RadioMan763™
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06-07-2026 - 5:00 AM - A big, thundering thunderstorm woke me up at 5:00 AM. That’s okay because that’s what time I wanted to get up. The radar indicates that it should quickly pass into Clay County. I don’t hear our Amateur (ham) Radio storm spotters, so I guess they’re not expecting trouble. At least we get our lawns watered, and it looks like Lake Arrowhead got a drenching. I’m not sure about the other area lakes. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 5:05 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 10am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 10am and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 101. South wind 6 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 74. South wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
--- 5:10 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:15 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:17 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 8,337 Megawatts.
--- 5:20 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 83.1% Kemp: 97.9% Kickapoo: 86.1%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 89.6% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (84.6%) to determine drought stage.
--- 5:30 AM - The Wichita Amateur Radio Society will conduct its weekly informal net tonight at 8:00 PM on the club's 147.140 MHz repeater. Check in if you're a "ham", or tune in with your scanner radio.
--- 5:55 AM - One of the advantages of Wichita Falls is its manageable size. Well, it's a good thing for radio communications. As I like to say, you can get on a hill or overpass and see from one side of town to the other. Antennas just 20 feet in the air (the base, not the top) can certainly "see" one another. This means that even the least expensive VHF or UHF handheld radios, when used with an external antenna, can communicate from one side of town to the other. Even a base station to a mobile unit would find few dead spots. There is no reason to be out of touch in Wichita Falls, even when there is no Internet or cell service.
--- 6:30 AM - Another small storm system has developed and is now passing over Wichita Falls. This one looks no more serious than the earlier storm. It looks like Archer, Clay, and Montague counties will get their share. This, of course, includes Lake Arrowhead. The storm spotters remain silent. It's all good.
--- 8:05 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 8:15 AM - Would it be a real thunderstorm without some good old Oncor power fluctuations? Of course, my many LED bulbs around the house are more sensitive than the few incandescent models still in use. There wasn't a complete shutdown, or I'd be resetting the clocks on my stove and microwave. I have battery backups for the alarm clocks, even though I use the alarm function only once a decade.
--- 10:20 AM - On Texoma’s Home Page (KFDX) website, there was a story about Texas DPS stopping a truck near Laredo, hauling 20 illegal migrants, that had the phony markings of another company. The story also reported a truck being stopped by DPS in Webb County that had 20 illegal migrants in the driver’s sleeping compartment. I hope nobody had gas!
--- 10:25 AM - The Wichita Falls Police Department solved the "clowning on the radio" problem many years ago by upgrading to newer radios that digitally transmitted the user's badge number. The James V. Allred Unit prison should take note! I'll just leave it at that. Monitor the Allred Unit General Population (153.815 MHz), and the Expansion Cellblock (155.725 MHz) on your scanner radio.
--- 12:10 PM - It’s bad enough that Amateur (ham) Radio Operators say “QSL” on the radio; now we have people on a shared FRS/GMRS frequency using the term. Next, we’ll be hearing “No doubt about it” as standard FRS/GMRS phraseology.
--- 1:00 PM - At the moment, there’s not too much of interest on the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air spotter page. At least not on 20 meters CW (Morse code). I guess that’s a signal to go to CB Radio for a while.
--- 1:15 PM - There has been a lot of traffic on the various Family Radio Service & General Mobile Radio Service shared frequencies lately. Much of it has been very close to my location. I'm listening to an exchange right now with booming audio that doesn't have the annoying "roger beeps" with every transmission. What a relief. See the MENU page for descriptions of the FRS/GMRS radio services.
--- 6:30 PM - The Local Group, or at least a few of them, is active on CB Radio Channel 23. Band conditions are good this evening, and they're making contact with distant (DX) stations. Get a CB Radio and join the fun.
--- 6:45 PM - I had a flashback to my early days in Amateur (ham) Radio and some of the things I might have done differently. Two things that come to mind are my trip to the top of Mount Scott, near Lawton, Oklahoma, and my first and only aeronautical mobile operation. On both occasions, I was equipped with my new Santec 144 handie-talkie. Some might call it a walkie-talkie, but I guess hams like handie-talkie. On both occasions, I contacted Wichita Falls hams via the local Wichita Amateur Radio Society repeater. The big question now is why? On Mount Scott, I was 800 feet above the surrounding terrain. In the Piper Cherokee, I was several thousand feet in the air. With that height, why did I need a repeater? I didn't, but that thought never occurred to me because I was mentored in a repeater-centric environment. I didn’t know any better. I thought repeaters were the be-all, end-all of Amateur Radio. It’s no one’s fault; it’s just the way things happened. Repeaters are what I heard on my scanner radio before I was even licensed. It was probably a year before I made a simplex (direct) contact. Repeaters are absolutely necessary for many activities. The're just not the be-all, end-all of Amateur Radio. I always said that if I could go back in time, I would operate Morse code exclusively. Too late now! Your mileage may vary.