RadioMan763™
HOME - GET A SCANNER RADIO - MENU
036
04-26-2026 - 6:00 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. Tune in with your scanner radio, or check in if you're a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. Also, listen for informal chatter on 146.520, 147.140, 147.570, and 223.500 MHz throughout the day and evening. Weekend contests will continue on the Amateur (ham) Radio HF (high Frequency) bands. (Ask Google for the frequencies!) Tune in with your shortwave radio. I didn't win the Powerball last night, but neither did anyone else. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
---- 6:15 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. South wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 71. South southeast wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
--- 6:20 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 11,083 Megawatts.
--- 6:25 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:30 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:35 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 85.3% Kemp: 95.9% Kickapoo: 88.1%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.4% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.7%) to determine drought stage.
--- 8:45 AM - The 20-meter Amateur (ham) Radio band is awash with Parks on the Air® and contest CW (Morse code) traffic in the CW subband. You might ask why I’m always on the 20-meter band and not 10, 12, 15, 17, 30, 40, 60, 80, or 160 meters. The answer is simple: the 20-meter band has all the activity that I need. Many Ham Radio operators work most or all the bands. When one goes quiet, they move to another. Many operators also chase operating awards for having made contact on all bands, all modes on all bands, and other categories. This is super cool, but those things don’t interest me. Some will say that if we don't use those bands, they'll take them away from us. I'm not going to let that be my problem. I do monitor the 40-meter band early in the morning just to get some Morse code “music” going before 20 meters opens up. But I don’t actually operate on 40 meters. If I hop from band to band, I’d never get off the radio, and there’s more to life than radio.
--- 9:00 AM - I haven't heard of this in over 30 years. It could still be happening. Gamblers would board a plane - free of charge or cheaply - at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport (now Regional Airport) that would take them to Las Vegas or some other gambling destination. The "free or cheap" condition was that you had to show that you had $200 in cash before you could board the plane. A police officer was present to provide security. You'd probably have to show $2,000 in cash today. I have no idea when these flights started or ended. Did they end?
--- 10:29 AM - I contacted a station in Floyd Bennett Field National Historic District (US-8081) in New York on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 1:00 PM - Whenever I see or hear on the radio that an oversized load is passing through town, I wonder how much secret government or civilian stuff is loaded onto trucks with Coca-Cola or some other brand name plastered across the side. Remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
--- 5:00 PM - Wichita Falls area Amateur (ham) Radio Skywarn® storm spotters are being activated in response to the storm building on the west side of Wichita Falls. Listen at 146.940 MHz on your scanner radio.
--- 6:00 PM - The use of Multi-Use Radio Service frequencies of 151.820, 151.880, 151.940 has increased in Wichita Falls over the last year. Tune in with your scanner radio and find out what they're discussing.