RadioMan763™
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05-03-2026 - 6:05 AM - Good Morning! It’s Sunday, and the Wichita Amateur Radio Society will conduct its weekly informal net tonight on the club’s 147.140 MHz repeater. As far as I know, all licensed Amateur Radio Operators are invited to check in. You can also tune in with your scanner radio. I have zero plans for today, but that doesn’t mean I won’t invent something silly to do. I have Morse code running in the background, and my Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready.
--- 6:10 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny, with a high near 84. West southwest wind 8 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 60. South wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
--- 6:15 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:20 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 6:25 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 85.4% Kemp: 95.7% Kickapoo: 87.4%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 90.2% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (86.4%) to determine drought stage.
--- 6:30 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 10,204 Megawatts.
--- 6:40 AM - Do you remember the Nissan Xterra tagline: Everything You Need, Nothing You Don't? I used to work with a guy who bought an Xterra and proceeded to add every option you can think of. He was different.
--- 6:45 AM - The year was 1976, and the scene was somewhere at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert. I was on my second enlistment in the U.S. Army, with two years remaining. It was my first of several trips to Fort Irwin for war games. Some of you might be familiar with the "shelter half" used in those days. Each soldier carried a "shelter half," or half of a two-person pup tent, including tent poles and pegs. Two soldiers put their halves together, and nighty-night! You were out of luck if you were left without a bunk buddy when the music stopped. I have no idea what they use today. I never worried about a bunk buddy because I had "acquired" a second shelter half and shelter half accessories, meaning I could have a two-person tent all to myself. I was asleep in my spacious tent one night when a cold wind blew it down on top of me. All I could do was gather it and pull it over me like a blanket. I knew then that I would not re-enlist again.
--- 6:55 AM - I was shocked to hear several people trading F-bombs on CB Radio Channel 19 a few days ago. When this happens, I pick up the mic and remind everyone that there are truck drivers on Channel 19, and they're not used to hearing that kind of language!
--- 7:05 AM - About 15 years ago, I found an interesting item on my front door: Joe's Adsheet. I'll use the name Joe because I can't remember the actual name. What I do remember is that someone in the neighborhood was displaying an awesome level of entrepreneurial spirit. The adsheet invited people to submit ads for the next issue. I never saw another copy of the adsheet. Maybe the publisher didn't give it enough time. Or perhaps he distributed many adsheets and got little or no response. I must admit that I was one of the non-responders because I didn't have anything to advertise at the time. Now, I have Radio Man 763 to advertise, but no neighborhood adsheet.
--- 7:15 AM - Some Wichita Falls weekend 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, Wichita Valley Airport 122.800 MHz, Kickapoo Airport 122.700 MHz, Wichita Falls Regional Airports / SAFB 119.750 & 122.950 MHz, FAA ATC Fort Worth Center 132.925 MHz, and the BNSF Railroad 160.920 MHz. MORE!
--- 8:05 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 8:15 AM - Here’s an Amateur (ham) Radio “chicken or egg” rhetorical question: Was it Amateur Radio FCC Morse code tests, the tests that always had one “ham” telling another “ham” what kind of radio and antenna he was using, that caused new "hams" to think they were obligated to always offer and request this information during contacts? Or, did the FCC devise the Morse code tests to emulate what “hams” were already doing? I’m thinking “hams” got the idea from the FCC, but I could be wrong. For what it’s worth, I don’t care what kind of radio and antenna you’re using!
--- 1:00 PM - Not long ago, I drove through Bellevue on the way to Dallas. The speed limit through that town is 55 MPH. As I sat on that number, I realized how slow it was and how I made several trips in the 1970s from Texas to San Francisco and Texas to the northwest corner of Illinois at that speed. If I had to make those trips at 55 MPH today, I'd die! On a positive note,just about everybody and their dog had a CB Radio to stay informed and entertained.
--- 1:26 PM - I contacted a station in Rose Lake State Game Land (US-6771) in Michigan on 20 meters (14 MHz) CW (Morse code) in the Amateur (ham) Radio Parks on the Air® program.
--- 3:50 PM - The best Amateur (ham) Radio repeater directory is a local "ham" monitoring 146.520 FM simplex. I have yet to see a repeater directory tell you on which machine you're most likely to get a response.
--- 6:00 PM - The Aardvark Arc - It was 1969. My summer job was a vending machine route on Sheppard AFB. I turned the corner of a hangar and, to my surprise, someone parked an F-111 Aardvark where it had never been parked before. I left a few feet of skid marks, wondering who the dummy was who put an airplane near a hangar! From then on, I made a wide arc around those hangars, realizing my $1.60/hr pay wouldn’t cover plane repairs.