RadioMan763™
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05-22-2026 - 5:00 AM - Good Morning! It’s Friday, and the North Central Texas Simplex Net will begin at 8:00 PM on 146.580 MHz. Tune in with your scanner radio. You’ll need a good (high) outside antenna to hear this group. We have more rain in the forecast for tonight. Let’s see what happens on that front. I have Morse code running on the 40-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band. Later, when the 20-meter band opens, I might seek out a CW (Morse code) Parks on the Air® contact, or two. After that, I’ll see who’s who and what’s what on the CB Radio. As for the scanner radio, you know I always have that running, scanning the local frequencies. Right now, my Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
--- 5:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming south southeast 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Tonight: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 10pm. Low around 62. Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming northeast after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
--- 5:10 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:15 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:20 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 14,801 Megawatts.
--- 5:25 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 84.2% Kemp: 93.9% Kickapoo: 86.3%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 88.6% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (85.25%) to determine drought stage.
--- 5:35 AM - Re-post - A challenge for Wichita Falls Amateur (ham) Radio Operators: Except for emergencies and scheduled nets, refrain from using a repeater on Sundays. Instead, use simplex! It's Wichita Falls - you can see from one side of town to the other! The maximum distance from one side of town to the other - not counting uninhabited prairie - is 10 miles. It's 13 miles, including the prairie. Yes, there are dead spots. Work around them. That's what makes it fun!
5:40 AM - Many years ago, I talked to a trucker - on CB Radio Channel 19 - who said he was hauling 155 MM howitzer shells. Although he didn't say, I'm sure it was just "propellant cases", and no projectiles or propellant. I could be wrong. I can't imagine the items that come through town, or the trucks with fake signage, or no signage, and hauling something sensitive, hazardous, or expensive and inviting to hijackers. I've transported nuclear weapons before, as part of a security detail, but by helicopter.
--- 7:00 AM - An oversized load is coming through town, with communications being conducted on CB Radio Channel 23. The lead pilot car guy is doing a great job in painting a picture with words. The 40-channel scan capability of the President McKinley CB Radio makes sure I don't miss much.
--- 8:00 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 11:00 AM - This morning, I was traveling on Scott Avenue when I noticed that the traffic light at Scott and 5th Street was flashing red for both Scott and 5th Street. Allow me to say that this was silly. If you’re going to put the lights on flash at that location, make it flashing yellow for Scott traffic and flashing red for 5th Street traffic. There is never a reason for Scott traffic to stop at 5th Street when there is no cross-traffic. Never.
--- 1:30 PM - I drove by Tortillaria Lupita on Kemp Blvd this afternoon, and the parking lot was full. Further south on Kemp was Hawaiian Brothers, whose lot was mostly empty, as usual. In between the two, a new building is going up next to Shipley’s Donuts. I have no idea what it will be.
--- 2:00 PM - Target in Wichita Falls: Take the big plunge and redo your parking lot with angled spaces. You have the worst parking experience in town. It’s not quite an abomination of a travesty, but it’s close. You do, however, have the best shopping carts, and the store seems spotless.
--- 6:30 PM - I saw another online post about bringing back CB Radios. It's challenging to revive something that never left the building. It might have gone to a different floor from the one you last saw it on, but it's still in the building.
--- 7:00 PM - As far as I know, the City still plans to move the Wichita Falls Police Department to the vacated Kirby Middle School building on Loop 11, the loop that doesn't loop. That will be a strange look. The building resembles a school or a nursing home, rather than a police station. Perhaps evildoers will receive D-Hall rather than jail time. Let's see what happens.
--- 7:45 PM - When I was in high school, I went CB Radio "motorcycle mobile" for a short while. It was a simple setup with the radio strapped to the seat behind me and a gutter mount antenna clamped to the license plate. Back then, I had no idea that what I thought was an antenna wasn't even a good dummy load at CB frequencies. It was fun telling people I was "motorcycle mobile".