RadioMan763™
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070
05-30-2026 - 6:20 AM - Good Morning! It’s Saturday, and the great atmospheric conditions continue, at least on VHF. I hear two repeaters on 146.940 MHz, one full-scale on my meter and the other about 30% of full-scale. The weaker one might be in Fort Worth, and those guys are just ratchet-jawing. On the stronger one, operators appear to be providing radio communications for some type of event. Locally, some Amateur (ham) Radio Operators usually meet informally for breakfast at the Pioneer #3 Restaurant at Sheppard Access Road and Old Iowa Park Road. Look for vehicles with extra antennas and/or handheld radios on the table. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:30 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 93. South wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear, with a low around 70. South wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
--- 6:35 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:40 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:43 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 9,979 Megawatts.
--- 6:50 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 83.9% Kemp: 94.5% Kickapoo: 86.9%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 89.0% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (85.4%) to determine drought stage.
--- 7:20 AM - I have the President McKinley CB Radio on 40-channel scan, and the band is starting to come alive. What I didn't need to hear was an operator saying "No doubt about it" four times in three sentences. That is the most worn-out phrase in CB Radio. No doubt about it!
--- 7:45 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
---8:35 AM - Dear City of Wichita Falls: What is the point of having a few one-way streets downtown? Almost every day, I see a confused driver start to drive the wrong way, then stop, or keep going and actually drive the wrong way. All the streets appear to be the same width, so make them all two-way and end the madness. Now, on to Old Iowa Park Road and North Beverly. Put the traffic signals on flashing yellow for Old Iowa Park Road, and flashing red for North Beverly. Problem solved.
--- 8:50 AM - What would CB Radio sound like if all the amplifiers disappeared? If no one had one, no one would need one. You may need to work on making a contact. Wait for conditions to change. Make several calls. I derive more satisfaction from a long-distance contact made with my stock radios and ground-plane antenna than I would from an amplifier-assisted contact. But I accept the fact that amplifiers are a fact of life and not worth worrying about. By the way, it's an amplifier, not a linear. Look up linear in the dictionary and tell me where you see any mention of an amplifier. A lot of things can be linear. As I said before, calling an amplifier a “linear” is like calling a car a “red” or a “blue.”
--- 9:45 AM - I just had a flashback of my first trip from Texas to the Savanna Army Depot in Savanna, Illinois. It was December 1974. Headed south on the highway was an 18-wheeler with no windshield. The driver was bundled up so thoroughly that he looked like the Michelin Man. What happened to the windshield? Did he reach his destination without drawing police attention? Did he freeze solid and run off the road? I remember being glad it was him and not me.
--- 11:40 AM - The two-meter (VHF) Amateur (ham) Radio "band opening" continues this morning with stations making long-distance contacts. Band openings aren't rare, but they're not everyday occurrences. I think UHF is affected also because I'm hearing distant General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) traffic.
--- 12:15 PM - According to the Parks on the Air® spotter page, there is a station active on Alcatraz Island. For some reason, I thought that place was off limits for POTA activities. I guess not. Anyway, I can't hear them.
--- 3:00 PM - It was about 30 years ago when I spotted a group of CB Radio antenna-equipped cars in the parking lot of a business that had closed for the day. I drove onto the lot to see what was happening. One of the vehicle occupants told me they were having a "keydown." This exercise is one where everyone transmits, identifies, and a station on the other side of town tells them which one is the loudest. I said, "Cool! Y'all have fun," and I drove clear of the amplifier-boosted radio frequency crossfire! It immediately occurred to me that this is not unlike Ham Radio DX pileups. All the hams scream and, when the dust settles, the DX station tells them who was loudest.
--- 3:55 PM - I can't imagine a reason why CB Radio manufacturers are still cranking out radios with a "channel 9" button. Channel 9 would not have occurred to me as a place to call for help. Decades ago, active R.E.A.C.T. groups were monitoring Channel 9, but even they weren't everywhere. Some say that certain Highway Patrol vehicles in some states are still equipped with CB radios. My guess is that they're probably listening to Channel 19. These days, I'd put my money and my chances of getting an answer on Channel 19. Your opinion on this topic might vary.
--- 5:00 PM - I have spoken before about aeronautical mobiles. Now I would like to mention the possibility of taking handheld CB and MURS radios to "high" places, such as tower restaurants with observation decks, summits of varying altitudes, and so on. Maybe the "over the highway" restaurant in Vinita, Oklahoma, to see how many truckers you can talk to on the CB Radio while enjoying a burger and fries. You can think of other interesting places, I'm sure.