WICHITA FALLS MAN
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12-17-2025 - 5:00 AM - Good Morning! It's Wednesday. I tuned in to the Clay County Amateur Radio Club net last night. It reminded me that Amateur (ham) Radio license testing is available locally just about every month. It has been the practice of the Clay County club in Henrietta and the Wichita Amateur Radio Society here in Wichita Falls to conduct license testing on alternate months. Email me for info. You can order the test guides on Amazon. Of course, Morse code is no longer required. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
--- 5:15 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Areas of dense fog before 10am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 61. Light and variable wind becoming south southwest 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Wednesday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear, with a low around 47. South wind 6 to 15 mph becoming west after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.
--- 5:45 AM - Were you around for the "good old days" of scanner radio wardriving when almost everyone had a cordless phone in the home and talked about everything under the sun or moon, thinking no one could hear them? It was legal in those days.
--- 6:00 AM - I hear distant stations on Channel 19. Could it be two truckers on the fringes headed into town? Time will tell. The band has yet to come alive for the DXers and skip shooters. It's a quiet time for the truckers to communicate. Sadly, the skip shooters will show up later, tearing up the only channel truckers normally use to conduct business. The Allred Unit prison, our city transit buses, Air Traffic Control, and Walmart are the only entities I've heard on my scanner radio so far. The amusing school buses will kick in shortly. What's on your scanner radio?
--- 6:30 AM - In the news - MSU Men’s soccer team earns national title, Wichita Falls Police and Fire Department adds EMT capability to the WFPD SWAT Team, City leaders discuss the South Wenonah Avenue extension, TEA considers Wichita Falls ISD takeover, Federal court denies relief to WF serial killer.
--- 9:45 AM - I haven't heard any local Amateur (ham) Radio communications this morning, and that’s unusual. The CB Radio band is also slow to come alive. There has been local trucking chatter, but DX (long-distance) activity has been sparse with weak signals scattered about the band. I am, however, enjoying our fog this morning. It's not as good as San Francisco fog, but it'll do.
--- 1:15 PM - Our public schools use the Multi-Use Radio Service frequency of 151.940 MHz. The school nearest to me can often be heard. So far, with one exception, I have not heard anything but school traffic on 151.940 MHz. That exception is two guys running some type of business. I think they’re on Old Iowa Park Road, but I’m not sure yet. I'm betting that if any schools hear these guys, they’ll think they’re illegally interfered with. I'm sure 99% of school staff have never heard of license-free MURS or the associated FCC rules. Maybe those two guys haven’t, either.
--- 8:00 PM - Have you noticed that two people can talk about an activity regularly, but once a third person joins, someone wants to form a club? Then, once there are three clubs dedicated to a certain activity, someone wants to start an “association of clubs.” Strange phenomenon. I guess I’m biased because I’m just not a club person.
--- 10:00 PM - I watched the movie Deep Impact for the third time this evening. I didn't notice it before, but tonight it occurred to me that Charles Martin Smith was eating pizza during his one and only appearance. He was eating pizza in his first scene in the movie Starman. Interesting. I was just about to shut down the computer for the night when I heard two truckers chatting on CB Radio Channel 19 as they passed through town. Having decided that they aren’t talking about anything interesting, I am shutting down for the night.
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12-16-2025 - 5:30 AM - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, and the Clay County Amateur Radio Club will conduct its weekly Skywarn® practice net at 8:00 PM on the 146.800 MHz repeater. Tune in with your scanner radio! I'll probably make another Morse code contact or two today in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air program. So far, I've made contact with operators in 630 U.S. state or federal parks using Morse code. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:00 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 66. South wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 40. South southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light south after midnight.
--- 6:30 AM - Some Wichita Falls 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), WFISD school buses (152.360 MHz), school handheld radios (151.940 MHz), Wichita Valley Airport (122.800 MHz), Kickapoo Airport (122.700 MHz), Wichita Falls Regional Airport / SAFB (119.750 & 122.950 MHz), and the BNSF Railroad (160.920 MHz). Find more local frequencies here!
--- 7:00 AM - To "some" people making and selling Morse code bracelets: Without spacing between letters, your message is gibberish. Including the intended message in print form in the package doesn't change that. Dots & dashes don't work quite like ABCs when strung together.
--- 12:45 PM - I noticed on Google Maps that the former Denny’s on Maurine Street is now called “The Meltdown. Research tells me that this is a “ghost” kitchen making specialty sandwiches for delivery by DoorDash and others. This concept puts unused kitchen space back into operation and is operated by Denny’s staff. Cool! UPDATE: I drove by and it looks like this one is operating as both a Denny's and a Meltdown. Denny's also uses the name The Burger Den, which is another delivery service. I guess they operate these out of closed or underutilized locations.
--- 6:00 PM - The Local Group is coming alive on CB Radio Channel 23. I think they need more people to chat with, so get a CB Radio and join in. Me? When it comes to CB Radio, I'm a 95% listener these days. I save my transmitting energy for Morse code on the Amateur (ham) Radio bands.