:35 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 9:55 AM - On the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® spotter page, I see Wilbur Wright State Fish and Wildlife Area. Do they feature flying fish exclusively? Asking for a friend. Anyway, the station operating there is a little too weak to work at the moment. I'll check again a little later.
--- 10:20 AM - The Wichita County Jail, on 155.520 MHz, is probably the least exciting scanner target in town. I would say that 95% of their radio traffic consists of officers calling for a “central control” station to open doors. At the old Sprague Annex, the "tanks" had gates in a "sallyport" configuration. I don't know what it looks like at the new location, but it sounds like the cells, tanks, or whatever are still opened remotely. Maybe I’m just not listening long enough or often enough to hear the exciting stuff. Tune in! For the same reason, the Allred Unit Expansion Cellblock (ECB) is not very interesting to monitor. You can listen in at 155.725 MHz. Allred Unit General Population, on 153.815 MHz, is where it's happening. That's just my opinion.
--- 10:40 AM - In a parallel universe, there is a planet Earth where CB Radio is more popular than the Internet, and comes standard on all vehicles. A digital "owner ID" number accompanies each transmission. Intentional interference is dealt with by summary execution.
--- 2:00 PM - If you monitor the James V. Allred Unit prison on 153.815 MHz, you might have noticed more than a few “incidents” taking place involving offenders. Many, if not most, of these are simulated ICS (Incident Command System) Drills. You’ll have to listen carefully to distinguish between real and simulated. You still might not be able to tell.
--- 4:15 PM - The thing about local CB Radio communications is that it's not always local. I don't know how many times I've heard operators from other states break into a local "rag chews" to let them know they're being heard. Also, truckers will respond to a "truckstop ad" only to discover that the truck stop is 500 miles away.
--- 7:30 PM - I was stationed at the now-defunct Savanna Army Depot in Savanna, Illinois, from 1974 to 1975. There, I guarded what the military calls Special Weapons. They were stored in earth-covered bunkers. You know the type of weapons I'm talking about. We had a V-100 (Google it) standing by for the Back-Up Alert Force. Sometimes, when I wasn't patrolling the bunkers, I'd sit in the V-100, crank up the "boat anchor" VHF radio, and listen to radio traffic in the area. Boat anchor is Hobby Radio-speak for big and heavy.
--- 8:00 PM - The Wichita Amateur Radio Society weekly informal net is on the air on the 147.140 MHz repeater and taking check-ins. You can also listen in on your scanner radio.
--- 8:15 PM - I have the first issue, 1962, of "S9 The Citizens Band Journal." I bought it on eBay several years ago. The spine is in less-than-perfect condition. It's not detached, but it's starting to show a little wear. Some library archival tape might be in order. Maybe I'll find one in perfect condition one of these days. And, maybe not. I never found that mythical “perfectly good airplane” to jump out of, but that didn’t stop me from jumping.