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05-07-2026 - 5:15 AM - Good Morning! It’s Thursday, and the Clay County Amateur Radio Club in Henrietta will conduct its weekly emergency practice net tonight at 8:00 PM on the club’s 146.800 MHz repeater. Tune in with your scanner radio. It’s a trip to the eye doctor for me this morning, and then to Natural Grocers and Abner’s Nutrition in Parker Square. My Folgers Black Silk coffee is ready!
--- 5:20 AM - NWS Forecast - Today: Sunny, with a high near 76. Light and variable wind. Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 54. South southeast wind around 8 mph.
--- 5:25 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 11,860 Megawatts.
--- 5:30 AM - NWS Short Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:35 AM - NWS Extended Range Weather Discussion
--- 5:40 AM - According to Water Data for Texas, Wichita Falls reservoirs are: Arrowhead: 84.7% Kemp: 95.1% Kickapoo: 86.4%. Monitored Water Supply Reservoirs are 89.5% full. The City of Wichita Falls uses combined levels of Arrowhead and Kickapoo (85.55%) to determine drought stage.
--- 5:50 AM - I stepped outside this morning to watch the International Space Station fly by. It's really falling, but I'll say fly to make it easier for my brain to accept. Check the ISS Wichita Falls flyby schedule here.
--- 10:55 AM - FEMA Daily Operations Briefing
--- 3:00 PM - There is a pickup truck in town sporting dual 102-inch steel whip antennas. I don't know the driver, but if he's active on the CB Radio, I've no doubt heard him. This reminds me of that huge 1/4 wave fiberglass whip I had on my tiny Chevy Vega. It looked like a bumper car at a carnival.
--- 3:15 PM - I'm getting good dining reports on the Loft at Picker's. The Loft is above the Picker's Universe store at 10th and Indiana. You can enter from the south parking lot or the Indiana Street main entrance. Be careful driving on 10th Street between Scott and Indiana. In its current condition, that short stretch of road could rattle your vehicle apart!
--- 5:00 PM - About 7 years ago, I had a confrontation in a parking lot with a man I had never seen before, but who just wanted to fight someone. I was 67, and he appeared to be under 35. I changed his mind quickly, and I'll just leave it at that. The next day, I removed the traceable “Radio Operator” tags from my car.
--- 6:30 PM - The building housing Locke Electrical Supply at Loop 11 (the loop that doesn't loop) and Seymour Hwy was once a Brookshire's supermarket. Before that, it was a Safeway or a similar grocery chain. Somewhere during the life of one of those stores, an employee wrote "holopeno" on a sign listing the ingredients of a new deli item. That might be a felony in Texas. I think re-assignment to janitorial duties would have been justified. At Sikes Senter Mall, a business had an outdoor table labeled “rod iron.” I gave them a tip that they probably meant “wrought iron.” Now, let's talk about those "bar ditches.”
--- 7:00 PM - Someone on X, formerly Twitter, asked why Wichita Falls doesn't have baseball at any level. In my opinion, and I know nothing about urban economics, Wichita Falls is big enough to attract some nice things, but not big enough to keep all of them. It's not a bad thing, just life in a big one-horse town with a frozen population. Our population in 1960 was 101,724. In 2025, it was 102,344. I'm not saying Wichita Falls needs to grow. It does not. But if it hasn't grown after 65 years, I think we need to move on to other issues. Maybe baseball is the missing magic! Probably not.
--- 8:00 PM - The Clay County Amateur Radio Club (Henrietta, Texas) conducts an on-the-air club meeting on the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM on the club's 146.800 MHz repeater. Tune in with your scanner radio. This reminds me of the beginning of the COVID pandemic, when some Amateur Radio clubs seemed to be scrambling to set up Zoom accounts for their club meetings. The first thing that came to my mind was suggesting that those clubs change the popular mantra “When All Else Fails, Amateur Radio!” to “When All Else Fails, Zoom!” But, but, Joe wants to show the club how to build a dipole antenna! It’s already on YouTube! If not, put it there, or on the club website, and talk about it on the radio. Good job, Clay County hams! Your opinion on this may vary.